Dig A Little Deeper: Freedom Is The Road We’re On
My goal today is to remind us all that we need to be working more closely together, talking with each other across barriers and bubbles, and deepening our connection to our history and our communities. If we are not the ones who can model inclusion and grow creative, diverse teams, then who will it be? Secondly, through Martin Luther King, I want to remind us of the practice of reframing, seeing things differently and acting differently. And, through the practice of reframing, becoming better mentors, colleagues, friends, and leaders.
It seems like every day we are reacting to something. Many months ago, AAAS asked me to write an op-ed about the importance of science and I thought I’d wait until there wasn’t a big news day — and that never happened. I felt really guilty when they sent me a shirt and a water bottle and thanked me for my effort! If anyone is here from AAAS, I apologize!
Lately, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the earthquakes in Mexico, Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, potential war with North Korea, Iran, the mass killing in Las Vegas, and even losing Tom Petty — it has all seemed like too much.
Last year, I was looking for ways to communicate — so I joined various social media platforms, including Twitter — not realizing that the president of the United States was going to intrude on my twitter discussions.
You know, some days it feels like I can’t find a quiet place to go!
The changes we have seen in our society, even over the past year, are immense. There is a rise in overt racism, public displays of white supremacy, and increased polarization in our country and even in our families that I don’t think has existed since the Civil War — or maybe never. There are days when the path ahead is not very clear and days when we feel like the Red Queen, having to run faster just to stay in the same place.
A year ago last September, I went to the New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta. It’s a group organized in part by Jimmy Carter. I went to the meeting because it was going to be about race relations in the South, I didn’t know that most of the participants would be Baptist ministers! But In this amazing group, I heard, over and over, names of Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner and many others, like Tamir Rice, that are etched in the bones of the African American pastors and African-American families. The rest of the country doesn’t get to hear the stories or this litany of names enough. Many younger people don’t know the history this comes from. Those few days were incredibly moving. I didn’t expect to laugh and cry and sing so much and, as someone who grew up Catholic, I was really surprised to find out that maybe I’m Baptist! It woke me up. I went home and bought about 6 CDs and find myself singing these songs most days and thinking about people’s stories.
There I heard Rev. Traci Blackmon a pastor with the United Church of Christ in Florissant, MO, next to Ferguson. It was in the basement of her church that three mothers organized a group, naming it after a line in one of their Facebook posts when George Zimmerman was acquitted for Travon Martin’s murder, asking “when will Black lives matter?” Rev. Blackmon and other religious leaders from Ferguson were very involved in the protests there, asking for nonviolence, kneeling and praying in front of the police. She sent people to Standing Rock, was present in Charlottesville, and encouraged the group to “pray with our feet.”
I know that, in the midst of every day’s news, each of us is trying hard to keep up our work, stay focused, and make a positive difference.
But how do we, as human beings, as people committed to social justice, to forming communities and providing opportunities across racial and ethnic boundaries, across walls that separate gender, sexual identity, country, religion — all of it. How do we stay focused and reclaim our own path? As Maxine Waters said, reclaim our time. And restore our spirit, creativity, and joy in what we do?
I have come to see that when I feel blocked, things “feel” wrong, or it is difficult to imagine a solution for some hard problem, looking with the perspective of evolution can help. Human minds evolved to learn and take in information in particular ways and human communities evolved to survive and provide safety and share work. Sometimes seeing what we have stopped doing that was important during evolution — or figuring out what reactions are programmed into us and choosing to do something different — empowers us to make positive change.
Human beings evolved with oral traditions, stories and narratives. Our brains are wired to hear narrative. We can all remember someone reading us a story when we were little. Our parents and grandparents may have told us stories of their lives and we made stories up of our own.
As humans, we each have two major, personal narratives. The first is our narrative from birth to now and the second is our ancestral or family narrative — knowing where we came from as family, as a larger group. The ability to analyze our genomes opens up ancestral stories that can often change oral histories and give us deeper insight into the paths our ancestors took in getting here.
This year, I’ve been asking my colleagues at meetings about their personal narratives and learning so much more about what motivates them to do what they do. I learned that one of the first memories of one person was a bomb exploding in Birmingham when she was 10. I learned that many people’s path through academics was not a straight one. And I learned that sometimes non-minority allies have a hard time remembering their narratives or feeling comfortable sharing them. I’ll get back to that.
Revisiting and reviving our narratives helps us see where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. In telling our narratives, we make connections we didn’t know we had, we learn new things about ourselves and others, and we establish much of what we have in common as humans. Knowing where we came from, the challenges we have faced, and the successes we have had helps us trust and see our path forward. To think and wrap around ourselves, ancestors who lived and loved, worked and died, in part so we could breathe this air today — without even knowing we would be here. They are in us, in our DNA. They are on our path.
I strongly encourage you to share your narratives with the colleagues around you. Do you have a notebook in front of you? Write down, “To do” what is my narrative and what is the narrative of the people on my right and left.
Now, recently, because life has become so reactive, it’s been hard to see that we are on a path at all. We are so engaged in the present that we forget it feels good and is important for our mental health to take the time to remember and restore our narratives. Sharing our narrative, our story, lets us feel more grounded, optimistic, and creative. It helps us see new solutions that get us around challenges.
Also, there are ways to approach painful moments or experiences in our past allowing them to become our greatest teachers — helping us see who we are and what we have done to survive, who has helped us, and to understand more about ourselves and what we value.
But for all of us here today, our common path, our shared narrative, has been one of diversity and inclusion, of social justice.
As I thought of this talk, I wanted to go back to an earlier time on our common path, to hear what Martin Luther King had to say to us. Down this path walked Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, my mother and Virginia Harper, Issie Jenkins who wrote much of the Civil Rights law during the Johnson administration, Robert Kennedy, and leaders from the 1950s and 60s, John Lewis, many of the people here and our relatives, and Jimmy Carter, Traci Blackmon, The Standing Rock Sioux, and others.
Dr. King addressed many issues, including nonviolence, economic inequality, segregation, white supremacy, and access to voting. Rev Traci Blackmon’s grandmother went to vote during those times and was told she could not vote until she guessed the number of jelly beans in a large jar. Today, thousands of citizens, many poor, elderly, and people of color have difficulty voting because of restrictions placed on them in the name of “security”. There were many challenges along Martin Luther King’s path. And our path today seems eerily similar to the one he walked down and the lessons in his words, many of which I ashamedly had not read until now, are incredibly relevant today.
Martin Luther King was the son, grandson, and great grandson of pastors. His voice wrapped around and guided our country’s fight for social justice and civil rights. He was a human being, who was optimistic, even while knowing that his life was on the line for what he said and believed. He was a thoughtful teacher, philosopher, and strategic thinker.
He spoke about power and justice, just and unjust laws, about history, and especially of the transformative power — the redemptive power of love.
Now this might seem a strange topic for a scientific audience, but like all human beings our work is best when we feel safe, focused, creative, and our work digs deep. Sometimes, when we get too caught up in “now”, we forget the strength we get from knowing our history, in this case, our common history. Knowing our history and where we are now gives us an idea of where our path needs to go in the future.
One of the major themes in Martin Luther King’s speeches is about reframing — seeing and doing things differently, not getting into the “fight or flight” response, and not letting hate or bitterness engulf us. What he gave to us are strategies to create change by creating change in ourselves first and then, by working counter to expectations, to create change in the world.
Dr. King spoke many times of the importance of loving our enemies. His words encourage us to stop and make an effort to change how we think, feel, and respond and give us an idea of the positive, strategic outcomes from reframing.
He said: “the first reason that we should love our enemies… is this: that hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil.”
He says: “I think I mentioned before that sometime ago my brother and I were driving one evening to Chattanooga, Tennessee, from Atlanta. He was driving the car. And for some reason the drivers were very discourteous that night. They didn’t dim their lights; hardly any driver that passed by dimmed his lights. And I remember very vividly, my brother A. D. looked over and in a tone of anger said: “I know what I’m going to do. The next car that comes along here and refuses to dim the lights, I’m going to fail to dim mine and pour them on in all of their power.” And I looked at him right quick and said: “Oh no, don’t do that. There’d be too much light on this highway, and it will end up in mutual destruction for all. Somebody got to have some sense on this highway.”
“Somebody must have sense enough to dim the lights, and that is the trouble, isn’t it?”
He went on: “Love is redemptive. if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies “I love you. I would rather die than hate you” and I am foolish enough to believe that through the power of this love somewhere, men of the most recalcitrant bent will be transformed.”
Loving your enemies takes them off guard so that they may be able to hear with their hearts. There are some wonderful examples of this kind of transformation — including a Washington Post article last year: The White flight of Derek Black. Derek Black was the son of the man who started Stormfront, a white supremacist website. His mother had been married to David Duke and David Duke was Derek’s godfather. Through friendship from an orthodox Jewish fellow student in college, Derek’s life was transformed. It’s an inspiring read.
“Here is a story from Dr. King: …when Abraham Lincoln was running for president of the United States, there was a man who ran all around the country talking about Lincoln. He said a lot of bad things about Lincoln, a lot of unkind things. And sometimes he would get to the point that he would even talk about his looks, saying, “You don’t want a tall, lanky, ignorant man like this as the president of the United States.” He went on and on and on and went around with that type of attitude and wrote about it. Finally, one day Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. And …as every president comes to the point…. of having to choose a Cabinet. And then came the time for him to choose a Secretary of War. He looked across the nation, and decided to choose a man by the name of Mr. Stanton. And when Abraham Lincoln stood around his advisors and mentioned this fact, they said to him: “Mr. Lincoln, are you a fool? Do you know what Mr. Stanton has been saying about you? Do you know what he has done, tried to do to you? Do you know that he has tried to defeat you on every hand? Do you know that, Mr. Lincoln? Did you read all of those derogatory statements that he made about you?” Abraham Lincoln stood before the advisors around him and said: “Oh yes, I know about it; I read about it; I’ve heard him myself. But after looking over the country, I find that he is the best man for the job.”
Mr. Stanton did become Secretary of War, and a few months later, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. And if you go to Washington, you will discover that one of the greatest words or statements ever made … about Abraham Lincoln was made by this man Stanton. Stanton stood up and said: “Now he belongs to the ages.” And he made a beautiful statement concerning the character and the stature of this man. If Abraham Lincoln had hated Stanton, if Abraham Lincoln had answered everything Stanton said, Abraham Lincoln would have not transformed and redeemed Stanton. Stanton would have gone to his grave hating Lincoln, and Lincoln would have gone to his grave hating Stanton. But through the power of love Abraham Lincoln was able to redeem Stanton.”
So, loving our enemies keeps us from being hateful people and love is redemptive, but how do we manage this very difficult reframing or change in how we relate to enemies?
Dr. King said: “In order to love your enemies, you must begin by analyzing self. And I’m sure that seems strange to you, that I start out telling you this morning that you love your enemies by beginning with a look at self… to come to an adequate discovery to the how of this situation.”
In my words, you want to make certain you aren’t contributing to the problem. Know your heart, who you are, what your values and goals are. This takes time, focus, and self-discipline for us, at any age. And in this process of self examination, we have to accept our humanity — our imperfections and differences.
He said: “You know in life we’re called upon to accept who we are. A Ford car trying to be a Cadillac is absurd, but if a Ford will accept itself as a Ford, it can do many things that a Cadillac could never do: it can get in parking spaces that a Cadillac can never get in. And in life some of us are Fords and some of us are Cadillacs.”
Dr King continued: “A second thing that an individual must do in seeking to love his enemy is to discover the element of good in his enemy, and every time you begin to hate that person and think of hating that person, realize that there is some good there and look at those good points which will over-balance the bad points.”
This is hard practice. It requires the ability to reframe. To use our creativity to see the situation from a different perspective. It’s easy to see things only from where we stand. It’s easy to vilify an enemy. It requires effort to go against instincts that may have had a selective advantage long ago, but which now keep us from achieving our goals.
He talks about the hard practice to show compassion to those who have fought against us when we win.
“We must not… remain satisfied with a court victory over our white brothers. We must respond to every decision with an understanding of those who have opposed us and with an appreciation of the difficult adjustments that the court orders pose for them. We must act in such a way as to make possible a coming together of white people and colored people on the basis of a real harmony of interest and understanding. We must seek an integration based on mutual respect.”
Because much of Dr. King’s approach, including nonviolence, was counter-intuitive (based in his faith and reading, but requiring incredible self control and awareness), he was very concerned that we have the best leaders.
He says: “We need a leadership that is calm and yet positive. This is no day for the rabble-rouser, whether he be Negro or white. We must realize that we are grappling with the most weighty social problem of this nation, and in grappling with such a complex problem there is no place for misguided emotionalism. We must work passionately and unrelentingly for the goal of freedom, but we must be sure that our hands are clean in the struggle. We must never struggle with falsehood, hate, or malice. We must never become bitter. I know how we feel sometime. There is the danger that those of us who have been forced so long to stand amid the tragic midnight of oppression — those of us who have been trampled over, those of us who have been kicked about — there is the danger that we will become bitter. But if we will become bitter and indulge in hate campaigns, the new order which is emerging will be nothing but a duplication of the old order.”
Nonviolence was core to his practice, and something that has real value today, to share with each other and our mentees. Non-violence is not passive acceptance of a situation and not without tension. In fact, creating tension is it’s goal. But because it may take longer for non-violent actions to show effects, it is especially important that these ideas be presented fully and we dig deep to understand its applications to the situations in which we and our mentees find ourselves.
Dr King says: “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action”.
(In nonviolent action) “Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man. We must not become victimized with a philosophy of black supremacy. “God is interested in freeing the whole human race.
“Nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.”
He said: “You see, this method has a way of disarming the opponent. It exposes his moral defenses. It weakens his morale, and at the same time it works on his conscience, and he just doesn’t know what to do. If he doesn’t beat you, wonderful. If he beats you, you develop the quiet courage of accepting blows without retaliating. If he doesn’t put you in jail, wonderful. Nobody with any sense likes to go to jail. But if he puts you in jail, you go in that jail and transform it from a dungeon of shame to a haven of freedom and human dignity.”
Finally, when Dr. King received his Nobel Peace Prize, he accepted it for all of us, for the future.
“I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners — all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty — and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.”
There’s so much richness in this path that we are on, the story we are creating, but we have to dig deeper to enrich our lives so we can continue to enrich others. Leaders are made through challenges, through difficult times.
Narrative links us together. I want to return to a comment I made about some of our non-minority allies, who may feel uncomfortable talking in a diverse group about their narratives.
For years, I didn’t tell people I was Mexican because my family was upper class and I felt guilty about it. As I learned more about my family story, I could see that they were people with great heart, who made a difference in Mexico and the US. Once I felt I could tell my story, I met people whose family had worked in the same mine with my grandfather, who wrote about my grandmother and her work in our Mexican village in Iowa in their masters thesis! Life is amazing.
Dig deep into your narrative. There is nothing less truthful or less real about one story than another. No one chooses their birth family — in life, it’s not the hand you are dealt, it’s how you play it.
We need to work inclusively across communities. There was a wonderful young man, African American, who came to do research with us one summer. We were the first non-African Americans he’d been with and he was nervous. Everyone loved him. I took him to SACNAS and as we were walking in I said, Look we don’t have time for all of our communities to be working in isolation. If you are going to be a leader, you have to learn to lead us all.
I firmly believe that if we are going to move towards a world where everyone has a voice and a place, we, right here in this room, have to get to the point where our work lives are diverse and inclusive, where we are all colleagues, friends, a strong team. Whether Native American, Black, White, Latino, Mexican, Gay, straight, disabled or not, tall, short, from the USA or not — we have got to find a way to trust and communicate. I am not saying to give up your culture, but to practice working together as a team. Our differences make us stronger, our similarities make us human.
I want to remind us all to practice reframing — seeing things from different perspectives — and digging deeper. The students in my program, no matter how they have grown up, never write a letter of intent with the word “disadvantaged” in it. We have a principle “look for the positive or the blessing in everything.” When they look at their lives, there were people who helped them and the more challenges they have dealt with the more unacknowledged degrees they have earned on their way. Eventually they see themselves as survivors, even heroes, and then they can be leaders.
One student went away for a summer research program and came back with a letter he’d been helped with — that was about his childhood of poverty and suffering, etc. I asked him if he thought he was disadvantaged when he spent his summers fishing in the Pecos. Was he disadvantaged in how his mother cared for him, made fresh tortillas, and helped him get to the mountains. He said no. His next letter was about how lucky he was to have grown up where he had the space and time to develop his curiosity.
Finally, now that we have talked about approaches to reclaim our lives and our work, I want to say that it isn’t healthy for our brains to live in a mode of constant reaction. Chronic stress is known to increase cortisol levels, take a toll on your brain, makes you stupid, can cause all sorts of medical problems, including forgetfulness. Together, if we agree to be community and to find ways to communicate, we can practice reframing together in order to create surprising, nonviolent, compassionate responses to our daily challenges.
Dr. King said: “When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.”
My goal today was to remind us all that we need to be working more closely together, talking with each other across barriers, and deepening our connection to our history and our communities, through narratives, reframing, and identifying novel solutions for our path forward. There is much to do. If we are not the ones who can model inclusion, grow creative, diverse teams, and develop innovative solutions to the hard problems we face, then who will it be?
Resources for Martin Luther King speeches.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/19/us/king-speeches-never-heard/index.html
