I read Be the Bridge
My eyes were opened
My knowledge was stretched
My heart was challenged
I read The New Jim Crow
My heart was broken
My justice meter was shattered
My mind was overwhelmed
I am reading Caste and
I just watched Origin
(The movie about the writing of Caste)
My heart aches with every page read and
Every scene witnessed
My justice meter groans under this new weight
New stories
New facts
New understanding
New urgency
My heart, mind, and body want to
ACT RIGHT NOW!!!!
This is all so wrong
There is no room for caste in our world
It must be demolished
But, what can I do?
I’m a 52-year-old white woman
Who desires to be the best ally
For all forced into the margins
Caste in our country?
Yes!
It’s very hard to hear about caste
In India and Germany
But in America?
This hurts in a deeper
More personal way
This is my home
So much of my home country is broken
Is it beyond repair?
I have too much hope to believe that
I truly believe that I am supposed to
ACT ON
The new knowledge I have
In my mind
The new breaks
In my heart
After watching Origin
I wanted to cry for hours
And hours
Is that privilege?
I don’t know, but
It’s my truth
How do
Hate
Anger
Fear
And
Othering
Run so rampant in our world?
Why do we have to have
Categories
Insiders and Outsiders
Us and Others
Individuals and Mass Groups that can be
Easily dehumanized
The last scene in Origin has these words…
“A world without caste sets everyone free.”
I want freedom for everyone
I want to seek freedom for everyone
What role do I have before me?
Can I really help demolish caste?
Why do I seek this information
If not to ACT on behalf of
Those in the margins?
I was othered at age 11
Told by my new principal in Texas
That he would “keep an eye on me
Because he knew about kids from
California”
I was judged on something about which
I had no control
I was judged before he knew anything
Else about me
Is this as bad as the othering of others today?
Probably not
But I was wrongly judged
I felt it
I absorbed it
Is that why I strove for all A’s?
To prove this man wrong?
No one belongs in the margins
May we each ACT for the
Freedom of those in our
Lives
Cities
States
and
World
Let’s work towards
A
World
Where
Everyone
Is
Free
May these words
Rise up with the
Beautiful scent of
A prayer lifted to God
A question posed to Jesus
A yearning shared through the Holy Spirit
And with my fellow humans
What Now?
Will you seek the answer with me?
We do not have to accept the
Status quo when it is broken
© 2024 Brooke F. Sulahian
hopesightings 