Racism is a pandemic of the mind. The pandemics we face amplify one another. We are witnessing the boil at the surface of a pot that has been heating for a long time.
White privilege combines with male privilege in a toxic, contagious disease that produces false superiority that can lead to aggressive violence. Though most of those infected with this disease consider themselves to be asymptomatic, the disease silently affects the heart and nervous system, making the carriers numb to blatant acts of discrimination that are clearly repulsive to those whose hearts are still alive.
The racist condition is especially dangerous when a white male has a position of power and authority, as for example a policeman or politician.
The death of George Floyd, of Minneapolis,USA, at the hands of white police, was a violent act of racism. While privileged-over-non-privileged violence occurs everyday, this murder was so extreme that it has rightfully enraged people of color and broken through the numbness in the hearts of white Americans.
We stand with those who protest aggressive, injurious and unaccountable police actions. We sympathize with the anguish, despair and anger that this death is causing. It is incomprehensible how one man could so callously kill another until we realize that this act is the culmination of a social, economic, and political environment that has been intimidating and suppressing people of color throughout history. For a description of the background to this murder, see this article in the BBC:https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52904593
While we do not condone the response in the form of riots and looting, we feel the intensity of a rage that must be expressed, and we understand that peaceful protests mean little unless accompanied by either destruction or spiritual activism. As we heard from one black man, “You say we should be voting? Well, we’ve been voting for a long time. It hasn’t worked. We are not safe on the streets of our own neighborhoods.” If the protest doesn’t result in some economic destruction, as a sample of the economic destruction that African-Americans have to accept throughout their lives, then it doesn’t register on the news.
Our hope for the future is in the knowledge that spiritual activism is also proceeding, invisibly and inexorably.
Our beloved teacher, Hazrat Inayat Khan (d. 1927), was also subjected to racism in his life. Indians were unknown in America in 1910; people assumed he was African. He endured the discrimination he received, but reflecting on it he wrote:
“With the liberal idea of freedom in all directions of life and in spite of Abraham Lincoln’s liberal example and reform, there is still to be found in America a prejudice against color which is particularly shown to the Africans who were for a long time in slavery, and since their freedom the prejudice has become still greater. It seems almost impossible to think that in a country which is most up-to-date in civilization, there should be a population so looked down upon.”From The Biography of Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, the chapter called “Autobiography”, page 126-127.
iamHeart stands against racism.iamHeart stands for social justice.We believe that a change in heart is urgently necessary to have an equitable future for all.
Puran and Susanna Bair,Founders of iamHeart.
