White Supremacy, Homelessness, and Ferguson
I awaited the Ferguson
grand jury decision this afternoon after spending the morning at Manna
House. Most of our guests at Manna House
are African American. I’m guessing
nobody who just read that sentence is surprised.
Ta-Nehisi Coates in “The Case for
Reparations,” (Atlantic Monthly, May 21, 2014 ) detailed both the historic and contemporary
realities in the U.S.
that hold African Americans back economically and politically. It is the ugly and brutal story of the power
of a system of white supremacy to choke off economic and political gains for
African Americans.
Related to this story is the story
of homelessness among African Americans. African Americans make up almost 50%
of the homeless population in this country.
In Memphis , 62% of those
experiencing homelessness are African American, according to the Mayors’ Task
Force on Homelessness. Meanwhile the
poverty rate in Memphis among
African Americans is nearly 34%. People are
homeless because of poverty. They don’t
have the economic resources to rent an apartment or own a home. And poverty among African Americans is
interwoven with a white supremacist economic system.
Meanwhile, according to the FBI’s
most recent accounts of “justifiable homicide,” in the seven years between 2005
and 2012, a white officer used deadly force against a black person almost two
times every week. A quick visit to 201
Poplar (the Shelby County Memphis . Michelle Alexander in her book, “The New Jim
Crow” details how the U.S.
criminal justice system has functioned and continues to function as a means of
control over African Americans. White
supremacy is institutionalized in both policing and the courts.
No matter what the Grand Jury
decides in Ferguson , these institutional
and cultural realities will remain in place.
And that is why a social movement has emerged in Ferguson .
What does this have to do with
Manna House? Just this morning a guest
approached me to get on the shower list.
Since the shower list was full, he talked with me about why he
desperately needed a shower.
“I’m heading down to 201 Poplar. I’m probably going to jail. But maybe if I look right, they’ll go easy.” He didn’t seem very confident in making that
statement, and I share his lack of confidence.
Meanwhile, a social worker came by
looking for a man I’ll call “Mike.” Mike
just got out of jail last week after 18 months. He came to Manna House and we gave him enough
clothes to make it through the weekend. The local DA’s office sought the maximum sentences
for Mike for criminal trespass and panhandling.
Mike is black and mentally ill and has a long history of minor criminal
offenses, all having to do with his being on the streets. The criminal justice system just keeps sucking
him up and spitting him out. Those who
work in the system keep their jobs thanks to Mike and others like him.
Another African American guest and
I got into a conversation about the recent election. “I didn’t vote,” he said, “I wanted to, but I
have a felony conviction.”
This past Sunday, the Gospel
reading many of us heard in our churches was Matthew 25:31-46. There Jesus highlights his identification with
those regarded with disdain, “just as you did it to one of the least of these
who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). Jesus is not identifying with those wielding power
in a white supremacist system.
In the first reading this past
Sunday, God spoke through the prophet Ezekial, “I will seek the lost, and I
will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will
strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed
them with justice” (Ezekial 34:16). God
makes God’s judgment, and it doesn’t look good for the supporters of the white
supremacy system.
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