Trailblazer or Token

 "We cannot let narrow religious forces highjack our moral vocabulary, forces who speak loudly about things God says little about while saying so little about issue that are at the heart of all our religious traditions: truth, justice, love and mercy." -- Rev Dr William Barber II & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

It is always difficult to discern whether you are a trailblazer or simply a token.  Many people of color take positions where they are the "first Black/Brown/Asian/Indigenous" who has ever been in that position.  Or maybe, you are the first woman to reach a particularly coveted position of authority.  Most do so not as personal gain, but to fundamentally change the corporate culture and mission so others who have been ignored, excluded, and passed over would have an opportunity to participate and lead. 

 Trailblazers are those who lead into unfamiliar environments in order to change the culture and to lead others who have been excluded into leadership and partnership.  Tokens are those who brought into a dominant culture for appearance sake but are never extended the authority and value that contributes to a new culture. Tokens are  people who will uphold and promote current cultural values.  A young Asian leader recently said in a denominational leadership meeting where he was one of two Asian leaders in the room (or better said, at the table), that perhaps he is there not because of his voice but because he was better at codeswitching than other leaders of color.  Implying that his ability to communicate in the dominant culture of the denomination and accommodate to it was preferred over someone who prefers to communicate in a style or language that is culturally or ethnically outside the preferred culture.  In other words, he was asking if he was a trailblazer or simply a token.

I find this in government, corporations, educational institutions, medical institutions  and especially in churches.

The entire New Testament is a mission to expand the people of God from a single monocultural group in a single locale  to global communities literally made up of  people of every "nation, tribe, people, and language" (Rev 7:9).  Each community was to be a diverse group where societal exclusiveness and divisions were conquered by the love of God (Gal 3:28).  The early church understood that their diversity was a sign of  the authenticity as Jesus followers.

The diversity was not for diversity's sake, but was consistent with the mission of restorative justice.  This is the theme of healing relationships and restoring them to their respectful and honoring connections.  This is the heart of the "good news":  a restored relationship between God and humanity (Col 1:19) and humanity with itself (Gal 3:28) through Jesus.  Many church leaders neglect the centrality of reconciliation of the good news and frankly many may be unaware of it.

Thurgood Marshall was a trailblazer.  Appointed in 1967 to bring a decidedly and distinctly different approach and opinion the the  highest court of the land.  He was known for challenging discriminatory laws as well as discriminatory interpretation of the law.  His replacement, Clarence Thomas, was appointed in 1991, and was understood to provide a conservative voice (conserving the dominant cultural values) to the court.  In his first 25 years, He had the fewest opinions of any other justices of that tenure and rarely dissented from the Chief Justice.  He is an African-American judge who was not placed on the court to add the perspective of most African Americans, but to protect systems that systematically discriminated against people of color.  Regardless of his intent, he was tokenized.

Once the church began in Acts 2, with people from all over the middle east, a conflict arose:

Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. 2 And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, "It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4 while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word." 5 What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.7 The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. 

Acts 6:1-7 NRSV

So, basically the powerful group within the fledgling church at that time were the ethnic Jewish people who had converted to followers of Jesus (this would change as the church grew).  Along with them were Hellenized or Greek speaking Jewish people who lived outside of Israel but also were led to become followers of Jesus. It seems that the Greek speaking widows in the church community (most widows were dependent upon community for survival) were being neglected.  In order to right this wrong, the leaders of the church created a new office of the church that many traditions still use, called deacons. Deacons (which literally means servant) were chosen to provide leadership in providing care for the entire church.  Interestingly, they chose seven leaders who were all Greek speaking.  

So what can we learn from the early church's first exercise in diversity:

1. The new deacons were chose to lead and contribute to the mission.  The Apostles could have simply made a feeding schedule and "ordered" people to feed everyone.  Instead they empowered others, who had better insight into Hellenistic culture to develop a system that changed the culture from a "us and them", to a "we".  The deacons were not just leaders for Greek speaking but deacons of the entire community.

2.  Diversity in leadership was in response to injustice.  The Greek speaking widows were being neglected and hospitality in first century Palestine was central to providing restorative justice.  It was injustice, perhaps elitism or even racism that led to the neglect, but the answer was to empower those who had been neglected to be understood as an equal part of the community.  I am convinced that many churches are well meaning and seek diversity as an end point but will never achieve it because the goal is to seek the kingdom and its righteousness/justice and it is this missional commitment to justice (restorative, reconciliatory, redistributive) that overcomes the deepest divisions.  I witnessed this first hand in Kigali Rwanda where one of the most brutal cultural genocides occurred.  I saw healing from some difficult truth (truthful rending of what happened) and reconciliation (repentance, reparation).  If you seek justice, diversity will follow.

3. Justice informed, culturally welcoming churches expand the kingdom by impacting individuals, people group, and systems.  Western Evangelicalism understand mission through the lens of individualism.  But the kingdom of God is a cosmological phenomena.  The growth after adding deacons and empowering them is impressive

4. The degree of empowerment represents the perceived value of the neglected group.  Suppose that the Apostles would have simply had the local ethnic widows share some of their food.  While that would have met the need, it would not have changed the culture of taking care of the Ethnic Jewish people first (a demonstration of a value proposition).  However, empowering Greek speakers to leadership in the church and allowing them to lead and contribute to the "communitas" recognizes the value of the Greek speakers within the community.  

It is often frustrating to know that you are invited to be seen, but not empowered to make change.  So many churches desire diverse appearances but will not relinquish power or validate the gifts and the uniqueness that the diversity brings to bear.  In fact, some churches have valued the discussion about diversity over a real experience of diversity.  Diversity requires a reconciling movement that insists on truth telling, repentance, re-imagining culture, and relinquishment of power (from an accommodating model to a collaborating model).  

I have been wrestling lately about situations when I have been a trailblazer and when I have felt to be a token.  Tokens literally are asked to exchange their anger and passion for affirmation from the dominant culture.  Yet, awareness of being seen as a token enrages and literally diminishes the church's ability to become diverse.  Jemar Tisby once stated that people of color who are justice-informed in mostly white spaces will "either sell out, burn out, or get pushed out".  I have experienced all three.  

To all the empowered trailblazers in difficult spaces, thank you for your sacrifices and your steadfast devotion to kingdom of God and its righteousness.  To all of the trailblazers who are feeling tokenized, never sell out, practice self-care to prevent burn out, and if you get pushed out:

Leave Loudly!

Blessings