To be honest, it's a complicated ministry; it's a complicated situation. The official mission of the ministry as written on the Diocese of East Carolina's website is:
The Episcopal Farmworker Ministry responds to the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families, and actively supports opportunities for them to become self-directive. We seek to minister to farmworkers in three principal ways:
- through direct services,
- through development and support of programs that work towards the empowerment of farmworkers and through encouraging leadership development, and
- through advocacy and education that aim toward systematic change at the local and state levels.
But it's complex. There are farm workers here legally and some not; there are growers who work very hard to provide the best conditions and there are growers who don't. Into this world I got to enter.
Patti was traveling to visit a grower whom she had yet to meet but who had heard her quote a daily wage and the amount of work each migrant farmer had to do to earn it. This grower disagreed with the number, and Patti wanted to talk to him. While she desperately wants the problematic aspects of the system to be exposed, she also wants to be accurate and fair. And so we went and met with this grower for several hours. We toured his farm, the living quarters for the workers, and we had lunch. He is a good man and Patti said, "A good grower." He has workers who return year after year to work for him--I don't know much, but I suspect if he wasn't kind and fair they would find other places to work. Patti and the grower had deep meaningful conversations and we left with the two of them wanting to continue the discussion. Both want to work to better the conditions of the workers; I suspect this man will become involved with the ministry on a larger level.
But, you knew there would be a but didn't you? There is one statement he gave that has haunted me. We were talking about how it is difficult to get "local" people to work on the farms. It's a general statement, but his experience has been that locals show up occasionally, don't work as hard and cause problems (read fight with) the migrant workers. The grower said that working with the migrant worker was a "win-win." They need the work and the growers need the workers. "Win-win" has echoed through my mind for these past two weeks--echoed through my mind is not quite right--thundered through my mind is more accurate and thundered in a void (not my mind the truthfulness of the statement). I don't want to say it is completely hollow, completely false, but when I hear the phrase "win-win" I think equal; 50/50--but it's not.
The relationship is not equal; there is a power differential. The workers are here on a specific work visa (again I don't claim to understand the complexity of this) which allows them to be here for a specific time frame. They live on the farms where they work; they are dependent on the growers to provide them transportation into town for their groceries and other supplies. If they quit or are fired, they have nowhere to go and no way to get there. I cannot help but think that would keep people from speaking up if they felt oppressed. Please remember, I do think this man is a very good man--a man who very much wants to do right by the workers who work for him, and I also believe he sees their relationship as win-win, and yet the echo in my mind won't stop.
And I think, where else are their relationships where on the surface they appear to be equal and yet just below the surface there is a power differential; there is a difference because one person has a privilege, has power the other doesn't? What booms in my mind is the question, where do we not recognize those privileges? Where do we, where do I have power and privilege that I don't own either because I am living my comfortable life to busy to see them or perhaps and more hauntingly because I don't want to see? For two weeks I have wrestled with this; I have dug into my life and into my ministry and tried to uncover and own the privileges I hold and others hold. Frankly I have been obsessed...
Last night some of us gathered talking about faith and politics. How does our faith inform how we vote? The conversation went in many directions--one of those directions was to our places of privilege. We talked and talked and talked each admitting to places in our lives where privilege has played a part and then....a very good man who is becoming a very good friend (at least until he asked this question) asked, "So what do we do about it? What are the next steps?" I had myself convinced (read broke my arm patting myself on the back) that I was doing important work in recognizing and exposing. It's a first step, but the stair case is steep. Now I am restless, incredibly restless and yearning to do something, but what?
I live in a warm home where this morning I got to take my children drinks to their beds to awaken them so they could leave for a school where they are provided an excellent education. I have been able to sit in a chair, watching the news and thinking about all of this--writing about this--it does not escape me that in itself is a privilege. Now what?
2 comments:
Privilege is relative. Granted, most US citizens are quite privileged in a global sense, and some are more privileged than others in a more local sense. We need to move beyond guilt or shame for privilege. I think next steps means making things better for others on both individual and community levels. We use those things we have been freely given (born into as it were) to make the whole stronger. Part of making the whole stronger is doing for our children, encouraging them to be generous with one another and others, and helping them see that while they need not feel guilty about what they have been given, they are uniquely situated to given back because of that privilege. We need to lead by example, and you Katherine, do that!
Two thoughts come to mind: Don't just do something, sit there! In other words, don't be impulsive. Learn all you can by observation of whatever before doing the "Now what." The second: Good intention and thoughts are wonderful, but if they do not lead to real action, solving concrete problems and serving concrete or definite people, then we are just in another feel-good moment. Lord knows, I have had plenty of those.
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