You probably read the title of this and either instantly were eager to discuss this subject, or eager to get away from it. It’s uncomfortable. Good. It should be. Racism sucks. Is that the understatement of the century? As a visibly “white” person, I haven’t experienced racism directed towards me. Unless you count the handful of Scottish people who were disappointed to hear my red hair mostly came from the Irish part of my ancestry. (Fun fact, Irish people weren’t considered “white” in the U.S. until the mid 19th century.) As another aside, I’ve never liked being called “white”. Firstly, my skin is clearly pink. Or red if there’s too much sun and not enough sunscreen. Secondly, my gene’s aren’t solely Caucasian (they’re Levi’s, just kidding…). They’re actually mixed from a batch of various group (including a speck or spot from Mongolia and Afghanistan). And I’m disproportionately proud of that “diversity” in my heritage. Unsurprisingly, for anyone whose seen me, I am generally viewed as white. For those of us white or viewed so, most of us have never experienced direct first hand racism. However, I would wager that most, like me, have experienced other white people making racist comments (willfully or ignorantly) about other groups, in our presence. My question is: How often do we challenge and call out racism compared to how often we let it slide because “they don’t know better”? What you tolerate, says a lot about what really matters to you. If you’re reading this as say, a rather fundamentalist “puritan” minded Christian, and you won’t hang around with say, those who swear, smoke, or drink, yet you let racist comments slide with those you associate with, aren’t you inadvertently through your actions saying you view racism as more acceptable than drinking? Ironically, while alcohol is a Biblical a grey area, racism is not. the Bible doesn’t condone drinking (Colossians 2:16), only getting drunk (Ephesians 5:18). Though that is a larger and separate subject. But the Bible is pretty clear about loving our neighbours (Mark 12:31) and racism (Acts 10:34-35). When I was in college, I remember wrestling through some particularly challenging Biblical concepts, and passing through a hallway with a lot of vendors and booths set up. One of these booths was for either a ministry or church, and I struck up a conversation with the man at the booth, about the Biblical quandary I had. I don’t remember what the quandary was, or his answer, all I remember is this one rather bizarre statement he made. It was something to the effect of, “I’ve been watching those magpies all day, carousing around, I don’t think they give even a thought to the sins they are committing.” Magpies? I couldn’t imagine what on Earth he was talking about, until I turned around to see a group of young people, who happened to be black, hanging out. I looked back to see he was looking directly at them. I was dumbfounded. Did he seriously just call them magpies? The sad thing is, I just quickly ended the conversation and walked away. I didn’t call him out on his racist statement. And this is the problem I am seeing when I am with white people: we aren’t correcting each other. We’re so nervous of talking about racism we inadvertently let it perpetuate. We inadvertently tell people we don’t care about racism, through our silence. We need to speak up, not as white knights doing our part to help minorities, but as human beings trying to help each other stop being jerks to one another. While I have a deep love for the global church and my brothers and sisters in Christ, I’m struggling to find the words and put them in a loving Christian manner, because I’m tired of seeing how disrespectful we are to one another, and how often we as white Christians willfully ignore the subject of race, or worse yet, try to dismiss it or “debunk” it. We are not all the same. We are all equal. But we each are experiencing different things in this world. And those of us who espouse to love the God who created all of us with equal value, need to start acting like we truly believe that and intentionally and actively combat the dehumanization and diminishing of those around us who have different experiences and happen to look different than us. So as a hyper oversimplification of my thoughts: speak up when people are being racist, whether they do it by ignorance or intent. You can do so in a loving way that helps them learn, rather than putting them down. But please guys, let’s stop letting it slide. Don’t be racist. Don’t be a jerk. – Captain Obvious
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Chris GreenI'm a children/youth minister who loves God and loves people. I'm doing my part to point myself and others to Jesus. Archives
March 2021
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