I confess. One of my favorite television shows is “The Andy Griffith Show.” This may be because I was raised in two small Ohio towns and have spent considerable time in rural Alabama. It may be because my faith tells me that I must always imagine more neighborhoods in the USA that have caring police. The show’s charming stories of life lessons addressing parenting, community building, faith, and friendship, sprinkled with laughter and sentimental moments, remind me that this is possible. The show also provides relief from graphic violence so often depicted in the media today and tragically normalized in too many real experiences of people of African descent historically and today. In the popular new film, “Chi-Raq,” for example, viewers learn that the death toll by murder in Chicago over the past decade is higher than the number of American forces who have died in Afghanistan since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom, according to a police analysis. Many of these murder victims are of African descent.
A recently repeated “Andy Griffith Show” episode illustrated the difference between policing by “the book” and policing with “the heart.” This approach was also communicated to Christians in Rome, who were taught to embrace the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law (Romans 2:29). Another recent episode illustrated hospitality to those in the Mayberry jail. The sheriff and deputy sheriff were missing two former inmates who were now serving time in the state prison. They decided to visit the former inmates in prison to see how they were doing and let them know they were missed in Mayberry.
Contrary to the caring setting of Andy Griffith’s Mayberry in the 1960’s, the viewer does not see what was happening at that time for many people of African descent in the south and north of the U.S. Racial hatred and violence often resulted in the horrors of lynching and other types of fatalities and miscarriages of justice by police and others. For people of African descent, the thought of hospitality and friendly visits from those who were official or unofficial authorities would have been unthinkable. Sadly, this painful period of American history still haunts us. Today, people of African descent make up the highest percentage of those who are imprisoned, and many African-Americans are still convinced that racial hatred and violence toward them is still routine in the U.S.
The juxtaposition of Mayberry and these painful realities raises important questions today.How shall we pray and hope for the transformation of the hearts of those who promote racial bias and violence? Can lawful reforms at both the local and federal levels make a real and positive difference in this historic American challenge?
Bread for the World works with people of faith who see the connections between hunger and these issues and who say yes to legislative change. Please join this movement to help end hunger by supporting legislative changes that can help make more of our neighborhoods hunger-free and safe. Learn more at www.bread.org/library/hunger-and-mass-incarceration.
Rev. Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith is the national senior associate for Pan-African church engagement at Bread for the World.
