By Andy Hale

“Just one more story,” my kids often say to my wife and me at bedtime. So whether reading one of their favorite books, carving our way through the Harry Potter series, or improvising a funny story, we have always told stories at bedtime with our two daughters.

Who doesn’t love a good story? We all want to be inspired or to laugh. We all want to be reminded of the courage of others and reinforce what we believe to be true about our heroes.

But some stories are so painful that we don’t want to tell them. Some stories we avoid because we know it will drudge up things, feelings of regret, remorse, and guilt.

For far too long white Americans have been avoiding telling bad stories: the systematic annihilation of the native population; the chattel slavery system; the first era of Jim Crow through the mass incarceration of black Americans in the South, to the new Jim Crow laws of police brutality.

“The reckoning, over this last year, has been exciting. But at the same time, it has been met with the same backlash as it always has. Every stage of progress towards racial equality has been met with an attempt to silence black people,” said Propaganda on the CBF Podcast.

We sat down with the artist, poet, author, activist, and musician to discuss where we are in the fight for equality and his new book, Terraform: Building a Better World.

“I hope that this same playbook of suppressions is becoming more obvious to people. I hope that people are becoming more conscious of what black people have known for years.”

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This podcast episode is brought to you by The Center for Congregational Health, Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, and McAfee School of Theology Doctor of Ministry program.

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Andy Hale is the creator and host of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Podcast. Hale is the senior pastor of University Baptist Church of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, following eight years as the founding pastor of Mosaic Church of Clayton and five years as CBF’s church start specialist. Follow on Twitter @haleandy.