Pomegranate + Peace
By Craig Lieckfelt & Jameria Blain
David, from the time he was born, has known he was white. David has also known from an early age that he was American. A white male living in America, given privileges that he never quite knew were in place for him until he was given the chance to see the world from a different perspective.
Until he could no longer ignore the privilege placed on its lap. Until he’s had enough of allowing his said privilege to be in vain while others were suffering.
“GEORGE FLOYD! SAY HIS NAME!”
David chanted out amongst the crowds. His ear drums were ringing as the responding battle cry echoed down the street in one united voice. The crowd surged forward on an energy, closely woven like seeds enclosed in a pomegranate peel. While there were certainly organizers of the event, who seemed to get lost in the fray of the crowd’s magnitude, their presence wasn’t needed in the heart of the moment. For the people gathered seemed to intuitively know when to start marching and when to start chanting. The collective mind of the people was working in concert towards a common goal.
David has had enough! His whole adult life, it seems like it’s a revolving door of police violence towards the African American community. For it seemed every year, more and more innocent victims are murdered with little signs of justice or concern for their lives and family members. And David was tired of the new stories that would constantly repeat the cycle with little empathy. He wanted to do something, anything that places him on the right side of history, the side of righteousness.
The goal was and is equality, but the outcry for change is too vague these days. The systems built on inequality and the mistreatment of men and women of color must dissolve. Real actions must be put in place to protect each citizen of this country that David’s grown up in, as he knows their lives matter just as much as his.
“NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE” David’s arms start to grow tired, but he refuses to quit now. He knows that it’s important for his sign is raised high, and for his shoulders to remain strong as he presses through in the march. So, he realigns his thoughts towards what he’s marching towards. And his voice remains loud and in unison with the crowd surrounding him.
The mask on his face, does muffle his passion a bit as the elastic presses against his ears, a micro amount of pressure and discomfort to swallow down when he’s remined of the pain and suffering George Floyd must’ve endured as a knee was relentlessly pressed on his neck.
It’s been a week since the murder, and his ears have caught on to the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as they continued being echoed throughout the outrage. He’s heard the words of Dr. King numerous times before, always feeling that his words were lingering in the presence around him. But this time his words seemed to punctured David’s soul.
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
David acknowledges he doesn’t have all the answers, but his part is to be humble, learn, support and stand up for what he believes in. Stand up for the friends and communities that call him a friend. Stand up for the right side of justice and human rights. David realizes he needs to stand up, because he’d want the same support if the roles were reversed.
David yells and marches on, a new fire igniting inside of him, so his arms are no longer tired, and his hands raise his sign, “Black Lives Matter,” even higher in the air.
The streets are lined with onlookers and well-wishers cheering the movement on. People leaning out of windows and raising through voices in solidarity. David was emboldened by the movement. Humanity will be better, he thought, as his feet carried him down Market Street.
The faces of the people around him were not full of malice, but full of frustration. Frustration that it takes a grueling video, that happened in broad daylight, to start the conversation about the mistreatment of the African American community in America. It takes a video for people to finally believe the agony that the African American has been trying to tell us for years! It took a video and the smile and ignorant attitude of the cop, who’s knee is firmly secure on Floyd’s neck for people to admit America has a race problem. It took a video for people to feel a slight hint of pain that the African American community can never escape from.
The streets rally for Floyd, but they also rally for Breonna Taylor, a young woman close to David’s age group killed in her sleep by cops who were never supposed to be on her side of town to begin with. The outcries of frustration include her life being taken too soon, being snatched away despite her selfless work as a an EMT during one of the most unprecedented times in American history. Her service ignored, her life left undervalued and under-acknowledged in the weight of Floyd’s tragedy. The streets cry out in pain for the countless victims left forgotten and unidentified, stemming all the way back to Emmett Till, a death the African American Community still hasn’t been able to mourn properly because the violence doesn’t seem to stop. Frustration bleeds through the streets, David can see that. And he just hopes that during the solidarity that real change happens for the people that need it the most.
For to simply state that there is equality in America is a myth. For the practice of equality only caters to one group in this country. And sense there is no equality, there can be no peace. Unless there is equality — and equal access to freedom, justice, and safety — there will be strife.
Black Lives Matter just as important and deserving of being included in conversation like every other race. Black Lives Matter isn’t trying to place one race above another, it’s a statement created to remind people that Black lives exist in America too. They aren’t simply living in America just to be taken advantage of, to be harassed, to be mocked, threatened, bullied, raped, slandered, killed, or thrown in jail cells. Black Lives Matter is a statement that tells the world, that there’s more to America than just whiteness. There are more people deserving of equality than just White Americans. There should be and needs to be more to life, for a Black person in America to look forward to, than death or the constant threat of death emanating through the air waves and daily news as they continually glorify and showcase (in a graphic fashion) another black body being slain.
Black Lives Matter is there to tell the world that Black Americans are seeking more than just pain and suffering and fear. Black Americans want to experience happiness and joy, and peace and security. Black Americans want to know that their skin isn’t an automatic death sentence for them. That they are indeed able to move in their body freely without a stereotype being attached to their persons whenever they display a simple human emotion. It’s a statement that is begging America, that is begging the world at large to stop policing the joy of Black Americans, to stop stalking every movement a Black American makes, to stop telling Black Americans you want nothing to do with them while still going out of your way to make sure they can’t live successful lives in a country they were born and raised in!
The 400 years of slavery, still screams out on the soils of this country. The blood of the innocent still screams out in every space of this land. Yet despite the past, that this country so conveniently tries to forget, the African American Community pushes forward. Moving forwards in a society that has systemically targeted Black Americans since the Bill of Rights were put into place.
Not being racist isn’t enough. Being appalled by a video is not enough. Being anti-racist is a start but it’s not the full solution. David realizes, it’s ignorant to believe that racism this embedded in this country’s history will never go away. No number of marches or speeches or chants can fully take away such disdain and hatred. But he does know this movement has purpose. A purpose to show forth love to a community that’s forever isolated. A purpose to stand alongside those willing to change policies around racist and discriminatory behaviors.
Bruce Lee’s advice for living was to “be water.” Water can be both hard and soft. David reflected on how this is a description for a moment like this. It takes the consistent pressure of people to change systems. This crowd flowing through the streets was a part of that pressure.
David scanned the faces of the crowd. Every race, gender, age, sexual orientation, and ethnicity was represented. Everyone there in the wave of people stood for love. Stood for unity and stood alongside the right side of history and David was grateful to be among them.
Sweet & Sour Mushrooms with pomegranate oil, cabbage slaw and scallion pancakes
ingredients (mushrooms)
abalone or porcini (8 pieces)
soy sauce 1 cup
honey 1/2 cup
black bean sauce 2 T
rice vinegar 1/4 cup
corn starch 1 T
ingredients (pomegranate oil)
pomegranate seeds 1 cup
sesame seeds 1 T
rice vinegar 2 T
sesame oil 1 T
chives 1 T
salt pinch
ingredients (cabbage slaw)
shredded Napa cabbage 2 cups
cilantro 1/2 cup
carrots (julienne) 1 cup
rice vinegar 1/4 cup
broccoli 2 cups
black sesame seeds 2 T
ingredients (scallion pancakes)
eggs 4 each
heavy cream 1 cup
whole milk 2 cups
vegetable oil 2 T
ap flour 1 cup
buckwheat flour 1/3 cup
salt 2 tsp
scallions (sliced) 3 cups
honey 2 t
for the mushrooms…
Preheat an oven to 400F and heat a sauté pan. Put oil in the pan and when it starts to smoke, keep mushrooms whole, sauté and season with salt. Browned on all sides and roast in the oven for 7 minutes. Combine the soy sauce, vinegar, honey, and black bean sauce and simmer until emulsified. Make a slurry with the corn starch and whisk into the sauce. Once thickened, add the mushrooms and simmer until coated.
for the pomegranates…
Cut the pomegranates in half along the equator and then with a spoon tap the outside over a bowl of water so the seeds fall into the water. The seeds will sink and the other particles will float to the top. Remove the floating parts and drain the water and keep the seeds. Add to a mixing bowl with sesame seeds, rice vinegar, sesame oil, chives and salt.
for the slaw…
Cut the cabbage, carrots, peas and cilantro and combine in a bowl. Season with rice vinegar, salt and black sesame seeds.
for the pancakes…
Combine all ingredients and mix throughly.
Heat up a 9” non stick pan and spray with cooking spray. Laddle three ounces of batter in the pan and move around until a think layer is made and then once cooked through, flip the pancake and cook for 10 seconds and then fold into quarters.
