Soul Work

Soul Work

Can we make right a generational wrong? Can we restore, repair the harm done. And can those who have been hurt be restored?   How might they be made whole again? With regard to our savagery and brutality of our racist past, some say the best thing to do is put it behind us. “Nothing to be done now”. Some lie about it. They say it never happened…call it a fantasy. They gaslight us into believing that what we witnessed is not real. Others blame the victim.  “They are the problem. There is something wrong with them. They made us do it.” And the guilty continue to delude themselves because it requires something that they are loathe to do, the soul work of facing their own ugliness.

And those of us who endure the abuse are left with searing injuries. We face fear, anger, sadness and the consistent memory of being treated like chattel property unworthy of human kindness, respect or compassion.  We know that many of those with whom we share this country are so unconcerned about the suffering they inflict on us that it barely registers in the collective mind.  But it takes up residence in our minds. Our bodies try to hold the psychic pain that robs us of our dignity, but often yield to mental illness, disease and death.

So, the generational wrong does not heal. It festers. The guilty hope that a fortress of silence will protect them from the accounting they fear will come. And they continue the same cruel and brutal racist practices that infect our society. They are moral criminals, and they know it. Thomas Jefferson, in his notes on the state of Virginia stated that he feared that the injustice of slavery would lead to a divine reckoning against the nation,

When flames crawled up the walls of the Nottoway Plantation it felt like a reckoning of sorts to many African Americans. The crumbling walls and the caving roof were a testament to the centuries of unacknowledged pain and cruelty visited upon a vulnerable people. For me it was gut wrenching…like out there in the ethers some energy knew and understood what happened to us. I remembered my own difficult days as a civil rights activist; the outrages visited upon my ancestors for generations with little or no consequence.  And as much as I hate to admit it I was satisfied that someone other than Black people was doing the suffering.

What can the guilty do to mitigate their sin… the murders of 1^st Nation People and the stealing of  their land…the kidnapping and enslavement of Black people. Given our current political and social landscape, they seem more inclined to lie and deny. Do the guilty believe there is nothing to be made right? Have they internalized the sick idea that it is acceptable to brutalize and dehumanize those who are not like them? Have they been programmed to believe that they matter more than others?  Have they lost sight of the most basic elements of human decency.? And can the flames shooting from the roof of Nottoway Plantation or the other structures like it cleanse the ugly stains that are strewn across America’s landscape?

I have been hoping that white society is not lost. In the words of the late Roy Wilkins National Secretary of the NAACP, “Oh Lord we are so tired of trying to save the white man’s soul.” The brief satisfaction I and many others felt with the destruction of Nottaway Plantation was a temporary balm that offers very little in addressing long held wounds.

But I remember the cherished traditions I learned from my childhood. My ancestors knew a way. They possessed a powerful wisdom. Healing happens in the sunlight of truth. Even with the suffering they endured they understood the power of acknowledging, being accountable and forgiving. It was not a weak giving in. They did not accept defeat. It was forgiveness rooted in the understanding that before we can let go, before making right can happen doing the soul work of facing the ugliness is required. They understood that the tragic story must be told and accepted.

The freed slaves in the low country of South Carolina developed a practice for addressing trauma and conflict when it occurred among them. It was a sacred process. Community members would gather and pray together, break bread, share stories about shared life and remind themselves of who they were to one another. They would identify the offense and the offender.  The wrongdoer would acknowledge the harm they cause and agree to a process of soul work to make it right  personally and for those they harmed.

When the community felt satisfied that the harm has been addressed. They return to a way of life consistent with their shared values. They no longer dwell on the offense. They decline to inflict punishment. And they release the debt. The offense is removed from the collective history of the community. The wrongdoer is redeemed and welcomed back as a neighbor. The wrong has been made right.

The emotions I experienced with the Nottoway Plantation fire tells me that I still carry wounds that need healing.  And indeed, many in Black America do. I believe many white people carry a guilt that eats at them as well. They know regardless of their relentless need to avoid the truth …there is an original sin from which this country has yet to recover. The Nottoway Plantation is but a symbol of that sin.

Nottoway to America is like Auschwitz to Germany. Unfortunately, this structure and many like it are still revered and treated as symbols of beauty, pride and respect. They are advertised as resorts where Americans can vacation and have elaborate plantation weddings. And that is testament to the sickness that is still woven in the American tapestry. We would be repulsed by the thought of a vacation or a wedding ceremony at a Nazi death camp.

I struggle these days with a mix of disappointment and hope. I see way too much cruelty and callousness in white America toward those who do not look like them. I am an American who hopes and wishes every day that my country would wake up and grow up. I want us to find the courage to do the soul work of facing a tragic and horrific past and healing from it. And until we do we will destroy our free and democratic society from within. There is nothing going on “out there” that is more dangerous than the pain, suffering and harm we Americans are inflicting on each other.