Driving around on the last day of
2014 I found myself reflecting on moments in time when life beckoned me to its
elusive quality. I was reminded of my hopes and dreams, imaginings,
desires and agenda’s which fade as the elusiveness of life calls what I now
consider constructions into question. Particularly as a Black
Transgender Woman (another construct) I have come to experience these
constructions, i.e. the social and cultural constructions of the binary gender
system of heteronormativity, race, sexuality and economics for example as a
means to take life captive, giving our experiences on earth some type of
meaning. These constructions, however well meaning in the
beginning eventually become a preferred and I might add perverted tool of the
oppressor for the survival of those constructions and the making of
capital. The consequences of maintaining these constructions in the
pursuit of the elusive even mystical quality of life have been wars, empires of
various exploitations and a rampant systemic dehumanization of humanity as a
whole. Now, encountering the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo, a French
satirical weekly publication for their freedom of expression regarding Islam
and the Prophet Muhammad after massive protest against police brutality here in
the U.S. becomes one more reason for me to question those constructions which
seek to take life captive.
After a recent discussion on race
held at my church we interrogated the social and cultural construction of race
and the issues of economics and power differentials embodied in race and its
purpose within the U.S. context with particular regard to the lived lifes of
Black people and people of color. Upon leaving the discussion the
one word that remained with me was “integrity.” I believe
integrity, i.e. the soundness; rightness or completeness of the construction
cannot be divorced or separated from the vision which it pertains to.
That said, integrity is connected to ideas and notions of stability which
necessarily support the vision as established by the founder or developer, in
line with certain assumptions, in the case of the U.S. the founding fathers,
i.e. privileged white men of landed gentry, slaveholders, and religious
radicals of the time compelled to leave Europe.[1]
Cognizant of the vision and the people who developed the vision I
experience the political, economic and racial structures to be a means by which
to maintain particular integrity with that vision and its assumptions emerging
out of 17th through 19th century Europe (1650-1800),
i.e., the European Enlightenment period.
Writing bluntly, the economic
systems and structures which support the vision of the Democratic-Republic, now
considered by some as an empire in its own right, are grounded in that which
has become obsolete and therefore are to a large extent archaic and unable to
adequately address the many concerns within the human evolutionary
experience. The experience then of race and I would add gender and
sexuality are constructed for outmoded and archaic purposes of power, economy
and racial superiority and are not “divine, natural or organic” at all but are
for the maintenance of a particular vision and its assumptions and therefore
indeed problematic for a Democratic-Republic, however dysfunctional at times,
in the 21st century. In this sense I believe that one of
the most important discussions today is this matter of a gradual disintegration
of integrity with an outmoded vision and its assumptions.
That said, I believe the various protest around the U.S. by
people of diverse races and ethnicities in solidarity make this clear,
bestowing flesh and blood on the need to (1) counter the vision and its
assumptions and (2) to change and transform the vision, and its assumptions and
its structures into a more just and free space where all people are experienced
as human and therefore sacred, where difference denotes life giving, affirming
and holy. I believe that a framework which transcends an outmoded
vision and its assumptions make real the many possibilities of liberation from
archaic notions of identity and economy possible.
Transcendence designates a relation
with a reality infinitely distant from my own reality, yet without this
distance destroying this relation and without this relation destroying this
distance.
Emmanuel Levinas[2]
In light of the words of Levinas I
believe that the gathering of disparate groups of a teaming humanity through
social media, considered by this writer a space of transcendence which makes
present the infinite, becomes what might be considered here in mystical terms
as a space of which avails itself toward liberation. The implications of a
movement grounded in mysticism are a people who no longer live in fear of each
other, some type of retribution such as guns, bullets and bombs or even hunger
or poverty but their reality is in the embrace of God and a divine mystery, and in this hope and the holy light of liberation. The reality of
the mystic and the underlying philosophy of a movement towards liberation is
that the measure of life is their relationship with God, the divine cosmic
mystery and not man and his vision and assumptions bathed in the darkness of
consumption as first learned at the feet of the European Enlightenment. A
movement grounded in mysticism then encounters the practical and the measurable
as a means of oppression inflicted by the Great Beast.[3] I
believe mysticism, as an unmediated union with God and mystery, to be a way
towards change and transformation because it denies the hegemony of white
supremacy and capitalism which have come to define desire and embraces the
supremacy and power of the mystery in all things. Mysticism must be the
ground of any movement which seeks to change or transform the comfortable yet
antiquated visions and their assumptions. In this sense a movement toward
liberation must engage with a painful yet listening ear and the tortured heart
of God as it embraces the mystery of the transcendent, i.e., that which lies
beyond ordinary perception or beyond an archaic vision and its
assumptions.
Throw your burden upon the LORD, and
he will sustain you. He will never allow the godly to be upended.
Psalm 55:22 (NET)
The transcendent presents a sacred
invitation, a direct appeal, to engage in solidarity and the hope solidarity might
bring as a response to the unfortunate situation. Cyber Space, i.e. the
internet, considered a 21st century space of the transcendent,
becomes a necessary tool in the realization of a longed for hope. To
engage, in an enthusiastic and charismatic means, the oppressions inflicted by
the powers that be, a necessary work of galvanizing people to work towards the
eradication of the many injustices requires multiple interconnected levels of
communication within a framework of solidarity. Movements such as
the African American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, the South American
Liberation Movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s, the Arab Spring 2010-2014
started by Mohamed Bouazizi's self immolation[4],
all emerge out of an initial prophetic spark of mysticism. I
suggest here that this prophetic spark of mysticism occurs as the oppressed
remember who they are and whose they are. They are no longer
defined or characterized by the systems and the systemics of the oppressor but
by their God and this without waver. It is at this point that
they transcend the schemes of those principalities and their regimes which
advocate for antiquated visions and assumptions at the expense of the
oppressed. In this sense they become reflections of the Christ, the Buddha,
and the Prophet Muhammad, actualizing their particular incarnation of the
divine. No longer images, desires and tools of capital and globalization
they are now liberated to engage and encounter new and different capacities of
imagination.
[1] How the Cradle of Freedom became a Slave Owning Nation by
Susan DeFord www.washingtonpost.com
accessed January 15, 2015.
[2] Mayra Rivera, The Touch of Transcendence, A Postcolonial
Theology of God (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007) 62.
[4]Arab Spring a Research and Study Guide at www.guides.library.cornell.edu/arab_spring
accessed January 15, 2015
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