By Marion Filler
It’s been 52 years since Felicia Jamison initiated the first observance of Martin Luther King Day in Morristown, and as Deacon Henry Lee said, “52 years is a long time to be doing anything.”
America’s racial divide goes back much farther, of course, and four panelists joined moderator Lee, deacon at Calvary Baptist Church, to talk about it, in a recorded discussion posted Monday as part of the virtual MLK Day program presented by the Martin Luther King Observance Committee founded by Jamison.
The session asked the question: “Is there a toxic environment of hate in our society today?”
The short answer, panelists concluded, is yes. Racial issues have been endemic to American history since day one. The Constitution could not resolve them, the Civil War tried to eliminate them, the Civil Rights Movement brought them to the fore yet again, and now Black Lives Matter is continuing the conversation. But inequalities in our society remain.
What is the cause?
The Rev. Cynthia Black, rector at Morristown’s Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, saw “more divisions around the strong and the weak than around us and them.”
The death of Desmond Tutu led her to review some of his writings describing Nazism as glorifying the strong and despising the weak. “It’s been so obvious that we despise weakness. You see it in COVID — only weak people wear masks and need vaccines. It’s more than just hate,” said Black, whose award-winning documentary Voices of Witness Africa described experiences of gay and lesbian Anglicans in Africa.
Keyona Osborne-Pannell, a Morristown native who first spoke at MLK Day in 1999 when she was 8 years old, blamed religion for some of the toxic attitudes we have towards each other.
“We are not seeing us all as a unified ‘us’,” said Osborne-Pannell, now a Charlotte, N.C., resident who leads the It Ends Now movement.
“It seems to be that the Christian name is actually the name that is seen as kind of the leader of this divisiveness in our country, and the reason for a lot of the ‘us’ and ‘them’ narrative that’s been displayed so far. Unfortunately, Christians have played a detrimental role in creating that, rather than the role we should be playing and adding love to the environment.”
Stan Prater, recently retired from JCP&L as a liaison to 40 communities in Warren and Sussex counties, said the growth of the internet has given a platform to hate. Groups of haters are small, but we always hear about them. “The internet has made this thing a lot bigger than it is,” said Prater.
So why can’t the internet be a positive influence as well, asked Lee?
Attorney Cliff Dawkins, a dean at Rutgers Law School, jumped in. “It’s a matter of those of us pushing the love end of it as adamantly as the front lines pushing the hate. I think we must, because if we’re not, we’re at a competitive disadvantage.”
How do we do this, Lee wanted to know? The consensus was communication, particularly with people with opinions you may not like or understand.
Prater referred to the “Speak Up” sessions he initiated at JCP&L. Symbols evoke emotions, he said, citing examples such as the American flag, the Confederate flag, the Trump flag, and Black Lives Matter posters and t-shirts.
Prater sought open discussions about what these symbols meant to individuals, and to provide a vehicle to “give people their say” through open discourse. In the absence of that, “All they do is perceive what the media told them about that person,” he said. “So we have to have a conversation.”
Should the push for change come from the top or the bottom, queried Lee?
Black thinks elements of both are necessary; intentionality is the key. Osborne-Pannell admitted the question posed a conflict for her. Energy comes from the bottom, but the top has to “buy-in” with resources. There must be a balance. It’s important to “allow the energy to have a voice,” he said.
“The huge lesson of the Civil Rights movement,” Dawkins recalled, was that it was too top- down.
“It stunted the movement for a long time. Black Lives Matter is the same thing, it polls the same way. You need the energy of people and the organizing capacity of the leaders” to develop a clear and concise message, “so we can move the needle,” said Dawkins, executive director of the Minority Student Program at Rutgers.
What about Trumpism, which evokes such negative feelings for many African Americans? Can we get over it? Should we get over it? Lee invited panelists to respond.
Osborne-Pannell went directly to the Bible, and Jesus’ condemnation of oppressors.
“But he did it with an olive branch,” she said. Jesus said they were wrong, but gave them an opportunity to correct it.
“We have to be careful how we do it, but the thing that Trumpism stands for, believes in, a lot of those things are hateful and we do need to condemn those things.”
Closing remarks offered some inspiration.
“It all starts with me, said Prater, a deacon at Calvary Baptist Church. “If I want to improve this toxic environment, I need to display love. I need to call out hate when I see it……..and if I can plant that seed of love in someone’s heart, I think it will take root and begin to grow in others.”
Black’s advice: “Don’t try to do it alone. Be part of something bigger than yourself. Be a part of community.”
Other MLK Day panels discussed Critical Race Theory and Culture Wars, and disparities wrought by the pandemic. View them here.Surviving Today’s Toxic Environment of Hate
