“When you come to the black community, it’s not monolithic.”
Reverend John Mondi is Senior Church Pastor of Grand Rapids’ African Community Fellowship Church.
“Even those from Africa, we come from different cultural settings. And therefore, the theme of loving your neighbor. The theme of loving the stranger and welcoming them. If that has to take place, we have to take the nitty-gritty of getting to know each other well.”
Reverend Mondi has viewed the videos of Patrick Lyoya running from Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr leading to a struggle and then the fatal shooting.
“Could there be something else that could have been done in that video? Looking (at) it from my Kenyan eyes in the culture that I come from, yes. Yes! In Kenya when you run from police, it is respectful for the police because you show respect to the authority. You run away from them. And therefore, when you run away from them, they are very happy. But when you resist and stay there, it is the total opposite. This little cultural issues really are important and sometimes we overlook them.”
Reverend Mondi suggests when it comes to discussing social justice, and the foundational issues, it’s the little things, as he puts it, that are most important.
