Good Trouble

This week we celebrated Purim, which commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian empire from a royal death decree thanks to the bravery of Queen Esther.  For any Jew at that time to be so bold was one thing; for it to be a woman was something else entirely.  The parallels to modern history are hard to miss for so many reasons.  Recently Little Man got a new book about Representative John Lewis (which you can watch here).  Representative Lewis was a student organizer and civil rights leader who was elected to Congress; a voting rights act in his name still awaits passing.  Little Man typically has questions whenever we read books, and this time was no different.  However, he has noticed particular details in the story that highlight his increasing awareness of his reality.

The book does not shy away from what Representative Lewis faced as part of his protests, including imprisonment and injury.  Little Man was immediately drawn to a page showing him in jail with a bandage on his head, and to the book's credit it appropriately describes the violence he faced without shying away from the truth.  Answering his questions requires a delicate balance.  I certainly don't want to gloss over any of the facts, but I also don't want to launch into long-winded explanations that detract from the point.  We emphasize Representative Lewis' belief in fairness for Black people and that those who disagreed pushed back in unsafe, unkind ways.  I don't want to give him the sense nowadays that the unfairness is gone since recent societal events absolutely suggest otherwise, but we do talk about how he and I can still treat each other fairly and be kind to each other even if I'm white and he is Black.  Admittedly the story is a bit long for his attention span so I rely on narrating pictures rather than reading the story in its entirety, but as we end I always remind him of Representative Lewis' dedication to "good trouble".

There is more of a need for good trouble now than ever, and while some are answering the call some are scared to even try.  I want Little Man to draw inspiration from the stories of Esther and John Lewis, but I also don't want him to think he has to approach life with skepticism or suspicion of others.  I also realize I sit in a strange intersection -- in one story I am descended from the oppressed, in the other I resemble the oppressor.  I teach him of ancestors like John Lewis to feed his personal pride while developing his inner sensor.  I hope the only trouble he creates is good trouble, rather than having any other kind of trouble find him.