But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ – Exodus 5:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 10, 2015): Exodus 5

Lawrence Vale, an MIT professor who has studied and written on the phenomenon of public housing says that the problem of confusing where people live and who they are has become a bit of an American Tradition. And maybe not just in North America. The names that we gather for people that is connected to where they live seems to keep expanding. The terms Trailer Trash (low income trailer park inhabitants), Hillbilly (rural and low income inhabitants of the Appalachian Mountains or the Ozarks), Bogan (low income people living in the outer suburbs of major cities in Australia or New Zealand), Yokel (low income country dweller) and Section 8er (low income living in subsidized housing) all speak of our penchant to confuse the where with the who. According to Vale “We’ve been doing that as a society for a really, really long time.” Vale also suggests that for much of that history our descriptions have been racialized – or confusing not just the where with the who, but also the where and who with the entire race of the people being described. There would seem to be no simple solution to the problem. As long as we insist on segregating ourselves into higher, middle and lower income areas, the blending of the who with the where will most likely continue.

There are a lot of things that would seem to be happening in Egypt as Moses delivers his first request to Pharaoh, and this conflation of who and where would seem to be part of it. Pharaoh is discounting the possibility that the Israelites, who exist as slaves within the Egyptian society and who lived in Ancient Egypt’s version of low income housing, could ever have a genuine encounter with the gods. That was a privilege that was reserved for those of a higher stature. And because it was impossible for Israel to encounter God, there must be another reason for the request. And this idea had been racialized. There is a great probability that the Pharaoh would have known Moses. Some believe that it was possible that the Pharaoh had grown up with Moses in the palace. Moses had never been a slave and for the last forty years had been living outside of Egypt, and yet he is being painted with the same brush as the rest of his race.   

And the reason that Pharaoh fall back on for the real reason behind the request is the same one that we accuse Trailer Trash, Bogans and Section 8ers of today – they must be lazy. Therefore, the solution had to be to give them more work – in this case, don’t give them the straw for the bricks, make them gather their own straw but keep the number required to be produced the same. Maybe if we just keep them busy they will stop dreaming up ways of getting out of work and taking a holiday in the desert.

In the story of Moses, we recognize how unfair the Pharaoh is in this expectation. But maybe our own expectations for the people around us need to be examined. Where should never describe who – we are simply created as too complex beings for that to ever be a true generalization of who we are. And in the eyes of God, we are all his children - no matter where we live.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 6