About a week ago, Elon Musk made an appearance and spoke at Germany’s Alternative Für Deutschland election campaign event. This is Germany’s far-right party, and Musk is a big fan and supporter. During this event, he said the following:

“There is too much focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that,”

“children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great grandparents”

These words were spoken two days before Holocaust Remembrance Day. Seemingly speaking about the Holocaust and atrocities committed against the Jewish people, I disagree with this perspective. Guilt and shame have an important part in helping us to become empathetic humans.

This is tricky territory. I am not talking about religious, familial, or cultural guilt that centers around things such as sexuality, adherence to strict behavioral rules, and fear of punishment. I know deeply this kind of shame. It becomes destructive and detrimental to mental health and well-being. It is not a place to wallow and build a home.

I am talking about a healthy amount of guilt and shame that leads to examination of wrongdoings, self-reflection, and a commitment to move forward in a different way.

When we skip the very real things that guilt has to teach us, we stuff down and bury important opportunities to grow and become more evolved and free people. Healthy guilt doesn’t lead to despair, it leads to liberation. I know this in my bones.

I am currently working on a book project that will explore my family’s Southern Baptist roots as well as participation in the enslavement of Black human beings. I have an African American coach who is helping me to delve deeply into how white folks’ discomfort with feeling any kind of shame or guilt around treatment of Black people historically and today is a stumbling block to liberation for all. I look forward to being challenged and pushed to go deeper here.

Intergenerational trauma and the field of epigenetics are also fascinating and hopeful to me. So much gets passed down silently yet efficiently.

Elon, I have something to say to you. Denial of past sins and wrongdoing is a pathway to a festering darkness and great pain. Othering only leads to deep suffering for victims and perpetrators. No, the German people whose great grandparents visited genocide and destruction upon Jewish humans do not need to be stuck and roll around in the atrocities of their ancestors. But if they just deny their heritage, they will never be free. If they don’t learn the devastating lessons of this period of history, they are most apt to repeat annihilation of “the other.” Right wing parties across the globe and right here at home are marching in this direction.

Invitation: I would love to use this space to lift up other voices in the coming months. If you have a story to share about how the recent administration change has harmed you, your family, your work place, your community, etc., and would like to write about this, shoot me an email at adoptinggrace2017@gmail.com and we can talk about whether it is a good fit for this space.