Something in the Water

December 21, 2020
Waters (Stakes Is High), an African American pastor and civil rights activist, delivers a blistering critique of white supremacy and racial injustice in this trenchant collection of sermons, poems, and commentaries. Waters quotes extensively from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches to argue little has changed regarding American racial equality in more than half a century. Noting the silence of many church communities in the face of racial injustice, he proclaims that King’s mission has failed and suggests white supremacy is growing stronger in America, as “the waters that define the social, political, theological, and economic landscapes of our nation are contaminated with the pollution of racism.” He seamlessly connects historical lessons, like African Americans’ mistrust of authorities stemming from the “elected officials, judges, policemen, ministers, and businessmen” who aided in the formation of the KKK, to contemporary police brutality, mass shootings, and income disparities. He ends with an urgent and persuasive call to action for people of all backgrounds to come together and reform society into something resembling Dr. King’s dream through collective action and legislation that would act “as a corrective to historic harms and oppressive systems.” This concise, incisive work should be a wake-up call to Americans in general and the church in particular.