Pastor Cori Bush
Essential Question
What are the enduring struggles for justice?
Themes from Truth Testimonies
- Problematic Mainstream Media
- Militarization of Police
- Grief/Trauma
- Structural Poverty
Description
Truth Teller Pastor Cori Bush, a social justice community activist and nurse medic-turned-Congresswoman, underscores common Truth Teller themes of racism and its manifestation in police violence. Pastor Cori calls for solidarity among and between other communities of color who experience structural oppression and direct violence. From a place deep in her heart and from the depths of her voice, she brings the Truth Tellers together under the shelter of one common story.
Learning Opportunities for Community Leaders and Educators
Explain to participants that they will view Pastor Cori’s testimony and that you will pause the video for a “stop and discuss” process at points where questions emerge. Allow for discussion and continue viewing her story.
Guiding questions (Stop & Discuss)
- What feelings and thoughts bubble up for you when you hear Pastor Cori state, “I feel powerless. I feel hopeless and helpless even though I know there is hope… even though they keep killing… they keep killing us everyday and nobody seems to care.” Or when she said, “We have to kick and scratch to live?”
- How does bias and prejudice undermine equal rights?
- What qualities does Pastor Cori embody that allow her to survive and overcome when her rights and those of others have been denied?
- How does experiencing police violence contribute to physical, emotional, and psychological trauma?
- How does trauma manifest in daily life?
- How are we, the witnesses and observers of truth-telling testimonies, accountable to the stories we hear about police violence?
- How does building solidarity with other communities of color in the struggle for social justice add to or take away from the work of truth telling and healing in Black communities?
- What qualities or attributes do you think are necessary in order to endure this struggle for justice?
- How can you relate Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous quote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” to this notion that liberation for one contributes to the liberation of all?
Extension
Read the book, “Americans Who Tell the Truth” by Robert Shetterly. Create a mural or a poster using Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous quote “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” as the banner. Select at least 5 of the individuals you read about in “Americans Who Tell the Truth” whose truth telling illustrates the meaning you make of King’s quote. To conclude the activity, write a letter to Pastor Cori highlighting the qualities and attributes you now believe contribute to building justice in communities where structural oppression and direct violence is present.
Resources
MO-SEN Cori Bush – Ferguson Activist Running for US Senate as a Bernie Sanders Democrat
Open Letter to White People Who Are Obsessed with Black-on-Black Crime