Category: race
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How brave will we be?
First posted in early June in my newsletter which you can subscribe to here. It’s Saturday evening. It’s been a hell of a week. A hellish week. From within a pandemic, the country has exploded, sparked by the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. Helicopters have hovered near our apartment most nights…
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Covering Our Nakedness With Lament
First posted in my newsletter which you can subscribe to here. In his little book about race, The Hidden Wound, Wendell Berry grapples with his history as a member of a southern land-owning family and how his racial whiteness impacts him in ways he’d previously been oblivious to. He’s willing himself to wake up. “What…
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Whose liberation?
I first published this in my weekly newsletter. You can subscribe here. This week saw a weird development in our collective stay-at-home reality. The president, encouraged I assume by conservative media, has begun calling for states to be liberated from the lock-downs that are in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19. LIBERATE MINNESOTA!— Donald…
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Preaching While White on MLK Sunday
I first wrote this for my weekly newsletter which you can subscribe to here. It was obviously written for MLK Sunday, but I think the content remains relevant. A few years ago a friend invited me to preach at his mostly white suburban church the Sunday before MLK Day. I happened to have a couple…
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Scapegoating the Racists
I first wrote this for my weekly newsletter which you can subscribe to here. My family moved to southern California the summer before my freshmen year of high school. That was the summer the Lakers lost to the Bulls in the NBA Finals. I think that loss was totally incidental to my decision to become…
David W. Swanson 