How we mourn

For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page, which includes Bantum's current Living by the Word column as well as past magazine and blog content. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century.

The new year is only a few weeks old. Like most people I have been reflecting on the past year, wondering where the time went. But even more, I have been wondering what the world has come to.

In the grand arc of our century, or even the past few centuries, the year has perhaps been no worse than others. But I have been wondering what feels different about it, especially in American life. Perhaps it is the solidarity of Palestinians and Kurds with those who are courageously protesting police brutality throughout America. Perhaps it is the clarity that tear gas and riot gear provide in showing how racialized violence is not a thing of America’s past. Perhaps it is the seeming imperceptibleness of the structures that make such circumstances possible. No longer a society with explicit laws of segregation, we segregate and incarcerate more effectively than at any other time in our history.