When Prophets Weep

A Statement by Massachusetts Advocates for Children

“To look around the United States today is enough to make prophets and angels weep. This is not the land of the free and it is only sporadically the home of the brave.”

- James Baldwin

In recent weeks, the devastating deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd (SAY THEIR NAMES!) have lent tragic relevance to the words of James Baldwin, written over a half-century ago. These devastating acts are three more links in a torturously long chain of racial violence in our country. This chain is wrapped around and around the heart and the lungs of our nation to the point that it threatens our collective asphyxiation if we cannot break it.  

The structural racism baked into our nation at its birth made the murders of Breonna, Ahmaud, and George deaths foretold. It was not, however, an institution or a law that pressed down on the neck of George Floyd for eight minutes and forty-six seconds. It was the knee of a racist police officer, aided and abetted by the indifference of the three colleagues who lifted not a finger to protect George’s most fundamental right, the right to live and breathe. In each of these cases, structural racism provided the context in which savage racist acts by individuals robbed Black people of life.

Massachusetts Advocates for Children condemns these acts of racist violence and adds our voice to those of the thousands who have taken to the streets to express outrage over these murders. But is our condemnation and our outrage enough?

As we condemn the violence that took the lives of Breonna, Ahmaud, and George, we recognize an intimate familiarity with this violence through our work to remove the barriers to educational and life opportunities for Massachusetts children and youth. Make no mistake: that violence may take different forms in the everyday life of schools in our Commonwealth, but it is not a different racist violence that denies Black and Brown children their right to an education that could open a whole world to them. Our indignation at these recent senseless killings leaves us with an obligation to name that same violence where we live and work and do everything in our power to transform it.

Fashioned of flesh and blood, the prophets weep, often profusely. But what distinguishes the prophets among us is that, not content to condemn, they find, even in the most difficult of circumstances, the inspiration and the courage to act. In so doing, their tears join rivers of transformation. The times demand that even we mere mortals follow their example.

One of our prophets, MAC’s founder Hubie Jones, reflected recently on this moment, in the context of the riots he lived through in Boston in the 1960s:

“This…dynamic quickly comes in an indecipherable bundle that destabilizes everyone caught in its grip. It is almost impossible for leaders on all sides to think clearly and act effectively. The window of quasi-attention given by white elites, with the power to forge constructive economic and social changes, suddenly closes, even though verbal pseudo commitments and some investments make some people believe that the window is still open.”

Our challenge is to find the strength and the support to think clearly and act effectively. This can only be done together with friends and allies who share our commitment to change, you among them. It is in that spirit that we ask our friends, allies, and supporters to first allow ourselves to feel deeply the pain of this moment and support others as they do the same. But even as we feel this pain, we ask that you demand of us that we take the risks implied by disrupting business as usual. Only through such disruption can we hope to take advantage of the “window of quasi-attention” that Hubie reminds us will not be open forever. Leaping through that window will mean something different for each of us and it may well mean danger, but there is danger in letting the window slam shut, as well.

Our hearts bleed and our tears flow with the families of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd. Let us honor their memories by doing what we can to attack the deep roots of racism in this country. May this be one of those “sporadic” moments when this country is, indeed, the home of the brave.