Monday, July 18, 2016

On the Road: Dana & Danielle Boyd of LaPlace, LA #DismantlingWhiteousness

Twin sisters Dana & Danielle Boyd (Danielle was a student in my classroom at Fannie C. Williams 16 years ago) remember when their father, a minister about to graduate from Bible college, was murdered on their driveway.  Adding insult to tragedy, the pink-skinned police officer quickly dismissed the entire thing as "just another drug crime."   They also passionately believe in anti-racism as Christians.

Follow Dana by clicking here.




On the Road: Dwayne Richards of New Orleans, LA #DismantlingWhiteousness

Dwayne Richards of New Orleans, who also was in my sixth grade classroom at Fannie C. Williams 17 years ago, shares about a kind Italian woman who loved him like a son.  Pray for him as he prepares to get married and open his first restaurant!




Friday, July 15, 2016

On the Road: Provocative Statements from Texas #DismantlingWhiteousness

On our road trip from Denver to New Orleans (just arrived!), we drove through Texas. It takes a long time to drive through Texas. Thankfully, we stopped and visited some folks who had amazing things to share in this ongoing discussion:

My aunt, Jeanmarie Theine, currently living in Austin but who's heart is always in Hawaii.  We met at the Magnolia Cafe on Congress Street where and Jeanmarie spoke eloquently about the islands where people with pink skin are not the majority, and further, how that has truly been a gift in her life.  However, not all white people have the kind of patience needed to share, to listen, or to take turns.


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Further east down I-10 at Abdallah's Lebanese Bakery, Pastor Alex Lee-Cornell of St. Stephen's Presbyterian Church in Houston, answers this question: who are the modern day Samaritans?  Alex surprised me by saying that one clearly despised group by many Christians today are none other than the racists of our country.  Do we have the courage to love them too?  (Alex was one of the earliest Dwellers at DOOR Los Angeles through the PCUSA's Young Adult Volunteer program while I was the director.)



I Stand With #BlackLivesMatter

The problem with racism in this country is not a problem of people of color. The biggest problem is Whiteousness.  I stand in support of #BlackLivesMatter as a white, straight-ish, Christian, male. I am not, nor will I ever be outright anti-cop, but I am certainly against systems that unjustly favor the powerful and the armed over the unarmed and unwealthy. I believe this to be a posture in line with following Jesus. I pray that those who feel threatened by #BlackLivesMatter and worry that all cops are under attack would realize that we actually have the same enemy: the idolization and glorification of an American way of life that is not intended for all of us. I pray that cops and people of color, that you and that me, could loosen the same chains, together. The enemy is Whiteousness.  Period.

#DismantlingWhiteousness

+Matthew John Schmitt @matthewjschmitt

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

On the Road: the DOOR Denver Movement #DismantlingWhiteousness

Had the honor and privilege of spending a community day with the DOOR Denver Dwellers, currently serving a full year through the Presbyterian Church's Young Adult Volunteer program.  Here's what they had to say.

(former video of Helen removed by request)

Michael Watkins of Raleigh, North Carolina, ironically discusses how social media is hindering authentic community, and how we may need to rethink how we establish good communication in this very heated social climate.



Emma Moore of Indianapolis, Indiana corrects me on my question by carefully explaining the difference between "anti-racist" and "anti-racism."  You can also follow Emma's blog here.




Melissa Rift of Louisville, Kentucky, wonders how brown-skinned people feel about the subtle and not-so-subtle uses of "black exceptionalism" as it relates to Obama and people serving in law enforcement.




Click here to learn more about this video project.

If you'd like Table Setters to facilitate in a town near you, click here.

peace by peace by peace,
+Matthew John Schmitt @matthewjschmitt

Saturday, July 9, 2016

On the Road: Kyla Garcia of Los Angeles #DismantlingWhiteousness

Currently, we are in Taos, NM.  Kyla Garcia messaged us from Los Angeles to send this passionate and poignant reading of her piece, You Matter.

More words from Kyla: At the heart of all humanity, YES All Lives Matter. But, the Black Lives Mattermovement started because until black men and women STOP being gunned down without trials or convictions when their murders are caught on camera, then we must remind each other that our African-American brothers and sisters MATTER because murder after murder after murder without trial communicates to an entire community of people that their lives don't matter. And the way my friends have to fear for their parents', brothers', sisters', and their own lives every day is not something that ALL people have to go through. To be killed for a missing tail light when you get pulled over by an officer or selling CDs outside of a convenience store...even as a brown, biracial woman is not something I have to fear. But my black friends do. Until they no longer have to fear this. I will echo and support and remind them‪#‎BlackLivesMatter‬. When that day comes...then we will all remember that we are one. Until then, I'm here to keep reminding and supporting because the system (that we need to transform and change together!) tells us we are not one through blatant Racism and Murder.

Click here to learn more about this video project.

If you'd like Table Setters to facilitate in a town near you, click here.

peace by peace by peace,
+Matthew John Schmitt @matthewjschmitt


Thursday, July 7, 2016

On the Road: Emily of Phoenix #DismantlingWhiteousness

Emily shares about her experience working in Addis Ababa with Dr. Belay Abegaz and the Children's Heart Fund of Ethiopia.  While her only understanding of Africa was starving children from the infamous Sally Struther's commercials, she learned of immense hospitality at the tables of families throughout the city.


Click here to learn more about this video project.

If you'd like Table Setters to facilitate in a town near you, click here.



peace by peace,
+Matthew John Schmitt @matthewjschmitt

This. Is. Not. Okay. -by Bethany McKinney Fox



Now interrupting the video blog project to bring you this: Bethany McKinney Fox is a longtime friend who is fed up at the lack of concern for our brothers and sisters who are getting killed, unjustly. I am with her 100 PERCENT. Also, her call for more conversations: 1000% yes, and it's why Marvin and I are launching the Table Setters. Email us here to set up a conversation in your hometown.

This is not okay. We cannot abide this. Alton Sterling. Philando Castile. I am deeply sad and angry. AT THE SAME TIME, I am sad and angry as someone who, when I leave the house to drive to work today having found out yesterday I have a burned out brake light on one side, even in light of last night's events, I am ZERO PERCENT more worried about my personal safety. When my husband leaves the house today, even with his big fro, the events of the last two days have increased my fear for his safety by ZERO PERCENT. This is not the same for our Black sisters and brothers, who my heart breaks for and with. I cannot begin to comprehend the depth of pain and fear and anger and trauma that community is having to live with EVERY DAY.

But White people, we have GOT to get it together with our white sisters and brothers. We need to keep/start having those uncomfortable conversations with our family members and all those other white people we'd rather just keep it smooth with. People are dying in part because we aren't finding ways to have these honest conversations and do the uncomfortable and long and tiring work though this stuff with other white people. But I think we can put up with discomfort since other people are losing their lives. If you have ideas for ways we can create spaces where white folks can have these conversations together and walk through the defensiveness and fear and all the other things that keep our white sisters and brothers from fully joining the beloved community, I am with you and want to help facilitate that. If you are a white person and feel like your instinct is to side with other white folks, and you don't get why people are angry and you don't see the injustice in what is happening - please message me and I would love to meet with you and hear you out and talk through things with you and share my perspective on it too.

This is not okay. We cannot abide this.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

On the Road: Lenay of Phoenix


Lenay breaks down the problem with color-blindness: the threat of a mono-culture that values some of us higher than others. #DismantlingWhiteousness

Calling for Color-Bravery.

Click here to learn more about this video project.

If you'd like Table Setters to facilitate in a town near you: click here

peace by peace,
+Matthew John Schmitt @matthewjschmitt

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Querido El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula,


Fare thee well LA, I never meant to stay, you wooed me from the start. those very particular angels, T&T, setting dynamite along the faultlines of my soul, clearing the way, preparing a new path.

Your salty waters drew out pain, privilege, toxins right through my sweaty pink, churned me on your sandy edges, scrubbed off ashes until I floated, until I bobbed safely, before I turned back eastward.

Your mountainous spine strong, your peaks and valleys a mysterious temple to meet my Creator once again, a vantage point to feel the light of my days anew, to love with fresh exfoliated heartskin.

Your many splendored fruits fed me, fed Darcie’s body, the magic of soul mixing with sand happened within, we do like we do, your grit slowly churned up the children we carry, the daughters who lift us with singing and moving and shaking: they learned from listening to you through their feets.

Your arteries, your veins, where I roamed freely from peoples to peoples, sensed their unique code scripts pulsing, DNA tales to enact a healing on your blood pressure, the sloughing of your thick plaques and façades, a clearing of your airways, an easing of your strained heart.

Let me love you this last day on your dirt.  

You have all you need. All the messages on your skin, in your soul, in your libraries, in your neighborhoods. Listen within, dear friend, listen to the 1,000 angels you sent to me, and the 1,000s more from the many bloodlines of the many rivers of the many tribes.

That is not your muscles quaking or your bones breaking but the sound of the many feets quietly marching upon you, under breathing winds whispering: Si se puede, Այո մենք կարող ենք, 我们可以, نعم نستطيع, Ya kita boleh, Ja lahko, Oo kaya natin, Oui nous pouvons, Ναι μπορούμε, Wi nou kapab, כן אנחנו יכולים, हाँ हम कर सकते हैं।, Ya kita bisa, Si possiamo, 私たちにはできます, 그래 우리는 할 수있어, بله ما میتوانیم, Yebo singakwenza lokho, Ndio tunaweza, Ae makou e hiki, Ioe e mafai ona tatou, sim nós podemos, ใช่เราสามารถ, Vâng, chúng tôi có thể, да мы можем, Ja det kan vi, Ja wir können, Yes we can..........

yes, we can.

Your wild orange fire hairs cauterized my wound, warmed my ache, seared me with story. I am forever yours, I will wear your tattoo and sing of your heart and your soul and your pain and your triumph.

from love,
matthew

On the Road: Marvin Wadlow Jr. of Los Angeles

Marvin Wadlow Jr., my partner in Table Setters, answers some of the many questions we ask participants to wrestle with at our table settings.

For the first question, Marvin discusses a topic he'd love to ask local Armenians about:


Next, Marvin vulnerably and generously shares a time when he was hurt by a pink-skinned father who was against him dating his daughter, while also being blessed by his coach who helped him process it all.


And finally, Marvin drives it home with the most important element of improving race relations in our country: break bread with someone who doesn't look exactly like you, and do it often.


Click here to learn more about this video project.

If you'd like Table Setters to facilitate in a town near you: click here

peace by peace,
+Matthew John Schmitt @matthewjschmitt

Saturday, July 2, 2016

On The Road: Andrew Paiva of Los Angeles


Andrew Paiva of Los Angeles discusses the very U.S. concept of hyphenated racial markers. My question after hearing this: do the folks with Japanese heritage in Brazil feel like citizens with the same privileges as the native Brazilians?