1. Truth: I watched Birth of a Nation a few days ago. For as long as slavery went on, for how recent it is in our collective experience, for the ways that history continues to impact us today, there are surprisingly few movies about it, and even fewer good ones. This one had a powerful message, was well made with the potential to make a big impact. As soon as I watched it, I wanted everyone to see it, if for no other reason than I needed someone to talk to about it.

2. Truth: Then I found out the movie’s backstory. Apparently, the director who was also the lead actor, Nate Parker, was accused of rape, along with one of the writers on the movie. The story is heartbreaking. The woman who accused them eventually killed herself, and her brother said, “I don’t think a rapist should be celebrated. It’s really a cultural decision we’re making as a society to go to the theater and speak with our dollars and reward a sexual predator.” Even though he was acquitted at trial, Parker’s own statement about it makes it clear he knows he did something wrong: “Seventeen years ago, I experienced a very painful moment in my life. It resulted in it being litigated. I was cleared of it. That’s that. Seventeen years later, I’m a filmmaker. I have a family. I have five beautiful daughters. I have a lovely wife. I get it. The reality is I can’t relive 17 years ago. All I can do is be the best man I can be now.” I haven’t seen Manchester by the Sea because of the sexual harassment accusations against Casey Affleck, so this is an issue that does matter to me, something that does impact my choices. I don’t want to give my money or time to someone who treats women badly, harasses or attacks them. As the victim of sexual harassment and assault myself, it just doesn’t feel right.

3. Truth: And yet, because I saw the movie first, was moved by it and saw the message wholly removed from the messenger, it’s hard to let it go, difficult to dismiss it entirely — and I don’t really know what to do with that. The same thing happened to me with my Buddhist practice. I studied and practiced and embodied the benefits of the teachings for six years before I fully investigated the head of the lineage in which I practice. What I found was a man whose behavior didn’t sit right with me, but his teachings and the community already did. It was difficult to work my way through that doubt and confusion and anger to find my way back to the dharma, but I did — eventually.

One wish: That stories of slavery and its impact continue to be told, and that the tellers be honest people we can feel good about supporting. In my future is Underground (a new TV series), Roots (the updated mini-series), and 12 Years a Slave (which I missed the first time around), as well as the movies on this list, 21 Social Justice Documentaries On Netflix To Watch. And books, so many books! (Any recommendations you have are welcome, kind and gentle reader).

Image by Kevin Lee on Unsplash

1. Truth: I’ve been reading a lot lately. Because of a bad habit I picked up in graduate school, where I was required to read multiple books simultaneously, I’m currently reading: And Still I Rise: Black America Since MLK by Henry L. Gates and Kevin M. Burke, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi, Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin, Anything We Love Can Be Saved by Alice Walker, Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay, and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. (Do you see a theme in that list?)

2. Truth: Reading for me is essential. It’s one of the foundational ways that I learn. Because I’m an introvert and a highly sensitive person, it’s the best way for me to encounter new information, especially if it’s going to make me uncomfortable or confused. I need that space alone, just me and the book, (and of course, somewhere in there the author). Sometimes I think I’m a writer because I’m fundamentally, first and foremost, a reader, love books SO much that the only thing that seems worth doing, the only thing I want to do besides read them is give others something to read.

3. Truth: What we need right now are those with the courage to tell the truth. The ones who will keep showing up, no matter what. Those who will continue to resist, persist. In Notes of a Native Son, James Baldwin says, “From this void–ourselves–it is the function of society to protect us; but it is only this void, our unknown selves, demanding, forever, a new act of creation, which can save us–‘from the evil that is in the world.'” I think of those right now who are willing to risk going against society, who brave going into the void that is their own open heart — poets, water protectors, protestors, journalists, comedians (SNL, anyone?), teachers, librarians, park rangers, scientists, etc. It’s becoming clearer and clearer that these are the ones who will save us, or die trying.

One wish:  “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” May we persist, nevertheless.