Racial Justice and SIL LEAD

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A Statement from Executive Director Dr. Paul Frank:

Although the work of SIL LEAD focuses on speakers of minority languages all around the world, we care deeply about what is happening in the United States as well. The killing of George Floyd—and of so many others before him—horrifies us, provokes us, and challenges us. Those of us in SIL LEAD who are not people of color will never perfectly understand what others have experienced and suffered for far too long. But we stand in solidarity with black people and all people of color in the United States. We resonate with their call for justice. We empathize with their outrage over their seemingly endless mistreatment. 

While our work as an organization is focused on other countries, an article by Larry Madowo, a Kenyan journalist living in New York City, gave me a glimpse into how those two worlds intersect. His experience told him that “America may be the land of opportunity for many, but it would still reduce me to the color of my skin and find me unworthy.” 

I find myself wondering what would happen if some of the people we serve in other countries, or good friends and colleagues such as Susan, Kuchhat, and Béatrice, were to come to the United States? It breaks my heart to think that they, too, would be judged by the color of their skin and be deemed unworthy of respect and fair treatment. As the Apostle James wrote in the Bible, “Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right!”

We long for a more just society. We pray that black people and indeed all people of color—in the United States, and in all the minority language communities that we serve around the world—will one day be able to live without fear, fully accepted for who they are; never again reduced, marginalized, or oppressed for the color of their skin.

Now You Know...

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Now You Know...

Empathy is hard.

It’s not necessarily that humans are inherently self-absorbed—although that does describe an uncomfortable percentage of us—it’s just that life is complicated and challenging enough without having to step out of our own shoes and into someone else’s. This is why the current period of enforced empathy may prove in some ways to be a good thing—an opportunity, even.

For perhaps the first time in the history of the world, all of us are experiencing the same thing, at the same time.

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Redirecting the Spotlight

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Redirecting the Spotlight

Dr. Susan Malone does not like to talk about herself. Not, she says, when “there are too many much more important things to talk about, such as the children in non-dominant language communities who are discriminated against in formal education systems.”

The strength of an organization is always its people, and SIL LEAD’s strength comes from the fact that its staff and associates always seem to insist on shining the spotlight away from themselves and onto the people with whom they work. In a world grown obsessed with the ephemera of fame, it is good to be reminded that everyone has a voice worth hearing, and that all too often some voices are silenced—either intentionally, or by failing to listen…

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