Does silence equal complicity with racism?

I am a father of four children. Three of those image-bearers are girls.

So imagine the fear, tears, and anger that engulfed my heart when I learned of Larry Nassar, the Michigan State University doctor charged with sexually abusing young ladies ranging from the ages of six to twenty-one years old. His predatorial reign was first documented as early as 1990, but it was not until 2015 that the first action was taken against him

One of the many questions that came to my mind after reading about this horror was: “How can someone sexually abuse girls and women for over twenty years?”

I’ll tell you how: silence. 

USA Gymnastics was silent. Medical professionals were silent. Coaches were silent. And, tragically, in some cases, parents were silent. 

These women and girls reported their real-life horror stories to every proximate authority and were met with doubt and dismissive cover-ups. 

I know that this harsh reality could be triggering to some, but, as I look at the state of our nation, I see another real-life horror story being swept under the rug of silence. 

Shouting for help

African American men and women have been crying out for over four hundred years about the abuse we have suffered in America. 

We have told America about systemic racial injustice and economic oppression. 

We have told America about gentrification and redlining. 

We have told America about the racial disparity in education and in healthcare. 

We have told America about police brutality and mass incarceration.

We have made documentaries like 13TH by Ava DuVernay to demonstrate the “intersection of race, injustice and mass incarceration in the United States.” 

We have made songs like “This Is America” by Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) to depict police brutality and innocent black people being killed at their church. 

We have written books like The…