On the 25th of May (2020) George Floyd is murdered in Minneapolis. The murder of Floyd, an African American man, by Derek Chauvin, a white American policeman, made the whole world sit up and reconsider race relations. This is my Open Letter to Mr. George Floyd.
Dear Mr. George Floyd,
You don’t know me and the chances that our paths would ever have crossed are exceptionally unlikely. But I sure know you, well, at least, I know of you and so does the world. It’s one of the consequences of living in a hyperconnected era where the brutal killing, some would go far as saying a “lynching” (and they wouldn’t be far off), of a man (that would be you) spreads faster than a global virus.
It’s been a couple of weeks since you have passed away. Two weeks ago you lost your breath and consequently you filled the lungs of many people and allowed them to use their very own breath to express their hurt and grief and pain and anger. There really is a lot of anger. Martin Luther King Jr. warned us when he said “a riot is the language of the unheard”. Well, the unheard have started stretching their vocal chords and hopefully people are starting to listen.
Listening is what I’ve been doing. I’ve been quiet and spent much time reading and listening. I’ve been very hesitant to share my thoughts and offer my views on this matter because, well, you see… I’m a white man. (I’m saying this like I’m ashamed of it and I’m not sure whether I should be?).
I’ve grown up living a fairly comfortable life. Don’t get me wrong, I by no means come from wealth. I come from a fairly “normal”, upper-middle class, family and yet even that, I’ve come to realize, puts me, probably in the top percentile of the world in terms of opportunities and privilege. I wasn’t raised to be racist (despite being from the Afrikaner people, which some would say makes me racist genetically), but it would be naive, ignorant and untrue to say that there is no prejudice in me. I’m a product of a system and culture where unfortunately prejudice, of which race is a subcategory, is part of life.
Now I must be honest, I don’t think my privilege, contrary to popular belief, should disqualify me from having or sharing my thoughts. From what I’ve read of you, I think you would be okay with a white person sharing their thoughts on the matter. Granted that it’s done thoughtfully and sensitively (which, I’m sorry to say, not many people (regardless of the colour spectrum) are getting right).
As I write this letter to you, albeit post-mortem, there are three things I would like to thank you for.
Firstly, I would like to thank you for allowing me to do some introspective work. Your death and its aftermath has once again forced me to look inside and realize that I have a heart that is tainted by sin. I’ve seen him being quoted so often recently that, as the lamenting prophet, I cannot help but think of Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” That right there cuts right to the heart of the matter (pun intended). It was the sinful heart of a sinful man that led to your death. Sinful hearts of sinful people are responding in sinful ways to your death. Sinful hearts are what stops true change and reconciliation. Wherein lies the cure for this? Jeremiah tells us, “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” (Jer. 17:10). God is the only true, fair, and just arbiter. He alone exacts rightful justice, the kind of justice our world needs and the kind of justice that by ourselves we will never truly achieve (though this is absolutely no excuse for us not to work hard at it now already. We must go full tilt for justice and equality in all spheres of our lives and society). Rather than killing people, we should be going guns blazing for equality! (Surely, this is the only appropriate context in which one should use the phrase “guns blazing”?). In fact, we should be going guns blazing at fighting sin, because that’s where the battle starts.
Thank you for making me aware of my own sinfulness. You’ve made me look at my own heart and I’ve asked the Lord to sift me, to refine me, to burn away the sinful chaff in my heart that I might reap a harvest for Him. I truly am sorry that it had to come at the expense of your life.
Secondly, I would like to thank you for the helpful discussions you’ve allowed my wife and I to have with each other with regards to race. It started with the “honey, are we racist?” discussion, but also, very importantly, we’ve spoken about how we would like to raise our three boys. Our boys will grow up being mixed race, as my wife is of a darker, more beautiful, complexion to my pale, prone-to-sunburn skin, and we need to figure out how they understand and speak about race. We’ve decided to do away with that term. The world might find the word “race” useful for classification purposes (look how far that’s got us), but we’re going to change the narrative in our own home by speaking about ethnicity and culture, rather than race or colour. We won’t ignore or side-step race, but we want to change how our boys think about these things. This will require thoughtfulness and much effort on our part and it won’t be easy, but we want to speak and use the language of the Bible, language that even God would affirm. I would rather have God’s Word as my cultural dictionary.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to consider how to bring about generational change when it comes to the issue of race. Our prayer is that this conversation will be taking place in homes across the world. I truly am sorry that it had to come at the expense of your life.
Finally, I would like to thank you for making me aware of, and bringing to the fore, the importance of the doctrine of the Image of God. As I’ve been reading articles, books and accounts of people’s thoughts on this matter it has astounded me how frequently the concept of the Imago Dei has come up (and rightfully so). The Imago Dei affirms that God created all people of equal dignity and worth and therefore if that’s how we are viewed by our Creator then who are we to alter that? The clay doesn’t say to the potter, “you’ve got it wrong” (drawing from Isaiah 45 here, though I recognize the context is different). It’s time for us to reignite this doctrine. Let’s light it up and let the world know of this fundamental truth. The value of a human life should not be contingent on the colour of their skin.
Thank you for making me aware of the importance of this Biblical doctrine. May the Lord help me to teach and proclaim this faithfully so that I too might contribute to positive change. I truly am sorry that it had to come at the expense of your life.
As I draw my correspondence with you to a close, I want to say thank you one last time for what you’ve done in me and for me. I would also again like to say that I’m sorry that it came at the cost of your life. As I reflected on this, both Genesis 50:20 (and Acts 2:23-24) came to mind. Having been sold into slavery by his brothers, our forefather Joseph says to his brothers: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Evil things happen, but God can and does work through it for our good and His glory (even when it’s really difficult to come to grips with). The final thing to say is that I am hopeful that change is coming (I have Sam Cooke’s 1963 song in mind, “A change is gonna come”. I didn’t want to say it like he does because I don’t want to be derogatory). You’ve ignited the hearts and amplified the voices of many people and so the change has begun. There will undoubtedly be superficial societal changes (which is good and necessary), but I am hopeful that the real change that is coming is the true and meaningful change that comes when the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ grips the heart of a sinner and breathes new life into it. The gospel is the key to unlocking true reconciliation between God and man and between man and man.
Mr. George Floyd, you don’t know me and the chances that our paths would ever have crossed are exceptionally unlikely. But I tell you what, I look forward to the day when our paths do cross. The day when I join you back home with our Heavenly Father.
For now, rest in peace and rest in power.