Grindr Jesus?!?

What If?

I love “what if” scenarios. I once facilitated a weekend retreat for LGBTQ Christians. Instead of the traditional Bible study and discussion groups, I gave them a series of bizarre tasks around sexuality, identity, and faith. They had to create ads sponsored by the church that promoted better sex. I even gave each group specific sex acts to advertise. “This group gets oral sex. This group gets masturbation. This group gets anal play…”

The goal was to break down the walls that fear and shame erected in our lives when it came to the meeting point of faith and sexuality.

What if Jesus was on Grindr?

Perhaps the most provocative activity was when I had them create a Grindr profile for Jesus. Through consensus we had to decide everything from Jesus’ height, weight, and ethnicity to what Jesus wanted on this gay “dating” app. We actually never completed the activity, but it was enough to get people thinking, feeling, and revealing.

In the latest episode of the Bubble&Squeak podcast, I comically revisit this idea through my character Chad. You might remember Chad from the play Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House. He’s very fem and enthusiastic. Good news is he has since come out super gay. In this short radio play I have him hosting a YouTube channel. He experiments with Grindr. Not only does he find out the other gays are super mean, he also encounters Jesus–the real Jesus of Nazareth.

You can hear (and subscribe) to Bubble&Squeak wherever you get podcasts. Or just click on the link below!

Part one: I revisit a story from Episode One, “Is that all you got?” where I was mugged at gunpoint. The mugger had me take off all my clothes. I have so many questions for the mugger in this story.
Part two: YouTuber Chad discovers Jesus of Nazareth’s profile on Grindr.
Part three: A sound slice from an ancient Mexican sacred pyramid, Los Guachimontones

A Frank Discussion about Race, Pollution, and Justice

Brentin Mock

Some people have the idea that climate change conversations only center around polar bears or parts per million of carbon dioxide. I sat down with two African-Americans concerned about the environmental health impacts on people of color. It is a moving and challenging conversation. I also chat with Tyree Daye, a poet from North Carolina who reads from his book of poems, River Hymns.

Dr. Natasha DeJarnett

You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, SoundCloud, Podbean, Northern Spirit Radio, Google Play, PlayerFM, and TuneIn Radio. Also, feel free to connect with other listeners, suggest program ideas, and respond to programs in the Citizens’ Climate Radio Facebook group or on Twitter at @CitizensCRadio.

After 10 years of reporting on race, culture, and civil rights, Brentin Mock embraced environmental issues as his new beat. That was in 2008. He has since become a leading voice highlighting environmental racism in America. He speaks with Citizens Climate Radio host, Peterson Toscano about pollution, segregation, asthma, and mobility. Brentin also speaks candidly about failures of predominately white environmental organizations that attempt to reach out to people of color. He shares why these attempts fail and what climate advocates can do to build a more diverse coalition. Also joining the discussion is Dr. Natasha DeJarnett, environmental health policy analyst from the American Public Health Association. She outlines statistics on historical and contemporary pollution and how air and water pollution pose severe heath risks for everyone, but espeically people of color in the USA.

African-Americans faced 54% higher health burden from air pollution (particulate matter) compared to the overall population. Communities of color overall had a 28% higher health burden compared to the overall population (Mikati et al., 2018).
Communities of color have higher exposure rates to air pollution than their white, non-Hispanic counterparts. A study monitoring 12 air pollutants showed that whites had the lowest exposures, non-Hispanic blacks had higher exposures than whites to 13 of the 14 pollutants. Hispanics generally had the highest exposures (Bell & Ebisu, 2012). Some of the pollutants studied including particulate matter, nitrate, chlorine, nickel are connected to repertory illnesses, asthma, and cardiovascular issues.
From a 2010 CDC report, seven million American children have asthma, about one out of ten. One out of every six black child has asthma (CDC, 2010). The reported rate rose 50% between 2001 and 2010.
In 2000 and 2010, disparities in nitrogen dioxide concentrations were larger by race-ethnicity than by income. Black and Hispanic people experienced 37% higher exposures to NO2 than white people in 2010 (Clark et al., 2017). NO2 is linked to asthma symptoms, increased susceptibility to repertory problems and heart disease (EPA).
Most communities located next to, and directly affected by the operations of, corporate, industrial, or service facilities are low-income, communities of color, and other systemically oppressed groups. This placement exposes these groups of people to health, economic, and social hazards. Over 1 million African-Americans live in counties facing cancer risks above the EPA’s level of concern from toxins emitted by natural gas facilities. (Franklin, 2018)
The percentage of black people in fenceline zones is 75% greater than for the U.S. as a whole, while the percentage of Latino people is 60% greater than for the U.S. as a whole (Orum et al., 2014). Larger, more chemical-intensive facilities tend to be located in counties with larger black populations and counties with high levels of income inequality.
People of color are more likely to be exposed to environmental threats than are whites of the same social class. Race is a powerful predictor of many environmental hazards including the distribution of air pollution, location of municipal solid waste facilities, location of abandoned toxic waste sites, toxic fish consumption, and lead poisoning in children (Bullard, 1993).
People of color make up nearly half the population in fenceline zones (11.4 million), and are almost twice as likely as whites to live near dangerous chemical facilities. Children of color make up almost two-thirds of the 5.7 million children who live within one mile of a high-risk chemical facility in the United States. Facilities in communities of color have almost twice the rate of incidents compared to those in predominately white neighborhoods – one incident per six facilities compared to one incident per 11 facilities (Starbuck & White, 2016).

(Special thanks to Dr. Natasha DeJarnett and Siena Fouse from the APHA for Dig Deeper content)

The Killing of Alton Sterling–This violence is brought to you by taxpayers

Another Outrageous Killing

Like a lot of Americans I’ve heard about the violent death of Alton Sterling at the hands of two police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As with Tamar Rice, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, and others, whose names have become familiar through their deaths and the relentless work of many to say their names, Sterling’s death is outrageous. From looking at the shocking and sickening video it seems more apt to call the death a murder or an assassination.

The Death Toll Rises Daily

As of this morning, the number of people killed by police in America is 558. 15 of those in just the first six days of July.

One of my Facebook friends from the UK, Tim Crowhurst, put the numbers into perspective. “In a typical year, US cops kill more than 1000 civilians. In the UK the equivalent number is 2. Accounting for differences in population size, this means Americans are 10,000% more likely than Brits to be killed by those who duty is ostensibly to serve and protect.”

And if you are a person of color and male in the USA the likelihood of violence at the hands of law enforcers increases. The Guardian has a grisly counter of all the people killed by police in the USA. It includes names–when they are known–US state where they were killed, and cause of death–which is mostly gunshot, although some died in custody or from an officer with a taser.

The Disproportion of Black Deaths

All of these deaths are tragic, and I imagine most if not all are completely unnecessary. This year like most years white victims outnumber the people of color who die at the hands of police.

But when we break those numbers down, we see that based on the number of people of color in the USA, they experience this violence at a higher rate. 3.21 Black people per million are killed compared to 1.35 of white people. 3.4 Native Americans and 1.51 Hispanic/Latino people per million are victims of police violence during arrest and in custody.

While the media fixates on what they call riots, I am much more concerned with police departments funded by my tax dollars locally and federally. This is beyond a crisis–this is an outrage–an epidemic of violence, and I help finance it.

Police Violence Denial?

As someone who is a climate advocate, I run across denial and skepticism from people, who even with mountains of evidence still need further proof that our climate is rapidly changing and our pollution is the cause. Similarly I find that fellow whites (some? many?) harbor doubts about the chronic police violence against Black men and other people of color. They cringe at the words racism and white supremacy and systemic racial oppression.

As a white person, I have been raised to trust the police and distrust anyone labelled a perpetrator, particularly non-whites. I have been taught by the media and other white dominated social institutions and in social circles to give the police the benefit of the doubt–to always assume they had just cause and that they are basically good people doing their jobs. That or they are mostly good guys with a few bad apples.

But how can I deny the numbers? Why should I try? And how is it that even if it were just a few bad apples that virtually none of these killings by police end up in a conviction of the officer responsible?

My Taxes Dollars at Work: Financing the Police

My tax dollars fund the police. My tax dollars fund the police violence. My tax dollars fund the racist police violence.

They, the police and police departments in all of our towns and cities and states, are accountable to tax payers and non-taxpayers–children like Tamir Rice and those who do not earn enough to pay taxes. They are accountable to the citizens on the street regardless if they are suspected of criminal activity or not. The police have the mandate to serve and protect–not do disservice to the people of color and the destruction to families.

Be Disturbed enough to Act

You will hear a lot about Alton Sterling. White people may feel disturbed, as we should. We have blood on our hands. We have the responsibility to open our eyes, listen, learn, and work out how we can move beyond being a barely conscious bystander to someone engaged in the struggle to stop this violence.

Dear White News People…

Dear news people: Show us less coverage of riots & more investigative journalism on police brutality & institutional racism.

— Peterson Toscano (@p2son) April 28, 2015

Black Lives Matter pre-March Worship in NYC and Arrests

This weekend my husband, Glen Retief, and I traveled to New York City, and with our host, Beth Reed, we had the privilege of attending the #BlackLivesMatter pre-March Worship service at Union Theological Seminary on Saturday 12/13/14. I found the service to be moving, revelatory, and well-structured. The speakers, the songs, the prayers, and the readings each kept adding and adding to the event–teaching, admonishing, and inspiring the audience.

The night before two students from the school, one Black and one White, were arrested. It is chilling to see the radical different ways the police treated these two protesters.

I have put up most of the audio from the service on SoundCloud page including the singing. Here you can listen to the Opening Prayer by Ranwa Hammamy and the readings from Jeremiah 6:14,15, read by Carolyn Klassen, and Ephesians 6:10-13 (Now my pastor back in my Evangelical days at Times Square Church read the whole army of God passage regularly, but NEVER like Dean Yvette Wilson who interpreted it and gave it new, relevant life!)

Tag: race