Black Ministry Discussion Continues among Redemptorists
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December 17, 2021Redemptorist Associates joined confreres in the North American Conference for their ongoing discussion about Black Ministry on December 6. Eight Associates and 13 Redemptorists enjoyed a spirited discussion.
Fr. Steve Benden, C.Ss.R., welcomed participants and provided time for introductions. As a topic of discussion, Fr. Francis Gargani, C.Ss.R., chose Baratunde Thurston’s comedic but challenging TED Talk: “How to deconstruct racism one headline at a time.”
In 16 minutes, he explains how to flip a perspective on the phenomenon of white Americans calling the police on Black Americans who have committed the crimes of generally “living while Black.” In this profound and thought-provoking talk, he reveals the power of language to change stories of trauma into stories of healing – while challenging us all to level up.
Baratunde, who is black, presents the potential danger Blacks often face even in ordinary encounters with others – particularly the police. Bartunde uses the art of diagramming sentences to demonstrate how to easily change perceptions.
For example: A white man calls police on a Black woman using the neighborhood pool – a subject takes an action against a target engaged in an activity. Our first level of awareness happens if we can reverse roles – the subject becomes the target and the target becomes the subject, such as: A Black woman calls police on a white man using the neighborhood pool.
While participants agreed with Baratunde’s observations, not everyone believed that his extensive use of humor was appropriate. “It’s just not funny, especially if you’re Black,” one participant said. “Maybe Baratunde felt he needed humor to keep his largely white audience engaged,” another participant observed. Those of us who laughed during the video suddenly realized that it just wasn’t funny.
Watch the video at: https://www.ted.com/.../baratunde_thurston_how_to...
