{"id":35286,"date":"2016-07-08T08:47:09","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T12:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=35286"},"modified":"2016-07-21T18:35:46","modified_gmt":"2016-07-21T22:35:46","slug":"your-black-lives-matter-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/your-black-lives-matter-to-me.html","title":{"rendered":"Your Black Lives Matter To Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I happen to live in a neighborhood where most of my neighbors have much darker skin than I do. I wish more of my city were like my street. Demographic maps based on census data show that my city\u2019s neighborhoods, like most, tend not to be diverse. Even if it were not my friends and neighbors that we are talking about<\/a>\u00a0when\u00a0unarmed black men are killed by police<\/a>, I would not be able to stay silent. But I suspect a big issue is precisely that not only the \u201call lives matter\u201d crowd, but even people like me saying \u201cblack lives matter,\u201d are often making theoretical statements about other people, living in other neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

And so I felt the need to say something more personal, to my friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Your lives matter. Your black lives matter. Your black lives matter to me<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There are no quick fixes or simple solutions for the structural evils that are woven into the fabric of my nation, my state, and my city. When you can drive around Indiana and see confederate flags flying, you know that there is a lot of work ahead of us. Our society has a racism problem and a gun problem, and the combination of the two is deadly<\/a> \u2013 a fact that will only surprise people who have not been paying attention, or who have been living in denial<\/a>. Of course, in a sense there are<\/em> simple solutions to this problem as to many others: everyone, stop being racist; stop loving, using, and proliferating guns; stop ongoing segregation and discrimination; and change policies that are based on racism and seek to protect white privilege. What is challenging is not recognizing what needs to happen, but finding ways not merely to bring it about, but to get people who have internalized the hatred (of those whose skin is a different shade of pigmentation) and the love (of privilege, and of guns they hope will protect that privilege) to repent<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For some, the first scary step will be to make what should be an uncontroversial statement: \u201cBlack lives matter.\u201d If you live in a sea of whiteness where the realities of life just blocks away can be ignored or blamed on the victims, it can be hard even to say something that you know will lead to arguments with family, and will lead you to be an object of hatred in your circle of friends.<\/p>\n

But whatever it costs you, it will be less than what it costs black people to live in the society where you are too scared to stand with them. And so please, have the courage to force those conversations to take place. Because ending racism is not something that will magically occur in communities which are historic and perhaps ongoing causes of the problem. It involves people who share the privilege of whiteness having the courage to play a role in exposing the underlying causes of the situation in our own selves and communities.<\/p>\n

Saying \u201cblack lives Matter\u201d in a context in which no one else is saying it is a necessary step towards creating a society which makes it harder to be a racist. One in which people live and work side by side, and diversity is not obliterated either through separation or by pretending it isn\u2019t there. One in which the natural thing to say isn\u2019t the abstract \u201cblack lives matter\u201d but \u201cyour lives matter\u2026your black lives matter\u2026your black lives matter to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The status quo can\u2019t remain, and indeed is already collapsing.\u00a0Our society only has two options, I think. One in which we see escalating\u00a0violence<\/a> as people\u00a0view others as enemies or potential enemies. Or one in which we live side by side, know one another, and recognize that the taking of lives means the death of someone who is precious to\u00a0others, even if I did not know them, and something that it is not merely enough to mourn after the fact, but which we must actively prevent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I happen to live in a neighborhood where most of my neighbors have much darker skin than I do. I wish more of my city were like my street. Demographic maps based on census data show that my city\u2019s neighborhoods, like most, tend not to be diverse. Even if it were not my friends and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":37212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,79],"tags":[178,531,1223,2115,3466,4287,5125,7799,7986,7987,9046,9294,9896,12855],"class_list":["post-35286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-morality","category-racism","tag-blacklivesmatter","tag-alton-sterling","tag-black","tag-confederate","tag-flag","tag-guns","tag-indiana","tag-murder","tag-neighborhood","tag-neighbors","tag-philando-castile","tag-police","tag-racism","tag-trayvon-martin"],"yoast_head":"\nYour Black Lives Matter To Me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I happen to live in a neighborhood where most of my neighbors have much darker skin than I do. I wish more of my city were like my street. Demographic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/your-black-lives-matter-to-me.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Your Black Lives Matter To Me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I happen to live in a neighborhood where most of my neighbors have much darker skin than I do. I wish more of my city were like my street. Demographic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/your-black-lives-matter-to-me.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-08T12:47:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-07-21T22:35:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2016\/07\/Photo-20160708084701698-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/your-black-lives-matter-to-me.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/your-black-lives-matter-to-me.html\",\"name\":\"Your Black Lives Matter To Me\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-08T12:47:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-07-21T22:35:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"I happen to live in a neighborhood where most of my neighbors have much darker skin than I do. I wish more of my city were like my street. Demographic\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/your-black-lives-matter-to-me.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/your-black-lives-matter-to-me.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/your-black-lives-matter-to-me.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Your Black Lives Matter To Me\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Your Black Lives Matter To Me","description":"I happen to live in a neighborhood where most of my neighbors have much darker skin than I do. I wish more of my city were like my street. Demographic","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/your-black-lives-matter-to-me.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Your Black Lives Matter To Me","og_description":"I happen to live in a neighborhood where most of my neighbors have much darker skin than I do. I wish more of my city were like my street. Demographic","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/your-black-lives-matter-to-me.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2016-07-08T12:47:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-07-21T22:35:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":768,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2016\/07\/Photo-20160708084701698-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/your-black-lives-matter-to-me.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/your-black-lives-matter-to-me.html","name":"Your Black Lives Matter To Me","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-07-08T12:47:09+00:00","dateModified":"2016-07-21T22:35:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"I happen to live in a neighborhood where most of my neighbors have much darker skin than I do. I wish more of my city were like my street. Demographic","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/your-black-lives-matter-to-me.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/your-black-lives-matter-to-me.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/your-black-lives-matter-to-me.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Your Black Lives Matter To Me"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}