I want to be very specific about what I am objecting to here.
I understand that Brandt Jean may feel the need to forgive Amber Guyger for murdering his brother in cold blood; I have no problem with that.
That Mr. Jean forgives Ms. Guyger...that’s between those two individuals and whatever Higher Being that they choose to serve (if they do make that choice).
What I am sick and tired of is the demand that American white supremacy makes of black people in these situations that such a personal act as forgiving someone for an egregious harm that was inflicted has to be made into a public spectacle to soothe the consciousness of white folks.
After all (and I may be wrong about this) I can’t ever imagine white people giving a similar public spectacle if a POC mrdered one of their loved ones...in fact, I don’t think of white people as being very forgiving of others in a public way AT ALL...for any reason.
Thursday, Oct 3, 2019 · 2:03:27 AM +00:00 · Chitown Kev
Let me repeat...I don’t have a problem with Mr. Jean forgiving Ms. Guyger for murdering his brother...to repeat
What I am sick and tired of is the demand that American white supremacy makes of black people in these situations that such a personal act as forgiving someone for an egregious harm that was inflicted has to be made into a public spectacle to soothe the consciousness of white folks.
Thursday, Oct 3, 2019 · 2:24:29 AM +00:00 · Chitown Kev
BTW, I have written of this before.
Frankly, when I saw the video of loved one after loved one of the nine people killed in the white supremacist terrorist attack on Mother Emanuel tell the murderer that they forgave him in spite of the pain and loss that they suffered at his hands, I felt like an intruder.
Forgiveness seems, at least to me, every bit as much a personal and intimate act as the original "trespass." The practice of forgiveness as public spectacle just doesn't sit right with me (and this would also be true of the 2005 Amish school shootings in Lancaster County, PA).
Thursday, Oct 3, 2019 · 1:36:47 PM +00:00
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Chitown Kev
Man, it’s some angry and bitter white folks about this. What’s that all about.
For those of you that feel some need to get me told about the religious aspects of forgiveness...I did write about this after the shooting at Mother Emanuel...and I also wrote this...which is linked
Recently, I talked to an acquaintance of mine who also happens to be a deacon at a Chicago-area Church of God in Christ (COGIC, for short, a predominately African-American denomination) about forgiveness in both personal and political contexts. The one thing that J. said that really sticks with this agnostic is his reminder that, "they didn't forgive that young man because they were African-American, they forgave that young man because they were Christians and that's what Christians are instructed to do."
Thursday, Oct 3, 2019 · 2:18:46 PM +00:00
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Chitown Kev
Thank you samanthab for the WaPo link with this tweet
Andra Gillespie saw grace in the Jean family’s response to 26-year-old Botham Jean’s killer: It was “their way of trying to fulfill their Christian obligation to forgive her in spite of everything that happened,” she said. But the political science professor at Emory University and devout evangelical also cautioned — as she did after the Charleston church shooting — against letting forgiveness dull the urgency of injustice. Admiration for Brandt Jean’s speech shouldn’t distract people from deeper, troubling questions raised by Botham Jean’s death, she said — questions like, “Why do people kill black people before they ask questions they might ask of other people?”
“My problem is when outsiders look at that situation and they get touched by the forgiveness and then they get lulled into thinking we don’t have to do anything else for that situation. … We don’t take the lessons from it that we should,” Gillespie said.