Accept My Truths

Heather Malveaux

Aat a black lives matter symposium, I was challenged to voice what I wanted, needed, and recommended from white people who aspire to become co-conspirators in the dismantling of white supremacy. Here is what I want, need, and recommend: • Don’t ask me to forget what my ancestors went through as slaves in this country or ask me to ignore how that impacts me daily. • Don’t detach yourself from what your ancestors and/or people that look like you have created, maintained, and have benefited from—and that you continue to benefit from. • Remember that you were born into a system of white supremacy that you did not create, but must actively help to dismantle. • Don’t be afraid to have the ugly conversations with people who look like you, and don’t be afraid to listen to and learn from the people who don’t look like you. • Accept my truths and experiences of racial injustice as an African American woman as valid. • Listen to me, advocate for me, sympathize with me, fight with me, and raise your voice to match my outcries. • Be my racial ally, stand up against racial injustice, celebrate and benefit from racial diversity, take on this fight as your own.

All the things I’m asking for require courage, strength, agape love, and sacrifice—all of which our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ demonstrated for us when he died for our sins. As Christians, we are called to bear witness to the suffering of Christ, and as we unite ourselves in the fight for racial justice and equity, let us not forget that we are also called to bear witness to the suffering of our brothers and sisters. ■

Heather Malveaux is the University Minister for Social Justice and Immersion Programs at Loyola University New Orleans.

This article was excerpted and reprinted with permission from the Ignatian Solidarity Network: www.ignatiansolidarity.net.

MORE FROM CARDINAL GREGORY

Cardinal Gregory addressed current issues of racial justice and divisions in U.S. society at a March 20 conference on “confronting the sin of racism through understanding, conversion and action” hosted by the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia. For the full text of Cardinal Gregory’s remarks, please visit: bc.edu/c21spring21