Shame, Guilt, and Minneapolis

It is very difficult to get a room of articulate high-powered adolescents to agree on much. Hence, in my Ethics class there was a lot of robust conversation about controversial topics. There were just two guidelines, don’t speak when someone else is speaking and no ad hominin accusations where you are attacking the person and not the issue.

During one unit in the course, I made the comment that I am sure that all of us in this room set up our decisions to avoid rejection, guilt, and vulnerability. How many of you agree? Every hand went up so quickly that I could tell that it was embedded in their psyche and soul and was easily available to them. They looked around the room and saw that all their peers had a similar reaction and turned and faced me with a smile of you got us.

So, why is this aspect of behavior so important today particularly to our immigrant communities, the homeless, and those others who have been disenfranchised in our society.

There is a distinction between guilt and its brother, shame. Guilt says, “I did something wrong.” Shame says, “I am something wrong.”

Most of Trump’s attacks along with Noam, and Vance are meant to shame individuals and groups such as recently the Haitian Community even though a judge made an 83 pages statement that Noam could not deport the Haitians because they a protected status because of fleeing a dangerous country. Trump refers to certain countries in Africa as “shithole countries”.  He knows that shame destroys a person or group as they feel I am not good enough or how dare I think that I have something important to contribute. His comments are designed to immobilize a person or a group.

The best way to empower someone who feels vulnerability is to realize that you are not weak. We feel week as well when we are rejected, and guilty. But courage is born out of vulnerability. Think about it. Vulnerability calls forth courage as a response. It is risk and reward. Brene Brown is the leading authority on the importance of vulnerability. She has studied it for years and is the leading speaker and author on the subject.

I wrote recently about “I’m sorry!” it applies here as well. Guilt calls us to say, “I am sorry. I made a mistake.” Shame calls us to say, “I am sorry! am a terrible person!”

There is an antidote to vulnerability. It is as though, according to Brene Brown, that if you put vulnerability like a disease in a petri dish, you can put in EMPATHY, and it will destroy it.

But there is something else that can cause shame and brings about new life with courage. In a recent column in the Inquirer (February 3, 2026) there was an article about the relationship between Josh Shapiro and Philly DA Larry Krasner about the behavior of ICE. Shapiro was addressing the issue in a political way meant not to get a response from Trump. Krasner referred to the ICE agents as Nazis. (Using that term which connects actions to the Holocaust which is like the third rail that you just don’t do it.) Krasner was attacked by many for doing that. But he never backs down as we know so he pointed that in a speech by Rabbi Joachim Prinz in Washington in 1963. “Bigotry and hatred are not the most hateful problem. Silence equals death.” Both Shapiro and Krasner are Jewish.

Empathy and action strike down the power of silence. This past weekend I watched the various marches being held in major cities in our country and around the world in protest of ICE. Chants of ICE OUT were a constant. Played throughout as well were the sounds of Bruce Springstein’s, Streets of Minneapolis, which I have attached below.

Empathy and action are being called out to break any silence that leads to death In Minneapolis.

Psalm 51:1-2 “Ask for mercy and washing away of guilt based on God’s unfailing love.”

Streets of Minneapolis