Be an Established People in the Land of Exile

By Rima Vesely-Flad

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (Jeremiah 29:4-7)

Every week, I journey from my home in East Harlem to volunteer in a college-level educational program in a New York State maximum-security prison. The men in my class are from a variety of faith backgrounds, studying biblical and ethical texts in an effort to engage history, criticism, and their interior lives. They hold Bible study at the beginning of class, researching the context of complex and often contradictory passages. Last week, Jeremiah stood out as an especially poignant text, given their social locations as men of color from impoverished communities.

While combating the words of false prophets, Jeremiah was telling the Israelites to adjust their worship life, their political engagement, and their family structures to their new situation of being a minority people in an imperial, conquering nation.

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. As they reflected on this passage, one Muslim student pointed out that the scripture's footnotes cited, “Jeremiah's advice to pray for Babylon was revolutionary.” Jeremiah, the prophet, was writing from Jerusalem to Israelites exiled in Babylon after the military forces of King Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to his city. While combating the words of false prophets, Jeremiah was telling the Israelites to adjust their worship life, their political engagement, and their family structures to their new situation of being a minority people in an imperial, conquering nation.

“Jeremiah is telling them to become an established people,” this student told the class. “I think about what that means for African-American people, brought over as slaves to work in the fields. I think that many of our leaders must have heard God say this to them. How were they going to reestablish themselves as a people? I think of our leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., Carter Wilson, and Booker T. Washington.”

How are we going to reestablish ourselves as a people? This question confronted the African-American community historically, and continues to face us today as we struggle disproportionately with poverty, unemployment, substandard housing and schools, and the denial of political rights. We are directly impacted when the nation to which our ancestors were exiled undergoes political transitions: wars, elections, and demographic changes. How are we going to reestablish ourselves as a people? This question is especially poignant as we count down to the November 2004 election. In less than three weeks, when enfranchised citizens of the United States vote for its next president, our community cannot be represented as an established people. Due to the over-incarceration of black men and women, many have lost the right to vote or are told that they have lost the right to vote.

The difficulty of African Americans participating in the electoral process as an established people was highlighted for the nation in the last election. Florida is one of nine states that permanently bars persons with felony convictions from voting.   Nationwide, about five million people will not be able to vote in this year's election due to state laws that address felony convictions. The majority of these potential voters are black, and studies have shown that racism underscores their disenfranchisement. One-third of disenfranchised black men are convicted of drug crimes, which are inherently discretionary. Research has shown that black people do not use drugs more than white people, but are arrested and convicted of drug charges at a much higher rate.

The 2000 election unveiled the lengths to which the Republican Party will go to fraudulently “win” the nation's highest office. George W. Bush gained the presidency by a mere 537 ballots in Florida after thousands of black voters were illegally turned away from the polls because their names appeared on lists of persons with felony convictions. Furthermore, nearly 600,000 black voters in Florida were legally denied the right to vote because of felony disenfranchisement. The result is Bush's presidency, arguably the most catastrophic, destructive regime in modern history.

Once a people enslaved, [African Americans] have gained consequential political rights and can influence the outcome of a national election. The responsibility of speaking out for voting rights begins with us . . . we must fight to establish ourselves as a people in the land to which our ancestors were exiled.

Although African Americans have long been dismissed as unnecessary to win an election – we are approximately twelve percent of the population – it was clear in 2000 that we are an essential constituency. Once a people enslaved, we have gained consequential political rights and can influence the outcome of a national election. The responsibility of speaking out for voting rights begins with us as we dedicate ourselves to the well-being of the black community, to the U.S., and to the world community. Like the leaders who came before us, we must fight to establish ourselves as a people in the land to which our ancestors were exiled. The words of the prophet Jeremiah are instructions for us today. Seek the welfare of the city to which I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.  

To seek the welfare of our country, as the exiles were instructed to seek the welfare of Babylon, we must pray. But we must do more than pray. We must do more than build houses and multiply. We must actively lobby for the political rights of our people. To truly seek the welfare of our community and of the U.S., African Americans, as an established people in the land to which our ancestors were exiled, must be able to vote in local and national elections.

Rima Vesely-Flad is the director of the Interfaith Coalition of Advocates for Reentry and Employment (ICARE) and an instructor at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, N.Y. She lives in New York City, and may be reached by email at nyicare@earthlink.net .

For more information on issues related to persons reentering communities following prison, visit the Urban Institute .