Monday Reflections on Jesus and Masks
A Poem
It’s Monday again So soon, too soon
I have paper cuts in three out of ten fingers And I am not even near actual paper that much
I pick up things, it hurts, I touch things it hurts It feels like 2020, it feels like the culmination of
centuries of injustice and ignorance hitting bodies all at once
Reach out and flinch Wince and wince and wince
I just want to say fix it Jesus This messy house, this messy country, this messy world
I want to understand why people Want to insist that You were white and that simultaneously
Color doesn’t matter and by people I mean always white women Always white men always white people
How can both things be true, color doesn’t matter, Jesus was white, Because the translation is: I do not want to acknowledge the history
Of racism, oppression, and the horrors perpetuated in the name of White Jesus — who was a tool, not an artistic expression of anything
Who was intentionally mobilized to tell people of color That God didn’t look like them so, kneel down
My Hawaiian fiance told me he used to think That since Jesus was white
White was more valuable And add this to the rest of it — the rest of the images, representation, those
Who control language and culture, those who decide the values of What is beautiful and what is good
Nothing is neutral in a society built upon The backs of the brown and black, the female and the poor
So fix it multicolored Jesus born in the middle east Described as having olive skin described as having hair like lamb’s wool
Fix it White Jesus, you know what you’ve done And while you are fixing it, fix these people who
Are so hopped up on privilege and entitlement That wearing a mask is somehow oppressing them
I want to understand why people do not Consider things like not passing on a virus in a pandemic
I want to understand why people do not grasp The basics of human decency (wear a mask)
I want to understand why logic and compassion Break down
Why dots are not fully connected to Every place they go
Why the train track keeps going and yet some people get off Before reaching the destination
Of being a better person It is not about ignoring or being blind to things
That perpetuates the things It is not about my rights my liberty my my my
That is not how society works That is not how humanity works
Public spaces Require public values
Public spaces Require public representation
Jesus was brown, this matters. Masks save lives, this matters.
©Jenny Justice. All Rights Reserved.
Jenny Justice, Poet. Author of Love in the Time of Climate Change and Reveal. You can read more of her poetry at Justice Poetic. Sign up for her newsletter here.