A Reflection on Racial Justice

Community Voices: Lauren Brownlee

We are living in a moment in which community clearly matters. Although the Durham community is new to me this year, there is nowhere I would rather be right now than Carolina Friends School. At every turn, CFS has answered the calls of the moment. We have provided care and resources to each other, and we have asked ourselves and each other hard questions. We came together quickly to paint “Black Lives Matter” and “Speak Up” on campus, and we committed to holding ourselves accountable to walking our talk.

As I watched my hometown of DC burn in the early days of protest, I wrote to the Upper School about the ways that the struggle for racial justice is personal for me. After reflecting on what the struggle for racial justice means to me as a Quaker, an educator, an activist and a scholar, I shared, “I’ve been thinking a lot in the last few days about quotes from James Baldwin that speak to what is at the heart of these protests: ‘I love America more than any other country in this world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually’ and ‘If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.’ I think also of Georgetown University Professor Marcia Chatelain calling for a ‘love willing to risk.’

My wish for our community is that we can all make this personal. I appreciate the sentiment of the Benjamin Franklin quote, ‘Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are,’ but with an understanding that we are ALL affected by injustice. My charge to you comes from L.R. Knost: ‘Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.’ We know that it is possible to change the world.” I concluded with an invitation to “do what we can to take care of ourselves, each other, and our communities.”

We know that changing the world begins with a focus on what needs to be nurtured and transformed within ourselves. I am proud to be a member of a community made up of individuals who have consistently shown that they are willing to put in the work that leads to lasting change.

Lauren Brownlee is Head of the Upper School. She is an alumna of Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC. Lauren earned her BA in Ancient Greek Language and Classical Civilization from Wellesley College and her MA in Global, International, and Comparative History from Georgetown University. Just prior to arriving at CFS, she served as Director of Social Action at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, MD.