The sacred scriptures state in Psalm 30:5, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” As we reflect over 2020, we can all conclude the year was the darkest of nights. Humanity experienced compounded crisis and tragedies. We began with a global pandemic, which still continues. Then we were thrust into a series of social justice and political turmoil. George Floyd, Daniel Prude, and many other faces emerged that became the face of police brutality, social dilemmas, and institutional failures. Cities wept, protested, and burned in the face of social frustration with human and institutional failures, which have haunted African-Americans and society as a whole for generations. African-Americans had to ask the painful and rhetorical question of why the country that we love; love us in return? Then we had to endure a national political election, which exposed the ugliest elements of our nation. Closet racism, voter suppression, and the postmodern component of fake news climaxed with the 45th president displaying debase behaviors for the world to see.
We must conclude that 2020 was a dark night. Dark nights within society are irrevocable and inescapable in life. Regardless of how we attempt to perfect society and move toward the concept of a more perfect union, we are consistently confronted with the nation’s moral, spiritual, and political failures. However, despite these tumultuous times and catastrophic events, we still must attempt to move forward with hope in the face of our national and social brokenness.
We must renew our spirits and attempt to move toward our new morning. The passage of time presents the concrete reality that humanity can’t hold back the passage of time and the beginning of new opportunities. Some issues from the previous night may never be resolved in the transition from night to morning. However, it presents us with new opportunities to develop various paradigms and praxis of how to address our people’s systemic problems and our society.
This is why I want to shake the consciousness of our people. We may never resolve why mistakes were made and may never get individuals to embrace full personal accountability. However, we do have the capacity to seize control of our morning experience.
This begins by acknowledging that each night must come to an end. We must essentially move from finger pointing, name calling, divisions and look for intersections of problem-solving and community collaborations. Periodically humanity finds itself in an existential conjunction where resolution is just not possible. Differing forces and demographics find themselves in firm stances that just will not be transformed. While this may be uncomfortable and not the desired end, it is a periodic reality with a flawed humanity.
Thus, the relevant question becomes, where do we go from here? Do we remain in positions dominated by stalemates, righteous rhetoric and dueling tempers, or do we move toward shifting to a new starting point and attempting to discover an intersection of where we can chart a course toward radical social reconstruction?
Some leaders have already been reelected, some are up for reelection in 2021, and some new faces in the political arena. Some community leaders and stakeholders will not change in status and will transcend political seasons, political leaders, and changing generations. Thus, there must be willingness at some point to work with those who are in position and to develop strategies of how to overcome our mutual failures of the past and embrace our future possibilities together. The reality is that even with past failures, regardless of how horrific, we still have the potential to be greater together than divided. The community can gain more from our shared influence, capabilities, and reform than it can from our continued interpersonal conflicts. This means that all parties that emerge from the darkness of our social night must be willing to engage in a new dialogue, heightened transparency, and new disciplines to place community over conflict. Many have become poverty pimps, political pimps, and conflict pimps during the darkness of 2020, some even before 2020. However, 2021 brings the prospect of a new day with new possibilities.
The radical social reconstruction in a basic form should consist of at least a quarterly dialogue and discussion of community issues and how we can address and resolve the issues impacting our community. This will require leaders who don’t like each other to possess a greater passion for the community than their dislike and distrust of one another. We must work from this place of social and political vulnerability to reconstruct the failing institutions in our society. These times of engagement can’t take the form of finger-pointing and rehashing old issues that won’t get resolved. Instead, it must be a time to place those things behind us and work toward building a better future.
So, what must be done to secure a brighter day in the morning of 2021? I believe that three simple steps would be a good basic starting point.
- Give all sides a chance for reconciliation and reconstruction.
I was moved by the words of a respected community elder during a meeting back in November. I will not mention his name; however, most in the community know him. He was on the Daniel Prude protests front lines, supporting the BLM and other protestors, and truly made his body a sacrifice for the struggle as he almost lost his life. I heard him make this comment during a community meeting with the Rochester Police Department’s new Interim Police Chief. He stated, “after all that we have been through, we must be willing to give each other a chance.”
I must admit these words have pricked my heart ever since hearing him speak them publicly. This is not based upon the philosophical perspective of the statement. Instead, it is because these words came from a man that has decades of service and commitment to the struggle of social justice and from someone that almost lost his life in the streets of Rochester protesting for justice. If a man who almost died in the streets for righteousness can muster the human strength to say give people who have been our oppressors a chance, then it would be wise to consider his wisdom. I respect the literal blood and pain of those who have sacrificed in the struggle.
Thus, we have to realize that at times those who have been great oppressors have been transformed into allies in the struggle. The late Senator Robert Byrd was a former Klansmen but experienced transformation and later supported key legislation that helped minorities and supported other minority politicians. President-Elect Biden opposed busing and other key post-segregation initiatives but was transformed to support and be on a presidential ticket with the first African-American president and drafted the first female African-American Vice-President. In the words of our community elder, the point I want to make is simply give people a chance.
- There must be the development of a strategy inclusive of educational, economic, and political reconstruction. The methods and systems of the past have failed. It has been proven, especially in education, that disposing of personalities does not resolve the issues. How many Superintendents has the city of Rochester had in the last twenty years? Thus, we must commit to making current leaders in these fields successful in their respected areas. This means holding them accountable as well as forcing dialogue on critical matters.
- Finally, we must have authentic leadership emerging in the morning. The community must rise above those who want to be provisional leaders and capitalize on moments of human despair to ascend to media attention platforms, resume building, and personal ambitions. Authentic leadership often arises from reluctant leaders. Those who are drafted and enlisted by the community’s grassroots rather than those who possess the skills to write press releases and hold press conferences before disingenuous major media outlets that want to distort the state of the urban community.
In closing, we must realize the morning is coming regardless of whether we are ready. I declare, let us embrace, control, and be effective as we arise from the dark night of 2020.
By Dr. Jonathan JH McReynolds
