Go and See 'Jane and Emma' this Weekend

Holly Richardson. "Go and See 'Jane and Emma' this Weekend. Salt Lake Tribune, Oct. 13 2018. p.A11.

Tamu has shared her own painful experiences encountering painful experiences encountering racism in the church.  The first time she was called the N-word was at a church school.  Not surprisingly, it shocked her and then rocked her.  She needed to know if there really was a place for her in "God's choir." A teacher sent her to the college library to research black Mormon pioneers and that is where she "met" Jane and changed her life.

COMMENT

I've lived in Utah my whole life and I had no idea that Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a.k.a. Mormons) was radically anti-racist. The contemporary LDS  church has yet to live up to Joseph Smith's vision, "All are alike unto God".  Up until 1978, black men were forbidden to hold the priesthood (women still can't).  I've often wondered how black people could be persuaded to convert to Mormonism.

Two  black Mormon women, Tamu Smith and Zandra Vranes collaborated on the script for the movie Jane and Emma (2018) (In Utah those names don't necessarily sound black, but they definitely sound Mormon).  At a point where she was feeling doubt, Tamu went searching for black Mormon history, where else? In the library.  There she found a history that indicated having a  black Mormon identity is not an impossible contradiction.

Later in the essay Richardson writes that she has a teenaged daughter adopted from Ethiopia.  After the family watched Jane and Emma they started a conversation about racism.  Richardson's daughter admitted, "That's happened to me." Someday Holly Richardson's daughter might go looking for black Mormon history in the library herself.  I like to think that when she does she'll find her very own mama bear standing up for radical inclusion.