CRITICAL RACE TRAINING

Written By Al Staggs

Drafted into the Army,

September of ’65,

from my all-white world

in the tiny community of McAlmont,

originally an enslaved community.

Blacks, Latinos, and poor whites

were taken from our very separate worlds

and challenged to create a unified fighting force.

Hearing stories of Black lives

became my education, my enlightenment

concerning a world I had not known.

I can never again be blissfully ignorant

on the issue of race

as a southern white boy

who has known entitlement

in ways Black Lives could never know.

Al Staggs

Alfred “Al” Staggs combines his artistic talents as a performing artist, author, and poet with his years as an ordained minister and chaplain to speak to justice issues in his several dramatic one-man plays of heroes of the faith such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Clarence Jordan, William Sloane Coffin, and more. He has authored five books including What Would Bonhoeffer Say?, A Pilgrim in Rome, and Fragments of Life. He uses his story of growing up in a dysfunctional home, his degrees in psychology, and theology, and training in humor therapy to touch audiences with his Laughter for Life program, impersonating many beloved and infamous characters.

https://www.peacewithjustice.com/
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