{"id":34853,"date":"2024-01-11T23:58:17","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T07:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=34853"},"modified":"2024-01-11T23:58:17","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T07:58:17","slug":"synthesis-and-justice-can-they-coexist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/synthesis-and-justice-can-they-coexist\/","title":{"rendered":"Synthesis and Justice…can they coexist?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Identity.\u00a0 What a hard concept to nail down and at the same time a key part of every human experience.\u00a0 One of my past teachers stated, \u201cwe are the medicine, how well do you know that medicine?\u201d. [1]<\/a>\u00a0 This is a key part of my \u201cwhy\u201d I do what I do and who I am.\u00a0 My awareness of self, my strengths, weaknesses, triggers, life history, psychology, spirituality are all key identifiers for me.\u00a0 I moved at age 24 from South Dakota to Chicago to become a Residence Hall Director at a Christian College in the city.\u00a0 I intentionally went because I was tired of seeing the same demographics everywhere around me.\u00a0 I learned so much in my 6 years in Residence Life at this diverse school.\u00a0 Mostly how uncomfortable it was for my African American students to feel seen and respected in white spaces.\u00a0 I went two times on a trip called Sankofa with the college students, once as a participant and once as a co-leader.\u00a0 We were paired with a diverse partner from ourselves and took a 3-day bus ride through the Southern states, visiting important historical black monuments, such as MLK, Jr. Church and museum, a working plantation, a lynching traveling exhibit, a small-town Albany, GA where the jail was full of all African Americans and all the streets had confederate names.\u00a0 It was intense, but one word I learned through this as far as my identity goes, was not racist, though I am, I have implicit biases and I am sure I have participated in racist institutions and traditions and appropriations; I had to wrestle through that and move into the space of action, this is where I learned what it means to be an Ally. I continue to wrestle on how to do this in different circumstances, and I am positive I have failed, but I have also been a companion on the journey.<\/p>\n

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Because of some of my education and training around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion both in my past career and current career, I have been trained to \u201csee\u201d the diversity.\u00a0 That when we deny seeing the identity of a group of lesser privilege and power and we try to jump too quickly to what we have in common it tends to hurry through the painful truths and brush over history and injustices too quickly.\u00a0 The Identity Trap <\/em>by Yascha Mounk was a fascinating approach to how we may solve some of our cultural problems.\u00a0 I will hesitate to give a strong approval or rejection of this book until I\u2019ve read every word, and I have not, but I tried to approach it open mindedly.<\/p>\n

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In a discussion with Tomiwa Owolade in a presentation for Intelligence Squared, Mounk explains how he came to the term Identity Synthesis; for him it meant \u201cdifferent intellectual influences come together and can be used for common ground discussions.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 This concept of synthesis is important, and I see a lot of value in creating common ground rules for civilized discussions, as so many of our current discussions are not civilized.\u00a0 Because of this idea of facing each other and having honest discussions I think Mounk is trying to help us.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m not sure I agree with all of what he says, but again hesitate to say so due to not knowing I missed things in the cursory reading I did.\u00a0 For example, he gives \u201c`6 pieces of advice for arguing and organizing against the identity trap in a way that is full-throated, doesn\u2019t court unnecessary risk, and has some chance of actually persuading your interlocutors.\u201d [3]<\/a><\/p>\n

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  1. Claim the Moral High Ground,[4]<\/a> (I struggle with this first concept. I\u2019m not convinced that some shame is important as a way to get us to slow down and think about what we are saying and to whom. )<\/li>\n
  2. Don\u2019t vilify those who disagree.[5]<\/a> (This one could cure our election year woes).<\/li>\n
  3. Remember that today\u2019s adversaries can become tomorrow\u2019s Allies.[6]<\/a> (I agree, or hope it\u2019s possible)<\/li>\n
  4. Appeal to the Reasonable Majority[7]<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Make Common Cause with other opponents of the Identity Synthesis[8]<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. \u2026But don\u2019t become a Reactionary.[9]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \n

    I invite you to read the descriptions of this list, but overall, I believe if we followed most of these, we would have a different society. I also strongly recommend reading Austin Channing Brown\u2019s I\u2019m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness. <\/em>Here comes my humble name dropping, but I am just so darn proud of her and her space in this world, as she was one of my residents at the University where I was in Residence Life.\u00a0 She also was on the Sankofa trip where I learned about Allyship.\u00a0 She is strong, brilliant, and honest and so I leave us with her thoughts, \u201cChristians talk about love a lot. It\u2019s one of our favorite words, especially when the topic is race.\u00a0 If we could just learn to love one another\u2026 Love trumps hate\u2026Love someone different from you today\u2026 But I have found this love to be largely inconsequential\u201d.\u00a0 She goes on to say \u201cI need a love that is troubled by injustice. A love that is provoked to anger when Black folks, including our children, lie dead in the streets. A love that can no longer be concerned with tone because it is concerned with life. A love that has no tolerance for hate, no excuses for racist decisions, no contentment in the status quo.\u00a0 I need a love that is fierce in its resilience and sacrifice. I need a love that chooses justice.\u201d[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a> Kearney, Dr. Michael, talk \u201cWe are the medicine\u201d <\/em>addressed to Anam Cara Apprentices at The Sacred Art of Living Center. (Bend, OR 2016).<\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> Mounk, Yascha and Tomiwa Owolade. The Identity Trap<\/em> discussion on Intelligence Squared ( debate platform, October 30,2023).<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> Mounk, Yascha. The Identity Trap: A story of Ideas and Power in Our Time. <\/em>(New York, Penguin Press, 2023). 272.<\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> Mounk, Yascha. The Identity Trap: A story of Ideas and Power in Our Time. <\/em>(New York, Penguin Press, 2023). 272.<\/p>\n

    [5]<\/a> Mounk, 274<\/p>\n

    [6]<\/a> Ibid, 274<\/p>\n

    [7]<\/a> Ibid, 276<\/p>\n

    [8]<\/a> Ibid 277<\/p>\n

    [9]<\/a> Ibid, 280<\/p>\n

    [10]<\/a> Channing Brown, Austin. I\u2019m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness.<\/em> (New York, Penguin House, 2018) 175-176.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Identity.\u00a0 What a hard concept to nail down and at the same time a key part of every human experience.\u00a0 One of my past teachers stated, \u201cwe are the medicine, how well do you know that medicine?\u201d. [1]\u00a0 This is a key part of my \u201cwhy\u201d I do what I do and who I am.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2984,2489,2957],"class_list":["post-34853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-channing-brown","tag-dlgp02","tag-mounk","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/187"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34856,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34853\/revisions\/34856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}