In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech where he reflected on the Civil Rights Movement. During this speech, Dr. King said this:
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
For Dr. King, the silence that he spoke of - the silence of white moderates who believed in the work of the Civil Rights Movement but who did little to support it - had dire consequences. This silence enabled racism, discrimination, oppression, and violence against African Americans not only during Dr. King's life...but this silence still enables racism, discrimination, oppression, and violence against African Americans and other people of color today.
And, although we don't hesitate to quote Dr. King in our culture today (just scroll through social media on Martin Luther King Day each year and you'll see exactly what I mean), we - as people of faith - are still far too slow in speaking out against racism, discrimination, oppression, and violence today.
Maybe we hesitate to speak out because we are afraid that if we speak up that we will become targets of violence and discrimination ourselves. Maybe we don't speak up because we're afraid to ruffle feathers and because we don't someone to unfriend us on Facebook. Maybe we are slow to speak because we're afraid that people will leave our churches if we do.
So our silence allows the cycle of racism, discrimination, oppression, and violence to continue. And, although our silence did not directly cause the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd over the last three months, our silence did nothing to stop their deaths either.
So, as people of faith, it is past time for our silence to end. It is past time for us to speak out. It is past time for us to raise our voices.
So let us end our silence and raise our voices and say that what happened to Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd is unacceptable. Let us end our silence and raise our voices and say that we will not allow racism, discrimination, oppression, and violence to continue. Let us end our silence and raise our voices and say that we are true friends of all who are victimized and oppressed, and that we will stand together to make things right.
