I honor the tradition that is my biggest source of learning and my biggest area of music interest-- spirituals-- by allowing myself to be open to the thoughts, feelings, and spirituality that created them, and by singing them with the same directness of expression with which they started.
That means, in large part, that while singing them as a free, privileged person, who will never suffer what their originators suffered in precisely the same way, I allow myself to express whatever suffering or bondage I have experienced. Not that I think I can "equal" or "mirror" anyone else's, but that I acknowledge that in even my privilege, I too know what it is to hurt, to yearn for a better world, and to seek solace when working for that better world doesn't feel real good.
That also means, in particular, that I neither "sanitize" nor "black up" the text, but I don't hold back from singing them, either, in a way that some folks might THINK errs in either of those directions if they don't know me well enough to know how I communicate.
And finally, it also means, especially this last year, that I trust my sense of what those songs are, what they are about, and how messy the genre itself is and, thank goodness, always will be.
I think overall, Jerry, since you offered this opening to reflect a bit, that it comes from an inner attitude of welcome, gratitude, and loosely-held (open-handed) stewardship.