Kardia Kaiomenē: The Other America

"Somewhere we must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability, it comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation."--Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Back in 1967, in the wake of anti-racist uprisings in Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and Newark, when Black folk (and a few allies) were mad-as-hell for good reason, the President of the US commissioned a congressional investigation. He wanted to know what happened, why it happened and what could be done to prevent it from happening again.

The ten white men and one white woman who wrote up the 426-page report dug to the roots of the so-called riots: lack of economic opportunity, failed social service programs, police brutality, white racism and the super-white perspective of the media. The report stated clearly:

White society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.

White people wrote this! The Kerner Commission prescribed billions of tax dollars to be made available immediately—a massive government investment in jobs, education and housing for those Dr. King called “The Other America.”

We believe that Kerner is the key for understanding where we are at now. Because here’s the brutal irony: President Johnson ripped up the report. Even worse, in the past fifty years, both major political parties did the exact opposite of what the commission called for.

Since Dr. King's assassination in 1968, taxes have been massively cut for corporations and wealthy folks. Social programs that support the Other America have been cut too. Wages have been lowered to a minimum and jobs have been outsourced. Education budgets are still tied to property taxes so that schools in suburbia are far more resourced than those in The Other America.

Both major political parties declared a “war on drugs” on The Other America and poured billions of tax dollars into building new jails and prisons to house “criminals.” Police forces have been militarized and deputized to stop and frisk the Other America for just about any reason they want. The military budget has bulged. ICE and Border Patrol agents raid the residences and businesses of undocumented people and deport them.

This is how we got here, to a place where one-half of America has a semblance of privilege and The Other America can barely breathe. Dr. King got murdered and the white men in power moved on from the Kerner Commission as fast as they possibly could.

In his poem "Let America Be America Again," Langston Hughes described the Other America this way:

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

We believe that the real polarization in our culture is not between right and left or Republican and Democrat. Both major political parties are thoroughly committed to a neoliberal economics that curates corporate wealth and invests in structures that punish poor people of color: police, prisons, military and a two-tiered public school system. The real polarization exists between white and middle-class families basking in the sunlight of opportunity and the Other America: Black and Brown people, those who are Indigenous and Immigrant, and poor white folk.

Over the past ten weeks, we have caught glimpses of the Other America. The Black trans woman working at the Del Taco drive-thru in Las Vegas. The family who owns Cosmos Indian grocery store and restaurant in Lawrence, KS. The folks frequenting the free food stand in Ypsilanti, Michigan (literally right next door to our favorite happy hour spot). Ex-felons volunteering at the food pantry in Detroit. Several homeless camps from L.A. to Bend to Detroit. People of color working as cashiers at Dollar Stores and cleaning rooms at hotels. Gas station attendants and truck drivers too. All those surviving on Native American reservations, military bases, factory farms and correctional facilities that we drove past on U.S. highways across the continent.

What if the key to growing our souls is simply training our eyes to see the Other America and to take our cues from them? What if we signed on to a kind of divine conspiracy where we transfer our social, political and economic loyalties (what the ancient text calls "idols") and seek God in the faces of the Other America? In Latin, conspiracy means "to breathe with." So our spirituality is all about breathing with poor white people, Black and Brown people, Indigenous and Immigrant people. Not to serve them or save them, but to learn from them, to be enlightened by them, to be inspired and challenged by them. And then, to put our shoulders to the wheel of history with them. To become co-conspirators, pushing back against the "primitive forces of social stagnation" King spoke of, still largely unquestioned and unopposed by white and middle-class America. The Other America carries spiritual secrets. Because God dwells with the poor, pure in heart, persecuted, meek, merciful and those thirsty for justice.

White people and middle-class people are mired in pain too! So many of us are struggling with addiction and mental illness, grieving broken relationships and job loss, going through divorce, drowning in debt, discerning new relationships, suffering loneliness and isolation, exhausted with overextending ourselves for things we're not even sure we chose (or believe in?), battling cancer and navigating family members fueled by Fox News. No doubt, we are well-acquainted with white people and middle-class people who lack courage or conviction, who are content with comfort and convenience, who are committed to doing what our friend Sarah Nahar names "the least amount of emotional and spiritual work possible." But that's not who reads this blog. At least, that's not who reads this blog this far down the page.

If you are still reading, it's highly likely that you are among the remnant few who have middle-class advantage--college-educated, home-owners, Insta-pot cookers, suburban-dwellers, stock-investors, going-out-to-eat-on-the-reg, homebrewers, wine-sippers, Netflix-watchers and/or automobile owners--who want to walk what Jesus called "the narrow path" of solidarity with the Other America. Who want to move beyond being cognitive allies, just knowing a lot about the Other America. Who want to become accomplices and co-conspirators.

To do this, we are convinced that we must be more intentional so we can see the Other America and ask hard questions about the policies and postures that exclude and exploit people who are not white and people who do not have middle-class advantages. We must be willing to sacrifice our time, our energy, our financial resources, our social connections and respectability as we conspire with those who have been marginalized by mythology crafted by middle-class people for too long. Those who have been sinisterly labeled "savage," "lazy," "criminal," "backwoods" and "illegal" have so much to teach us. When these precious people set the terms of our spirituality and politics, we are doing holy work. What Jesus called repentance.

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A few sights from our nomadic wanderings since May.