Ten Thousand Pagan Voices Confronting Racism

Where does one start when reviewing a month long chapter of their life that was intensely painful, personal and enlightening?  My experience of our community over the last few weeks is heartbreaking.  In seeking social justice there is often a price to pay, this I knew, but I was floored by how our blessed community can react to subjects that call us to look at ourselves.

In calling out adverse racism where I saw it, I took the only course of action that would allow me to sleep with the knowledge that I was acting as the Goddess leads me.  I have been threatened, called names, harassed via email and the telephone, painted as a heretic and generally demonized by members of my own community.  Long-standing friendships have been lost; organizations I fully supported for years have deemed me a destructive force.  Yes, I am wounded, saddened, and have shed many tears.

I knew going in that those who dare to even speak a measure of truth to power are subject to being attacked, branded as a whistle blower and made the focus of efforts to distract people from the issues raised.  I have watched governments; organizations and societies do this over and over.  Yet deep inside of me I was hopeful that our blessed community is beyond such actions, quietly I suspected that while such a response would come it would not have support among Pagans. I was wrong, I am disappointed.

Here is the thing, I WOULD DO IT AGAIN!, yes that was a shout. Recent events within our collective community reflect the state of affairs within Pagandom; racism is alive and well, it exists in ourselves, in those who stand next to us in circle, at our conventions and within our ritual practices. 

It has been fifty years since the march in Selma and yet here we still are struggling with even making Pagan spaces safe for people of color. We have a responsibility to support our brothers and sisters of color in our community; indeed we have no community unless we rise to this challenge.

Can I promise that if you speak up there will be no price to pay, clearly not, yet to abdicate our responsibility to stand for what is right would be to drive a stake in the heart of our communities’ values.

Today I ask my fellow Pagans of privilege, join together; manifest 10,000 voices calling for our community to listen to the experiences of Pagans of Color.  If we must pay a price for our stand, so be it, our hurts, pains and losses will add up to little in comparison to the experiences of our brothers and sisters of color.

10,000 voices speaking up, not over, calling our community to hear the pain, the sadness and the fears of our brothers and sisters can manifest real change that will allow us to proceed as a community committed to walking our talk, living our values and setting an example for future generations that we are more than the sum of our collective traditions.

Here is my name, who will join me in manifesting 10,000 voices by adding theirs and sharing this call to action!

Peter Dybing