It has disrupted life as we know it. Healthcare workers at every level are frantically working towards better practices and greater protections.  In turn, the search for measures to control the outbreak has created new and serious threats in terms of individual freedoms and the power of government. This has brought new awareness of the fragility of freedom. We have seen how easy it is for freedoms long taken for granted to be abruptly removed. Governmental agencies assuming power over constitutional rights, while perhaps necessary in a particular emergency, is, nevertheless, a sobering crossing of a freedom line which, in America, has always been—and should always be—sacrosanct. Thus, out of the present chaos must come better methodologies for controlling disease while, at the same time, protecting sacred freedoms. Empowering elected or, even more disturbing, unelected, solitary officials to issue sweeping dictums that affect and control millions of citizens is a problem for which must be found better solutions.

Devastating negative events often reveal deeper issues. Such is the case with the death of George Floyd. The first obvious, broader issue exposed was the unnecessarily harmful use of force and police power. This, in turn, exposed deeper and unique challenges experienced by Black citizens of our nation—challenges broader than police brutality, challenges both internally and externally.  Thus, while all minorities in America need and deserve societal “lift,” attention to Black American’s needs are, at this time, uniquely spotlighted and are particular in kind.

The reality is that a long history of, first, enslavement, and then struggles through ongoing suppression and neglect continues to inflict a baggage of the past into the present. Slavery attempts to make objects of subjects—reducing or ignoring the subjective reality of being human and categorizing the enslaved as objects or “things.” This is sin of the highest order—violating the sanctity of the only creation directly imaging divinity. Further, over time, it superimposes on the enslaved ways of viewing self that are dissonant both with the created nature of man as well as any other measurement of reality. While it would be disingenuous to ignore the very significant progress made towards freedom, dignity, and advancement among Black Americans, it is equally disingenuous to ignore the fact that, for Black Americans, ingrained bias has, for generations, left many outside the potential for human self-fulfillment embedded in the constitutional rights of all Americans.

Equally devastating is the complicated generational struggles which develop from far-reaching forms of oppression. This, in turn, fosters a historically internalized oppression in a culture that squeezes the life out of hope.

Wherein is the answer? The answer lies in (a) a combination of heightened awareness and ongoing educational actions from society and its institutions, and (b) coming alongside the disenfranchised with actions of love, nurturing, and authentic ministry.

The chaos of the present opens a door of new positive opportunity.  This is an opening which must not be (a) missed, or (b) allowed to fall into the hands of those with ulterior agendas while riding under the guise of authentic Black concerns. As articulated by Martin Luther King, Jr., the American dream is not a dream regulated by color or race. It is, rather, an ideal, a vision, a view of man and his potential, coupled with the belief that attainment of these ideals is possible for all. Seeing imperfect actualization of the dream does not mean the dream is defective. The dream is correct, beautiful, and pristine for all. It is the backdrop before which actualizing efforts are weighed, which provides knowledge for correction, and which lights the path to fulfillment.

The evidence that this is true is overwhelming. Unlike Marxist and totalitarian governments around the world, there are no fences to keep in American citizens.  Instead, the whole world, recognizing and desiring these freedoms and possibilities, seeks the opportunity to come. The need is not another form of government.  Instead, all need an open opportunity and assistance to the incredible possibilities found in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the United States.

This is not a time to be satisfied with evoking diverse forms of moral exhibitionism.  It is, rather, an opportunity for real action. Wilson University, from its inception, has a history rich with action that reveals a keen sensitivity to community needs both in America and internationally. Its Alumni, Board, and Faculty are leaders in multi-cultural work around the world. The following are a few examples of practical, real-life actions being fostered by Wilson University and its leadership.

• “Hope Corps,” in which Administration, Alumni, Faculty, and Students of WU presently work, can be found internationally in Honduras, Philippines, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Vietnam, Italy, Fiji, New Zealand, Norway, China, and numerous other countries. Within the U.S., several thousand Hope Corps/WU alumni provide disaster relief, humanitarian aid, and emergency services.
• Locally, Alumni work in the lowest income areas of their cities. Project 4:18 is an example of this. Operated by alumni in local churches (under various names) and beyond, hundreds of children are fed breakfast every Sunday morning. For many, this is their only meal between noon Friday at school and the next Monday noon at school.  Saturdays are spent interacting in the neighborhoods with the residents and providing simple companionship, love, and, where requested, guidance.  Sunday all who desire are provided transportation to breakfast, to Sunday School for the children, to church, and to special events.
• Thursday nights is “Chick-Chat” where young girls from low income areas gather for socializing with licensed Marriage & Family Therapists (MFTs), which are Faculty and/or Alumni of WU.
• The University is presently working on the creation of the Seymour-Haywood Institute for Equity and Opportunity (SHIEO). The Institute will offer a certificate program specifically designed to target the challenges to equity for all.

Consistent with its Christian values, Wilson University is acting on its belief that this is a time of great opportunity for advancement in navigating the channels to fulfillment of opportunities which heretofore have continued to languish unfulfilled among America’s minorities.

Nathaniel J. Wilson