I concluded my last post on repentance and repair with the suggestion to my Unitarian Universalist friends that “it is unlikely we will accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions (as it states in our own Eighth Principle) until we do the necessary repentance and repair work associated with America’s original sin.”  That sin, according to the Reverend Jim Wallace in America’s Original Sin; Racism, White Privilege and the Bridge to a New America, was the result of white supremacy culture. This post attempts to go deeper into this idea and suggests that “grief and praise” is a necessary a step toward healing.

Acknowledging the hard truth of settler colonialism, Sherri Mitchell, the author of Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change, writes “…my group, Native Americans, have suffered an unrecognized holocaust in this country.  The brutal genocide of Native peoples is hard to acknowledge for many, especially for those who have inherited some value from the loss and destruction that occurred here.”  This truth has been largely ignored for the past 400 years by those of us of European descent.  Mitchell and others point out that the unhealed grief of “America’s original sin” affects how we interact with each other today.

She explains… “we are all carrying grief, a deep unimaginable grief that impacts how we receive and connect with one another.  It is a cumulative emotional and spiritual wound that results from the history of violence that we all share.”  Mitchell believes that this history of violence is carried forward by the descendants of the oppressed populations, the oppressor populations, and those who may have simply witnessed the violence.  She writes that trauma is carried forth from one generation to the next, appearing among the oppressor population as fear, anger, guilt, the continuation of oppressive power structures, and/or perhaps unrecognized internalized oppression. 

Resmaa Menakem’s experience with the conflict and violence that continues to be inflicted upon African Americans concurs with Mitchell’s thesis about the influence of intergenerational trauma.  In his book, My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies, Menakem states that violence will continue until we begin to heal the generational anguish experienced by both oppressors and oppressed that is caused by deeply embedded white supremacy. Mitchell agrees that, “The simple truth is that this country was founded on genocide and slavery.  This is something that we are all going to have to acknowledge.  Until we are able to discuss this honestly, there can be no healing.”   The first step in this healing process is acknowledging the truth or as I wrote in my last post, “naming and owning the harms done.”   

As a descendent of European ancestors, I am not qualified to speak to the experience of Native peoples.  However as someone who currently resides on stolen lands, I can examine my own conscience and try to understand my own feelings about this history of genocide and slavery. One very natural reaction when we are confronted with this history could easily be guilt and blame. However, I choose not to blame my ancestors who were poor Irish and German immigrants trying to build a new life in this country themselves. 

Dr. Lyla June, Native teacher reminds us that European settlers were the product of a thousand years of warfare, abuse, hunger, and disease themselves. When we take the long view, it is difficult to assign blame. Guilt and blame result in disconnection, not healing.  The feeling that dominates my understanding of this history is a deep sadness and grief. 

Sadness and grief, unlike guilt and blame, connect people.  Everyone gets to experience grief at some time in their lives and sharing this grief may not only help heal individuals but entire societies.  Martin Prechtel, in his powerful book The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise, wrote “only nations capable of the true art of grief, grieving their mistakes and the deeply felt losses they have endured or caused to happen, can say that they are not pools of emotional stagnation dressed up in the spoils of ungrieved wars disguised as good business.”.   

Prechtel contends that the root cause of continuous war is unhealed grief.  He writes “what this means on the level of human society is when the sorrows of war’s losses go ungrieved, we are guaranteed the coming of another war.”  Many of us who have experienced a deep personal loss understand the value of active grieving. If we try to avoid, bury, or ignore the pain of loss, there is no healing. When the love of my life died after a 50 year relationship, sharing my pain with family and community was difficult but necessary to my own healing. A friend describes the process of grief as being “cracked open” so we are able to experience more of life. In the Work that Reconnects, Joanna Macy reminds us that “the heart that breaks open can hold the whole universe.”

My own “cracked open” heart has become “softer” and better able to experience empathy and compassion for others in pain since my wife died. On a personal level, the process of “returning to life” after her death has been one of both sadness and celebration, or in Martin Prechtel’s words grief and praise. The searing pain immediately following her loss has been transformed into a dull ache and tender memories. On a societal level, Prechtel teaches that the process of grieving following war helps both victor and vanquished metabolize the pain, loss, and confusion of the conflict. He cites the 2,500-year-old Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu that says, “all victories are to be celebrated as funerals”. 

Funerals are part of the healing process that incorporate both grief and praise.  Prechtel tells us that grief and praise are not only natural but necessary to a balanced life and a healthy society.  He suggests that the wild, painful expression of shared sorrow in the form of tears, song, and stories are a required element of the healing process for individuals and nations.  He writes “Grief is the best friend of Praise, because Praise is a grandiose griever! Praise is Grief’s voice….” and together they are capable of “…singing the world back to life.” Perhaps giving shared grief and praise is worth a try. Endless war and violence doesn’t seem to be working.

For all of known human history, societies have tried to end violence with violence. The oppressed have become the oppressor and the violence continues. Colum McCann, in his novel Apeirogon, offers another way, a way in which two fathers, one Palestinian and one Israeli, connect with each other in grief and praise over the loss of two daughters. Perhaps there is something we can learn from their example. 

Both Sherri Mitchell and Martin Prechtel think that indigenous cultures offer us examples of rituals that may help us navigate loss and pain.  We have much to learn from Indigenous wisdom, which may also help us navigate the complex challenges emerging from our growing awareness of climate change.  I wonder how the world might be different today if the Puritans had approached Native peoples as curious learners, trying to understand a new culture, rather than as fear-filled dominators.  The work of reparations and repair may help us begin to heal harms done in the past and also help all of us, the children of oppressors and oppressed, address the present urgency of a climate crisis – together. 

Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, in his new book, Reconsidering Reparations, claims that “a politically serious reparations project—at least one fitting the goals and ethos of the constructive view—must focus on climate justice”. His argument, which focuses on reparations for slavery, presents two claims. First, the social justice work of today must address the moral imperative of the climate crisis, which will fall first on marginalized populations. And second, an adequate response to climate change can be part of the work of reparations. 

Our town is attempting to work toward reparations for slavery. This is important work. In addition, reparations for “America’s Original Sin” should be part of the work of repentance and repair, which is not only about “looking back”…. it is indeed also about “moving forward.” The first step, and only the first step, is to acknowledge the harms done. Its not too late to begin….