CST Professors Use Letter Writing as a Form of Activism

In the wake of the ongoing horrific violence against people of color in the United States, in April, two CST professors shared their reflections and calls to action in the form of letters,* reaching from the depths of the classroom to the heights of leadership in Washington, D.C.

Following the killing of Daunte Wright by the police in Minneapolis and in response to ongoing crimes of racism, Professor Yohanna Junker wrote a letter to her students in their class, Imaging Resistance: Art, Religion, and Activism in the 20th and 21st Centuries. The letter is dated April 12, 2021, “from a world that is yet to become”:

“I come to you this afternoon in the form of a letter. I pause, light a candle, sacralize this space, and remember all that we have endured: loss, suffering, pain, utter rage, sadness, despair. Desespero. In Portuguese, to despair means to no longer (des) be able to wait (espero). We have lost our capacity to esperar. The Latin root of this word is spes—hope—the trust that something positive can emerge. To despesperar is to be unable to touch hope, to envision it, to believe, desire, trust that it is coming. And when despair knocks on our doors, seeps through our minds, and slides into our hearts, it is in the poetics that we can find some sort of grounding. Letter writing has this capacity for me: to activate hope, to incantate worlds, to place seeds right on the grounds of my despair.

Unless our efforts and mobilizations understand the geographies, the policies, and the violence of white supremacy, and how abstract notions of difference/otherness have been made material realities, anti-racist trainings, diversity, equity, and inclusion will not solve our problems. It’s not enough to center Black and Indigenous voices, art, thoughts, scholarship, and imaginaries in our classrooms, our churches, our board meetings, our affections. We must address how very specific bodies have only a conditional right to life. Sometimes our very humanity is under negotiation.

Our angst, rage, resentment, grief, and utter pain will be named and will be allowed to be expressed, felt, and dealt with because many of us have never truly seen what it looks like to be free. So we must seize every opportunity we have to recreate this world, to reshape it, to re-wild it, to re-root it. A practice of witnessing, of protesting, must guide us as we create images of the communities we are ready for and want to build. I hope that we can join our hands, rub our shoulders, and embrace our collective dreams, so we can continue to esperançar, so we can continue to compost our way into liberated worlds.”

Alongside 99 other religious scholars, Professor Nicholas Grier contributed a letter to American Values, Religious Voices: 100 Days, 100 Letters—a national, nonpartisan campaign that sent a letter each day from Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh scholars to President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Members of the 117th Congress for the first 100 days of the new administration.

 Dr. Grier explained,

“The 100 Days, 100 Letters project proceeds with the spirit and belief that scholars of religion and theology have something to contribute to the political life and overall well-being of our country. I am hopeful that more scholars of religion and theology will raise their voices and work in dialogue with grassroots communities to create a better future for the United States of America.”

Dated April 7, 2021, Dr. Grier’s “Letter 78” reads:

“[The killing of George Floyd and the killing of Asian Americans in the Atlanta spa shootings] point to the reality that we still live in a country that does not acknowledge the humanity of Black and Asian people in the United States of America. Part of the problem is that the United States too often proceeds with ‘progress and innovation,’ while forgetting its Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian citizens. To live up to the best of our ideals and potential, we must re-member every person and community in the United States.

Re-membering involves living with an awareness of the past and making intentional efforts to include our fellow human beings as members of the American family. Re-membering requires us to do two things:

First, we must never forget. We must remember constructively the events of our past. After 9/11, many declared that we would never forget. Yet, too often, the United States proceeds, forgetting its devastating history of enslaving, lynching, exploiting, and dehumanizing Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian people. Additionally, we must remember the contributions, cultures, and ancestors of Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian people.

Secondly, re-membering means that we must include Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian people as members of the human family. Colonization, white supremacy, and all forms of domination and exploitation have caused many people to forget and exclude them from membership in the American family.

I give thanks that you have taken the oath to serve the people of our country. May you re-member all citizens and communities of the United States of America and lead with bold empathy and compassion.”

May we heed these powerful words and continue diligently in the crucial pursuit of justice and healing in the United States.

*Please note that Professor Junker and Professor Grier’s letters have been edited for length.