Open Letter from Dean Powery on Acts of Discrimination on Campus

On November 30, 2018, Duke University Chapel Dean Luke A. Powery shares the message below about acts of discrimination on campus this semester, as well as a vision of community that recognizes the full humanity of all its members.

Dear Duke community,

I write as a concerned member of the Duke community, having reflected on another act on campus displaying hate and discrimination—the latest being the posting about a week ago of “Identity Evropa” stickers, even at one of the entrances of Duke Chapel. The perpetuation of anti-Semitism, anti-Blackness, and anti-difference has no place on this campus, in this nation, or in the world.

Beyond saying what I don’t want for our campus community—discrimination, anti-difference, and hate—I would like to share what I do hope for us. I hope that we will be free enough to see one another as fully human, all created in the image of God.

What we have seen on campus over this semester reveals that we do not yet see each other as fully human, which indicates that we are not yet free because we have not emancipated ourselves from mental slavery, as Bob Marley put it in “Redemption Song.” This “mental slavery” imprisons us by leading some to dominate and intimidate difference of any kind—racial, ethnic, gender, religious, economic, educational, or otherwise. The prison of racial ethnic hierarchy erected by historical colonial powers still exists, promoting and endorsing the kind of unacceptable, inhumane discriminatory behavior we have seen at Duke and elsewhere.

The way out of this prison—the way we “free our minds”—is to see our common humanity and remember that we are all from the earth (humus), from dust and to dust we shall return. Just one example of this is a series called “Always Human: Re-Visioning Justice” that Duke Chapel has done over the past month in partnership with the Rubenstein Arts Center and various community organizations. Through a variety of artistic media and related events, the series seeks to see people involved in the criminal justice system—those in prison, families of prisoners, and those harmed by crimes—as fully human with their own stories and aspirations. There are many other ways to seek to recognize the common humanity in one other, and when do, we are helping to intone songs of freedom—redemption songs for the world.

When we see our common humanity, we recognize what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., described as being “caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” In other words, we can’t be fully free or “free at last” until “… all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, … join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last, Free at last, Thank God Almighty, We are free at last.’” In Dr. King’s dream, our freedom is linked to our mutuality, linked to our being linked—freedom is something we strive for and realize as a community. This musical dream of freedom—this redemption song—highlights the “and” over the binary “either/or.”

Dr. King was a Baptist minister and within the Christian tradition, there is a beautiful vision of this kind of shared freedom becoming a reality. The Book of Revelation describes it this way: “There was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands” (Revelation 7:9). Notice the words “every” and “and.” At times we may not be quite so expansive in our thinking, being, or acting, but in God’s house there is room enough for all. As the hymn says, “In Christ there is no east or west, in him no south or north, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.” God embraces all of us and all of our humanity, for God is an “and” God, not an “or” One. When other people don’t make space for us, God does. God sees us in our full humanity and still loves us.

I say all of this as a truth-teller, yearning for us all to be set free from the prisons of our minds and hearts—and as an ordained Christian minister and divinity professor, I also say this as a “hope-bearer.” I am realistic about the struggles and realities in the world and on campus, but I am still hopeful for a better day and a better campus because I believe in a God who is unconditional love, a love that never ends and is stronger than death and hate.

So as we move into the close of this semester, I know many of us will be focused on papers, exams, and reports, but hopefully, we will allow for some time to focus on our common humanity. That way, we can begin to see each other as more fully human and begin to hear the echo of God’s redemption love song, “Free at last! Free at last!”

Yearning to be free and in faith, hope, and love,
The Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery
Dean of Duke University Chapel