The more I hear fellow whites say stupid things about race, the more it’s obvious that #BlackLivesMatter matters.

There’s plenty of opinions about riots around the country regarding the deaths of black men related to arrest or custody.  Rather than adding one more white guy’s opinion about all of it, I thought I’d encourage us to take a page from the book of James and “be quick to listen and slow to speak” to the heart of the #BlackLivesMatter campaign: it must be said exactly because it shouldn’t have to be said.

Richard Allen (b. 1760) was born a slave in Philadelphia.  He purchased his freedom and became a prominent Methodist preacher, establishing (with Absalom Jones) the first black church in America after finding the increasingly segregated services stifling black worship.  Allen and Jones established the Free African Society to provide aid for black men and women.  He stood up for education of African Americans rather than sending them back to Africa (a popular alternative to true abolition at the time).  On more than one occasion the (White) Methodist Church sought to control Allen’s movement.  Racism disguised as piety drove the Philadelphia government to request Allen and his community to care for the sick and dying during an epidemic of yellow fever – a job too dangerous for the white citizens to handle.  Though Allen knew this gesture represented a culture that implicitly and explicitly believed white lives matter more than black lives, he nevertheless organized groups to care for the very contagious sick, an action meant to prove the virtue, morality, and worth of black lives.

Richard Allen once said, “We will never separate ourselves voluntarily from the slave population in this country; they are our brethren and we feel there is more virtue in suffering privations with them than fancied advantage for a season.”  Our prison system has often been equated to modern American slavery, and the statistics of our justice system reveal systematic racial inequality.  Perhaps Rev. Allen can speak to us across the centuries to notice the ways we have separated ourselves from these injustices for the fancied advantage of a season…