​VALIDATION

 
Wisdom Wherever You Find It
 
It’s one thing for the minority to speak up.  It’s up to the majority to say they are right.     Bob Roberts, Jr.
 
I think that if I am going to quote a Baptist preacher, I myself ought to begin with the Bible.  In recounting the oppression of the Israelite slaves, the Book of Exodus (2:23-24) notes that when Pharaoh died, the Israelites groaned, which God took note of.  The ancient rabbis looked at that text and wondered what took God so long to notice their groaning.  After all, they had been enslaved to that Pharaoh for many years!
 
The answer they formulated was this: the oppression was so severe, they were not allowed even to groan under their burden. Only when the king died could they cry out under the guise of mourning Pharaoh.
 
I think it is pretty easy for people who are comfortable to imagine that everyone is comfortable.  Intellectually, the person with a roof and a refrigerator and reliable transportation knows that some folks have less, but it is hard to feel another’s pain when you have none of your own.  And when something happens to challenge the good life a person is living, all too often the focus is on the return to comfort rather than considering that others might be suffering as well.
 
Mostly, we live at a time and in a place rife with blessing.  We enjoy opportunities and freedoms never imagined even by the elite of generations past.  But it is undeniable that some of us are much more richly blessed than others.
 
The thing is true not only in a material sense.  I am trying hard to avoid introducing the word “privilege” into this column, but I won’t succeed.  Many, many, many people in the United States enjoy the automatic advantages that come with being White, or financially secure, or well-educated, or all of the above and more.  They are well-documented and indisputable.  Intellectually, people with those advantages (like me, just so you shouldn’t think I am merely pointing fingers) know that life is tougher for lots of others, but it is hard to feel another’s pain when you have none of your own.
 
And here’s where it gets more than a little dicey.  When those seeking a more equitable society speak up, those who are living on the plus-side of equity begin to worry that the (ouch, here it is) privilege they have enjoyed is going to be diminished.  They hear the criticism of their advantages to be a judgment against what they have earned, if not by their own specific efforts, then by the community to which they belong.
 
It is not worth denying it.  When the minority wants what the majority has – material wealth, influence, earning power, representation, security, respect – those who believe any or all of those benefits exist in limited supply can hear only, “they want what I have.”  And deep inside a voice responds, “but it’s mine.”
 
Bob Roberts is a conservative Evangelical pastor who lives outside of Dallas.  And he came to understand that there were a whole lot of people who practiced Islam who were considered less-than by the members of his community even thought they likely never met a Muslim.  You can look up what his personal revelation led to by visiting his website, www.glocal.net.  Bob knows that all the advocacy in the world will not result in justice and equity if those with power – the majority – will not acknowledge legitimate grievance.  As a White man, a Christian, a person who lives a comfortable life, he knows there is enough respect and opportunity to go around. 
 
If those of us with privilege are only just hearing the groans of the oppressed, it is worth wondering not what took them so long to speak, rather what took us so long to hear.  And if what they are saying is anywhere near the cries of the ancient Israelites, then it is up to us to say they are right.

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