The Search for Justice.

i have seen and loved that cartoon many times before, because it helps shift perspective. Some of us might have been clamouring loudly for Equality [or for the things that make us feel equal but still leave others behind a fence] when in actual fact what we are needing to champion is Justice. That simple cartoon illustrates this so powerfully.

[Side Note: The people who get to see over the fence are watching a game of baseball, maybe subtly suggesting that those who do have the privilege still lose out big time – now if it was cricket…]

Add to that this quote which i found in a draft piece for my blog and cannot remember who wrote the piece it comes from [sorry!]:

Equality is not oppression, unless seen from a position of privilege.

As a white person who is becoming aware of the different aspects of privilege i carry, i need to stop for a minute and really focus on that. When i stand in a white person’s house and hear them ask, “What? Am I expected to give up my house?” it can sound a little harsh and ridiculous to ask… but then i ask the same question while standing in a mate’s shack in Khayelitsha, that has maybe 13 people living in it and one outside toilet, then it seems a lot more clear to me… Yes, maybe it is not okay that two of you live in this three bedroomed house with three bathrooms. [The horrible part comes when i catch a glimpse of who i am talking to in the mirror and realise the reflection looks a lot like me].

But then i came across this upgraded version of the cartoon this week which says it even more explicitly:

equality

First, just notice that you can’t even see the person on the top set of boxes… and then that the little guy on the right doesn’t just not have a box, but he has a hole in the ground where the box is meant to be.

Secondly, a comment by my friend Kari, when she saw this on my wall:

oh. that’s gonna hurt when #thatmustfall [Kari Cousins]

Which added a whole lot of perspective to the picture. And maybe gave some kind of understanding [but not justification] to why the people on the high up boxes are the most resistant to change – it’s a LONG WAY DOWN.

TAKING IT OFF THE SCREEN

You know that the problem is though: Cartoons are easy. Real life is hard.

tbV and i are busy looking for a place to stay now, because we have been given notice at our current place.

We are not looking to move into a shack into a township.

i think it might be a little more straightforward if we knew that us moving into a shack in a township meant that some other family currently staying in one got to live in a comfortable two bedroom place somewhere, but that’s not the reality. The reality is that if we move into a shack in a township, there will be one more family living in a shack in a township and no new people living in a comfortable two bedroom place somewhere.

We also both have a strong heart for hospitality and especially to be able to host conversations that bring people of different races and backgrounds together to dive deeply into and wrestle with meaty engagements around Justice and Reconciliation and Restitution. The reality is that if we move into a township, we will lose half of those people ever coming to our table.

Cartoons are easy. Real life? Not so much.

There are a variety of other reasons that impact where we will choose to live – our marriage and our families and proximity to people and places we are working with and building relationships with are all in there and all add their own flavour to the mix. And i’ve no doubt there are many people poised at their keyboards ready to tell me what we definitely should and shouldn’t do.

It is a wrestle, and rightly so. It is not something we take lightly. One thing we definitely are doing is choosing where and how we live based on the values we have of Hospitality, Bridge-Building, Diversity, Relationships, God and Family.

One thing we are holding strongly to as one of the top things on our list is that we will not move to an area where everyone looks like us.

MOVING THE BOXES

Back to the cartoons. How do we move the boxes? That is an ongoing question i think and it is important that we start by looking at our own boxes and figure out from there how justice can be achieved. After that comes the moment of being a bridge between those standing on all the boxes and those with no boxes to speak of. In the reality picture, i’m convinced that if the person on all the boxes had Relationship with the person who had none, it would be an easy and quick solution. How do we bring the people on different sides together? And how do we create spaces where it is safe [although probably awkward, difficult, loud, uncomfortable, painful] for the stories to be shared?

Those are the questions we will continue to grapple with and invite you to continue to do so with us. While i am excited at the moment by the tone of conversation that seems to be happening a lot more all over the place, we do need to get to the place – and quite quickly i think – where the boxes start to move.

Join us as we continue to seek Justice together. Start by asking how many boxes are you standing on?