La Croix L’Hebdo: How has the Ferguson tragedy changed you?
Rev. F. Willis Johnson: I saw this drama as a challenge. He reminded me that my calling was not just to honor the tradition of faith, but that it must be put into action. At the time of Michael Brown’s death, the church I led became a shared space for discussion and speech where people could be helped and confide.
I also learned a lot of personal lessons from this opportunity. Like many others during this time, I was confronted with the question of mortality and the fragile nature of life. What the prophets called “steam”. Current events constantly remind us of this condition.
However, I cannot say that I was surprised by this act of police violence against a young Black man. As a person of color, I learned early in life to be aware of my surroundings and the spaces in which I find myself. I understood the fact that my simple presence and my behavior could, unfortunately, provoke reactions in others. I will wear this all the time.
What was your experience of racism?
F. W. J. : Unlike previous generations, I was not limited by racist laws or physical barriers. My parents and those around me instilled in me the idea that I was a worthy and strong man, that I had rights and a responsibility towards this world as God’s creation, but I always knew that there was limitations.
As they say in the United States, I was “another” in many spaces. I had to be careful in my interactions, especially with the police. I had to accept the fact that I could be seen as a threat. I have attended schools that magically received extra funding when it came to attracting white students! When I lived in Indiana, a Republican state in the Midwest where I worked, I avoided going to certain towns associated with racist white populations.
In 2020, six years after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, African-American George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, sparking a national debate on racism and the role of the white population in inequality . What remains of these exchanges?
F. W. J. : Their impact is still felt today. Without this tragedy, we would not be on the verge of electing a woman of color as president. This is all the more notable because she is mixed race. Indeed, Kamala Harris is the daughter of immigrants, from a Jamaican father and an Indian mother. Unlike Europe where mixed race people are more accepted, Americans still have difficulty recognizing multiple identities. In short, everything that is not white is black. (Laughs.)
This reality is changing. Over the past decade, the United States has seen itself less and less in black and white. In the wake of cases of police brutality, from Michael Brown to George Floyd to African-American Philando Castile in 2016, we are compelled to have difficult but healthy conversations. Little by little, the laws are changing. Systems that were not designed for African Americans are being challenged and reimagined.
For my part, I work with the local police in Columbus (Ohio), where I currently serve, to improve relations with citizens, particularly when they exercise the rights contained in the First Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of expression.
It would therefore be wrong to say that nothing has changed, but there is still much to be done. Some schools and towns are still segregated. Disparities are widening between rich and poor, and the racial factor accentuates this reality. African Americans carry burdens inherited from past generations that affect their health, wealth, etc.
Newer generations of Americans are more ethnically and racially mixed. Do they have the power to reconcile the United States?
F. W. J. : Young people will go further than us. I have two children. At 20 years old, the first lived a large part of his life in a country presided over by a black man, Barack Obama. In other words, he grew up seeing someone like him at the pinnacle of power. It is a very strong symbol. I am therefore convinced that his generation will make a difference, but we cannot be satisfied with small changes. We must act on the capitalist system, the source of wealth inequality.
Certainly, it is not a black president who will change this situation alone. But it will certainly have an impact on the way we see multiracial identity today. In the United States, we tend to judge everything through a “black” and “white” filter, but that no longer applies. I see it at the level of my church, which has several hundred members. I meet mixed couples there, Africans who are not black or blacks who don’t look like me… America is not two-tone.
