By Chad Dion Lassiter, MSW
My query this month is how effectively are we dwelling as much as our creed to deliver the woes of the marginalized to the forefront of the general public’s consideration?
The 12 months began, as most years do, with fireworks and a steely resolve to sort out our private woes and a promise to do higher. Eat more healthy, drink much less, and train extra.
A couple of weeks later we commemorated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday by reflecting on the social justice rules he espoused to remedy our nation’s most intractable woes.
Now it’s February and we’re celebrating African American Historical past month.
Annually this is a chance to recall what an individual can accomplish regardless of probably the most oppressive circumstances. “… it’s important that we take time to rejoice the immeasurable contributions of Black People, honor the legacies and achievements of generations previous, reckon with centuries of injustice, and confront these injustices that also fester right this moment,” stated President Joe Biden as he acknowledged Black Historical past month 2022.
Whereas these are all vital yearly milestones, what does it imply if annually we are not any additional ahead than the 12 months earlier than?
What does it imply on a private stage if our resolve uttered so confidently on January 1st has disappeared earlier than month’s finish. It’s estimated that solely eight p.c of People will hold their resolutions all year long.
Or if our annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s rules recall a dream however persistently neglects his fervent calls to finish poverty.
“I’m at all times curious as to why many people overlook the opening statements of his 1963 deal with. It’s as if we solely hear one facet of his speech. Why will we rapidly repeat the phrases ‘I’ve a dream,’ and never the phrases ‘America has given the Negro individuals a foul test which has come again marked ‘inadequate funds.’ However we refuse to imagine the financial institution of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to imagine that there are inadequate funds within the nice vaults of alternative of this nation,’” stated poet E. Ethelbert Miller.
African American Historical past Month ought to remind us, as Viktor E. Frankl stated, “man is able to defying and braving even the worst circumstances conceivable.”
However this reminiscence ought to at all times be in dialog with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who challenged our nation not simply to rejoice the few who overcame, however to recollect the unnamed lots who had been devastated by brutal obstacles.
And all these conversations should start with the hope that every new 12 months can deliver enchancment.
Nonetheless, enchancment solely occurs throughout the context of accountability. Our civic decision to carry America to its mission of equality, inclusion and variety requires civic accountability.
And civic accountability was constructed into the DNA of our occupation which was born 125 years in the past this 12 months at Columbia College. Based on our personal history page, social employees are liable for bringing the nation’s social issues to the general public’s consideration and creating the options that can make a real distinction.
We put this mission in peril if we fail to embrace accountability.
It’s with that thought, I deliver you this meditation on accountability from the web site White Supremacy Culture.
Accountability can be a type of discernment round the best way to stay into shared values or rules. Accountability is one other phrase for help; we maintain one another accountable by supporting one another to stay into our collective values to one of the best of our means, understanding that we are going to inevitably stumble, make errors, stay into our conditioning in ways in which trigger hurt. We may also be courageous and sort and loving and compassionate. Rules assist us focus past our personal socialized confusions. Social justice values or rules are collectively created, grounded within the generational knowledge of elders, what we’ve got discovered from historical past, our expertise, our understanding of the Creator and/or surroundings, and our needs for liberation. One other method of claiming that is that if we’re simply accountable to individuals, we will get into hassle when the individuals we’re accountable to are performing out of confusion; that is the place our rules assist hold us grounded. If we’re accountable solely to rules, we are likely to lose sight of the folks that we’re in relationship with, so {our relationships} might help us perceive the nuance and complexity of honoring our rules.
So, I ask, how effectively are we dwelling as much as our creed to deliver and to maintain the woes of the marginalized to the forefront of the general public’s consideration?
About The Writer
Chad Dion Lassiter is a nationally acknowledged knowledgeable in race relations. He has labored on race, peace, and poverty-related points in the USA, Africa, Canada, Haiti, Israel, and Norway, and is continuously featured within the media offering commentary and options to racial points. Lassiter is presently government director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Fee, the place he has legislatively delegated authority to research filed complaints alleging the incidence of illegal discrimination within the areas of employment, housing and business property, schooling, and/or relating to public lodging.
