What to Hold On To

I just watched the most recent episode of PBS’ Finding Your Roots with Professor Henry Gates. It was such a good episode looking at the genealogy of Gayle King, Jordan Peele and Issa Rae.

Issa’s family tree was particularly surprising - with stories of black slave owners and white Frenchmen killed in the Haitian slave revolt. Both men are her ancestors. Issa is known for being Pro-Black and I’m with her. Her initial reaction to learning about these men evoked a typical response in light of her Pro-Black world view (WHAT? my black ancestor OWNED other black people …. HAHAHAHA! that French slave owner was killed by slaves). But after a beat, she reflected on the ‘humanness’ of each man. Allowing for the nuance of what brought each of them to make the decisions they did - why they lived the way they did.

Watching this just reminded me that it’s so much better to hold people with an open hand. The only thing we can really hold onto tightly is what God says about folks. The best world view is to see folks the way God would see them - and would see me.