Let mortal tongues awake

I’ve been reading a lot lately about Critical Race Theory (CRT), folding it into wider thoughts of race and privilege, class and history, history and truth. To see CRT played out so perfectly through Nikole Hannah-Jones ordeal certainly makes it real and (now) not just theory. It’s these real-life moments and insight that lead to “wokeness” for some. And then there are whole collections of instances that lead me to despair, but not the despair of constant ignorance, hatred, or indifference some face as they walk through life. (Imagine wondering if any place was a safe place? Your home, your car, your neighborhood etc.,) I don’t see those things. I know them, know of them, witness them but I don’t have a lifetime of the aggressive and the passive aggressive insult or the simple colossal moments of, I see you and I will ignore you. Yesterday while I was looking at Instagram, I saw a picture from my “hometown” paper, The Wallowa County Chieftain, and I was shocked by it. It’s an innocent enough picture from the 4th of July parade, but the implication that no one at the paper would have thought to not put this picture up is what concerns me. Yes, Wallowa County is low on the diversity scale as far as population goes, but there are a lot of people there that (must) know what is insulting and what is not, what is culturally inappropriate and what is not, what is racist and what is not. I am encouraged that the comments seem to be that the child in the photo did nothing wrong, but it doesn’t make the costume right. And those commenting are trying to educate those who are using what has become the cliché argument against: bullying, snowflake, leftist, wrong-headed, woke. As though being woke, in all its iterations, is something to be ashamed of – I know I am constantly waking and reawakening, being shaken. It’s a process.

And then there is Texas. Still fighting the Alamo and history. This article from the Austin-American Stateman is a nice summing up of the whole hypocrisy of who owns history and how we think about what not teaching that history does. I think that the quote late in the article, “The Texas story and the Mexican American history taught in schools hinges on the old narrative about the Alamo. “It says who counts and who made Texas the wonderful place it is,” González said. "And for most of this time, the answer has been, ‘Not you, not Mexican Americans, not your family … If anything, you’ve been a problem.””

“It says who counts.” That continues to be a powerful and needed aside, as it has been for years, but it needs to be taken from the ones who see only themselves (as the counted) and their hurt feelings and their fears in these truths need to be put aside. Truth. The truth shall set you free. Let freedom ring.