Where Were You and Where Are You?

Where were you on August 9, 2014 when you learned of the death of Michael Brown? Mike, an unarmed teenager walking down the streets of his neighborhood like many other young people his age on a hazy summer afternoon, without a care in the world.

Michael Brown Jr., a son whose opportunities to matriculate through the trade school he had been accepted to, bled out into the streets on that hot August day, like water spilling from a cup knocked over. Opportunities and possibilities to become a husband, a father, give his parents a bouncy baby girl or boy all permanently disappeared as his red blood seeped into the black asphalt for four and 1/2  long, hot, agonizing, mind boggling, unacceptable hours.

Many of us who joined the Movement not only because of the horrific and poignant sight of his lifeless body that left an indelible mark on our lives and in our ministries but at the call of a new generation of leaders who responded rightfully whose unrelenting blood curdling cries reached our ears like never before.  We can’t help but recall where we were because our lives have not been the same. As we stood with his parents in presence and participation last week my heart was warmed by the thousands of activists and supporters who came back to Ferguson last week clearly remembering and reflecting on where they were but also more resolute than ever to dismantle the system that sends parents to funeral homes instead of football games, bridal wear shopping and college graduations.

Could the question that memorializes his life and his death for this generation be a social or theological locator? Our parents’ generation asked where were you when Martin, Medfar and for those who weren’t  afraid when Malcolm was killed? As we reflect on a year and week or so after our son was slain in the streets the critical question is, “where are you now?”

Are you still in the comfort zone of your faux social economic forte? The one that was built and fortified with a number of degrees exceeding the average persons, extreme educational and vocational pursuits and accomplishments. Where if ADT, Brinks or some other form of a digital security system is present it is just a precaution because your economic status, number of annual invites to the homes and tables of the well known muckety-mucks; if you are a clergy person your ecclesiastical accoutrements including the amount of your church budget and location and size of your congregation; for those of us who matriculated through the halls of respectability it is our affiliation with that secret but proud fraternal organization that is a prerequisite for most others, Ne Phi Re “Negro Phi Respectability (admittedly I am an alumnae); for many others the fact that our zip code is a long way from home and or the hood is to us what the blanket was to the Linus character in the Charles Schultz cartoon, Charlie Brown. Despite where you may be geographically, where are you theologically and socially?

Post August 9, 2014 have you reconciled with what it means to be Black in America? The question is not merely for those who are born with melanin infused pigmentation but also for our white co-conspirators who have had the benefit of being insulated by white privilege. Where are you today after Eric Garner died on camera, declaring “I can’t breathe,” after Sandra Bland was ultimately sentenced to death because she failed to use a turn signal, after the Charleston Massacre where The Honorable Reverend

Clementa Pinckney, Rev. Daniel Simmons, Depayne Middleton Doctor, Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Cynthia Hurd, Tywanza Sanders, Ethel Lance, Susie Jackson and Myra Thompson were executed in their Sanctuary because they were Black and the known killer was caught and given more courtesy than 12 year old Tamir Rice, who was deemed armed and dangerous not because he had committed a crime but because he dared to sit his Black body near a playground, in a park, playing with a toy gun; which can only be deemed a weapon of mass destruction when in the hand of a black being despite the age or gender in America?

To borrow a line from a song of the Black Church and of the Movement, “Whose side are you on?” Where are you professors of theology? Has your theological framework, your coursework changed? Where are you quiet clergy of the cloth? It is clear that many of you did not receive a prophetic mantle, that being said for the children of the oppressed being born into trauma, for the weary bodies, spirits and voices of those who consistently place their bodies, jobs and  pulpits on the front lines, for the mothers and fathers who have to plan funerals and sit at tables with empty seats, for the young people who have more t-shirts of classmates resting in peace than t-shirts from vacations, where are you? Are you providing pastoral care and operating in the gifts of your priestly function? Are you invisible because you are operating like Nehemiah in the middle of the night where no one can see you?Where are you white people, who claim to be liberal but that doesn’t translate to seeking  liberation for people of color?

Have you engaged your not so conscientious cousins, the ones who reside in Columbia,  MO and dare to declare Darren Wilson day while parents mourn the dreadful anniversary of losing a son under such horrific and vile circumstances?

Bishop John Bryant, Senior Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, recently spoke at the National Press Club in DC regarding race and gun violence and  challenged police officers saying, “Where are the good cops and why aren’t you holding the bad cops accountable?” Where are you politicians who parade through our pulpits and pilferage our communities for votes during your quadrennial pilgrimages to the hood?

Not leaving out federal officials, on Monday, August 10 I joined a group of clergy and activists from across the country as we marched to the Department of Justice basically attempting to ask the question now that you have proven to yourselves and the world through hundreds of pages of data,  what we already knew that Black bodies are disrespected and at risk for deadly force and death, “Where are you?”

It’s a year later,  where are you?

Reverend Dr. Cassandra Gould, is an activist and serves as pastor of Quinn Chapel AME Church Jefferson City, MO. She also is the Executive Director of Missouri Faith Voices and Vice President of the African American Clergy Coalition of Mid Missouri