6/2/2020

Dear Farm Journal,
James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced”. It’s easy to slip into the bliss of farm life at the end of our gravel road, but a drive into town, listening to NPR, slammed my whimsical thoughts into the jolting reality of social unrest, racial violence, and white privilege. Before I studied farm justice, my focus at Johns Hopkins was racial justice, and as I listened to the words of the reporters and protesters, tears began streaming down my cheeks. A chorus of African American authors built to a crescendo in my consciousness. I feel a pressing accountability to do something, but what? Rufus, Sandi, and I brainstorm while we work. How can we use our white privilege in the field of farming to support African American communities? We talk about ways to get food into community centers, ways to share the land, and ways to play a hand in the healing. Baldwin also said, “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain”. It is way past time for our society to deal with this pain, and at Keewaydin, we want to be leaders in doing our small part.
~Joy

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