Thanks for sharing, David J. Leonard! There’s been much talk lately—at academic institutions, among religious groups, and within mainstream discourse—about creating space at the table: “the table” symbolizing access and inclusion into dominant society. When I hear this kind of talk, I can’t help but think about how far I’ve come. Growing up, I couldn’t wait to get my own seat at the table, now I’ve learned to say “no thanks”—not merely to the “grown-up table” of my family tradition but, more importantly, to the greedy table of U.S. imperialism. Why I would want to sit in the same place and around the same people that excluded and inferiorized me, and those who look like me, for so long? I don’t want a seat at a table that was built and is maintained in the interest of consolidating power for a privileged elite. I don’t want a seat at the table of white supremacy, nor do I want to fellowship at the tables of patriarchal domination, religious homophobia, or economic inequality. The table is the problem, not me, not black women, not us. Inviting an “exceptional” few from a historically oppressed community to “the table” is not a sign of progress. It’s hegemony masquerading as progress. Symbolism is not structural change. Symbolic gestures don’t fundamentally change, let alone challenge, the system of evil that created the table in the first place. The table, itself, must be destroyed. And we will destroy it. We will burn it to the ground with…prophetic fire! Nina Simone was right. We ought to get up from the table, any table, where love is not present. But, what’s the point of leaving the table if we still desire the food being served? It’s not enough to leave the table physically if we don’t abandon it psychologically. Prophetic fire is a mode of being, a way of seeing and engaging the world, an everyday practice that includes, but is not limited to, speaking truth to power, radical love, interpersonal accountability, institution building, and artistic struggle. Prophetic fire not only creates the conditions for the possibility of a radical dismantling of the table of U.S. hegemony, but it also begins the process of deprogramming the taste that draws us to the table in the first place.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 00:28:00 +0000