Reflecting back on MLK Shabbat Dinner and Racial Justice
Repair The World NYC Team Leader, Sam Sittenfield, interviewing Amy Ellenbogen and David Gaskin, of the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center (photo by Jon Cohen)
This past Wednesday night, I had the chance to interview Amy Ellenbogen and David Gaskin, of the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center, on the topic of gun violence. It reminded me of one of the key take-aways from our racial justice shabbat dinner that Repair The World NYC held to kick off our MLK weekend of service, back in January. I’ll let you guess which one, from the list below.
Rabbi Rachel Timoner (right) and Tynesha McHarris (left) speaking at Repair The World NYC’s Turn The Tables Shabbat Supper on Racial Justice (photo by Alli Lesevoy)
At our MLK Shabbat Dinner, Rabbi Rachel Timoner and Tynesha McHarris held a powerful, yet intimate conversation on their own life stories, and the role that the Jewish community can play as allies to Black Lives Matter. In the middle of the conversation, I ran over to the sign in table where I could take a few notes, because I wanted to remember the powerful words that they spoke. I was able to jot down a few notes and ideas on how, and more importantly, where to be an ally:
1 ) Know when to lead, and know when not to. To me, this is the golden rule of being an ally. It speaks to the nuanced role of an ally. A good ally can be a leader, a facilitator, a supporter, and a friend -- but unless you are invited to speak, you should probably keep your mouth shut.
2) The best places to lead are the places where you have the most to lose. Sorry if the first idea made you feel like you are not allowed to participate, but here is where you can. Bringing discussions and conversations to places where you feel comfortable, where you are respected, and where people may disagree is the most active part of allyship. The goal does not need to be to convince anyone else of your beliefs, but just to let them know that you are not participating in the silent majority. There are a lot of people in your community who want to engage in issues of racial justice, they just need someone to open the door.
3) Make sacrifices and take risks to interrupt oppression. This one is really hard, because you never know when you are going to witness oppression. It can happen on the street, in a store, or on the subway. It is hard to think on your feet, and sometimes you won’t even realize the act of oppression until it is too late. It is also hard to make a public action. It is much easier to sit behind a computer screen and type a blog post or a written statement, where you get to reconsider each word and each keystroke (like yours truly). In real life you don’t have that opportunity, which is what will make your actions even more powerful.
4) Create spaces for children to have conversations about Racial Justice. This one is a hard one for those of us who don’t have children or don’t interact with children regularly. I think that is what makes it the most important. Racism is built into the fabric of our society, and for those of us who have lived in society long for enough, it becomes part of the fabric of our own behavior, even if we try to fight it. The more that we can create safe opportunities for young people to talk about racial justice, the better the chance that the next generation will be able to live in a more just world.
Did you guess correctly? I think it was a combination of 1 and 2, by bringing another topic related to racial justice into Repair The World’s workshop, but you are welcome to disagree.
As I learned from Deray Mckesson and Stephen Colbert, I hope that I have been able to, and will continue to use my opportunity as a Repair The World fellow living in the Crown Heights community to take risks and lead vitally important discussion within my overlapping circles and communities.
Sam Sittenfield is a Team Leader Fellow at Repair The World NYC. He focuses on bringing volunteers into issues and actions for food justice, in Central Brooklyn.