With the recent murder of George Floyd at the hands of "law" enforcement and ensuing outburst of police brutality, it has finally been too much for Americans to ignore. With white supremacy rearing its ugly head yet again, it has felt tone deaf to write technical articles without taking some time to reflect on the challenges we face corporately as well as my lack of efforts to fight racism even as I live in a supposedly progressive city and state.
My family has a long history in the States. I am a tenth generation Dunnington since the first arrived in the new world. The first, Francis Dunnington, emigrated from England as an indentured servant in 1685, shortly after the black death ravaged England. His grandchild William fought in the Revolutionary War as part of Maryland’s 3rd Regiment and was rewarded with land for his service. Eventually he amassed enough wealth to launch out west into Kentucky, and his descendants continued that trajectory until landing in Washington, where I was born.
As it turns out, my family’s history is not only entwined with the founding of this nation, but also the method in which it was built. In 1810, the same William Dunnington owned 14 slaves.
In light of the George Floyd protests, I have been grappling with this reality for the last week. It is a hard truth to face that my family was involved in the original sin of this country. The wealth these slaves generated for William irrevocably changed the course of my family’s journey to the west and ultimately my life today, yet their families and descendants have been completely disenfranchised from the very work into which they poured their sweat and blood.
It is a privilege for me to be able to learn about this history instead of experiencing it and its painful consequences. As I’ve been taking some time lately to learn and reflect on slavery and injustice in our country, a few days ago I remembered a scripture from Isaiah 58:6. The context is God speaking to the people of Israel about following the letter of the law of fasting, but not the heart of it.
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
- Isaiah 58:6
The yoke of slavery continues even today to oppress the bodies, minds, and lives of so many of our Black brothers and sisters. I’ve realized I haven’t personally done much about it at all, even though my family was directly involved in the fastening of those same chains. I’m making a personal commitment to consistently giving my resources - time and money - to educating myself about the endemic American systems of racism and inequity as well as to organizations that have devoted themselves to breaking them.
It’s hard to write about this without coming off as virtue signaling, but I hope my family story will connect with someone in a new way. We have a lot of failings to recognize, financial obligations, and hard conversations ahead of us both as individuals and a nation if we are to heal the root of this deep wound. Let’s get to work.