A new reading list.
My daughter is on the front lines of racial equality. She works at Vista del Mar—once a Jewish orphanage, it now serves at-risk children of all ethnicities. (You can support their work here.) As a clinical social worker she provides counseling to mostly children of color who are some of the most traumatized by their birth circumstances and usually victims of drug abuse, sex-trafficking, and violence. These kids have fallen through the cracks. Her level of awareness far exceeds mine. So, when she says to read something, I do it.
Some time ago, she recommended Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book Between the World and Me. Each turn of the page brought me face to face with what it means to be Black in America today. It’s a poignant letter to his son, that is, quite frankly, required reading for all of us trying to understand our present circumstances. He asserts that to grow up as a Black man today is to fear “friskings, detainings, beatings and humiliations” from those who “have been endowed with the authority to destroy your body.” He lays bare the myth of the American dream that for most Black people is not only unattainable but is held out of reach by a society that places overwhelming obstacles before them.
This is not an easy read. It is painful and it is disheartening—but it is the story that Black Americans read and understand. It is their life.
The most important thing we can do is to educate ourselves. To reach an awareness we didn’t have before George Floyd’s brutal murder opened our eyes. We could shelter ourselves behind a fortress of denials and refutations by those who can’t countenance the disruption of our comfortable world view. I just hope we don’t.
— Rabbi Ron Stern
Learn more about anti-racism and find resources here.
Today is Juneteenth, a holiday that celebrates the ending of slavery in the United States.