#107: Our Baptismal Call to Social Justice: A Conversation with Fr. Joseph A. Brown - a podcast by National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM)
from 2020-06-08T12:00
Today on the podcast I get the chance to speak to Fr. Joseph Brown. Fr. Brown is a Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and is one of our plenum speakers at this year’s NPM Convention.
I’ll admit to you that I was humbled to speak to Fr. Brown. I’ve never been so nervous to speak to an interviewee in my life, because this week I learned how much I still need to learn about the racism that pulses through the veins in our country. In the past week my eyes have been opened to how my silence works against the cause of equality and social justice.
And so I prepared to sit down with Fr. Brown. I started by reading his interview from the Southern Illinoisan, a local Illinois newspaper. The article mentioned Breonna Taylor and linked back to a news article about her. I read the article related to her being shot eight times in her own home. That article cited the death of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia several weeks prior. I sat and read every article I could, and watched a video breakdown of how Arbery’s death occurred. From there I read more and more articles linked to deaths in the black community that simply shouldn’t have happened.
And lastly, I watched the combined footage of George Floyd. I watched it, and then watched it again.
From there, my education began. My education into the privilege I inherited as a white woman, and the privilege I hope to use to voice that black lives matter and to help facilitate change.
That was the context from where I spoke to Fr. Brown today.
Fr. Brown begins the conversation by reflecting on the uprising across the country- and the world- to support the black community and take action towards anti-racist policies and real social change.
Further episodes of Ministry Monday
Further podcasts by National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM)