How long O Lord, how long? A devastating week during challenging times. This week brought me to my knees as a Black Christian in America during the Covid-19 pandemic and the on-going scourge of inequality and racism that impacts Black, brown, and poor people around this country. Not even the death of my 32-year-old niece and the hospitalization of my 16-year-old grandnephew from COVID-19 related pneumonia and illnesses had brought me so desperately to my prayer closet. How many more times does a Black person have to utter the words “I can’t breathe” as hate is unmasked, as violence surges and as hope retreats? At a loss for words, I offer these from Langston Hughes, (a Columbia University student 1921-1922).
Hear our prayers, hear our prayers O Lord.
Jewelnel Davis
University Chaplain and Associate Provost
June 1, 2020
I, Too
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed-
I, too, am America.
Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. New York :Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1994.
