Editor’s Note: The following first appeared in the January-March 2025 issue of Good Faith Magazine.
If someone had told me eight years ago that I would be publicly demonstrating against the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis, I would have said they were crazy. And yet, that’s what I did in the summer of 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
My work with the Charlottesville Clergy Collective led me and other faith leaders and activists to organize an interfaith public response to the Ku Klux Klan in July and the “Unite the Right” rally in August, as they protested against our city council’s proposal to take down Confederate statues in our city.
As an introvert and an immigrant from Hong Kong who spent most of my life trying to fit in and not cause waves, being an “activist” is far outside my comfort zone.
But my discomfort paled in comparison to the pain and trauma experienced by my friends and colleagues in the Clergy Collective. They opened my ears, eyes, and heart to the untold history of oppression toward Black and Native Americans and the current reality of systemic injustice that negatively impacts us all. They are teaching me, in the words of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “the danger of a single story,” and there’s always “more to tell” when addressing the challenges in our houses of worship, organizations, communities, and society.
Today, I continue to seek out and tell “untold stories,” whether in launching an online Charlottesville racial history tour last year, coaching leaders, facilitating groups, or consulting with churches and nonprofits.
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Leadership coach and church consultant at MichaelKCheuk.com. Cheuk is a Good Faith Media governing board member who lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
