Seeking Transformative Justice
This has been an extremely busy but also very-effective-feeling semester for little old me at Belmont. I say this to say IT ISN’T OVER. We have two remaining events in our First Year Seminar Ambassador Speakers Series. They are, if I might put it this way, righteously local.
I’m so pleased that timing and availability put us in a situation where we began with Justin Jones (the youngest member of Tennessee’s House of Representatives) and then over to Anthony Ray Hinton (pictured above), Rahim Buford, Reality Winner, Dr. Larycia Hawkins, Stacey Rector, and, now, a couple of my favorite people in Nashville.
“Education is the point at which we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it.” That’s Hannah Arendt. It’s a saying that comes to mind when I think of Dr. Ernest Heard of Belmont, Nashville, and, once upon a time, Beaumont, Texas. He’s seen and experienced an awful lot in Middle Tennessee (smack dab in the interface of neighborhoods and church life and education and what’s come to be referred to as politics). In our personal conversations around the theme of transformative justice, it became clear to me that Dr. Heard is an invaluable public resource among us. At 10AM this Friday (11/18), Dr. Heard and I will have public conversation in the Multimedia Room of the Bunch Library. We’ll talk racism, Christianity, and the Nonviolent Movement of America. Please join us.
"If you don't name what's happening, everyone can pretend it's not happening." That’s Claudia Rankine with a word that’s been something of a helpful mantra over the last few months. I take it seriously, but I take it more seriously for having come to know Jace Wilder recently. One of our first lengthy conversations occurred at the Tennessee State Legislature after we both watched Justin Jones persuade our Senate Judiciary Committee to back away from legislation that would make it legal to hit protesters with cars. Jace was a Senior at Belmont at the time but is now an alum serving as a GLSEN Freedom Fellow. Here’s Jace on that work:
This role will act as a way to hopefully find a way to build a safe and balanced platform for LGBTQ+ students and educators to speak out without fear of being fired, suspended or expelled. Revealing your identity and expression is not a crime and this Freedom Fellowship Program’s existence says loudly, “We see you; now it’s time to hear you.”
Jace and I will have plenty to discuss in our public conversation, also at the Bunch Library Multimedia Room, on Friday (12/2) at 10AM.
One of the joys of having Stacey Rector with us a few weeks back was the fact that our audience had the opportunity to interact with a local practitioner/organizer committed to the work of transformational justice. These events will mark the end of our series, but I’m hopeful they’ll also mark a new beginning for everyone in attendance.
“Who are you going to be in the face of injustice?” Dr. Hawkins asked us. This question is at the heart of the embodied solidarity she espouses.
“Theoretical solidarity,” she said, “is not solidarity.” Theoretical solidarity, she shows us, is word not made flesh, critically detached, a brutal fantasy. A cruel con.
Embodied solidarity, however, is the saving, integrated, life-giving alternative. It is also an essential practice in the seeking of transformative justice. We are a beginning.