I’m about to go to a
meeting and at this meeting there will be discussions going on about
racism. This will be a rather
significant meeting since it is the annual meeting of my denomination and the
discussions are going to lead to various actions, reactions, and
attitudes. What will be thought, said,
or done is going to be consequential though there will be cynics who will dismiss
much of it, as cynics do (and this will be from all sides of the issue). There will be those at this meeting who will belittle,
dismiss, or evade as those who suffer from “racial discussion irritation” tend
to do every time the subject comes up.
There will be some people at this meeting
who will expose the formation of their thinking and attitudes concerning the issues
of race as being politically driven, and will interpret everyone who might
oppose them as being politically driven as well. Thus they are dismissive that there is any
“real” issue of moral, spiritual or Biblical substance. They will voice the
idea that there might be some justification to the discussion if it just wasn’t
put into the vocabulary of social justice forgetting that such vocabulary owes
much of its content to the Biblical prophets.
This
usually comes from a conservative political side, which has cooked a stew of
interpreting racial issues, complaints, cries for justice, and analysis of
racial incidents as simply political in nature.
They have often interpreted the voicing of racial concerns as only
things to be manipulated by liberals or democrats and not actual moral,
ethical, or spiritual matters. Such
manipulation has happened of course, but it does not invalidate our own
personal, congregational, or denominational history and involvement in our
national racial narrative.
This pattern of dismissal was true during
the time of slavery, and the struggle for civil rights. According to this narrative black people have
never had any real issues or complaints; everything was manufactured by
abolitionists, or Northern agitators, or communists for their own purposes. The proof positive of this was always to find
a Negro who expressed resentment about people bringing the issue up when they
claimed to be pretty happy in the system (slavery, Jim Crow, segregation,
apartheid). Oppressed people have sometimes had difficulty not only
understanding their oppression (the Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt), but
feeling free to tell the truth about it.
There is an interesting dynamic in racial
discussions that tends to be fairly constant, although stretching across
different demographics. This dynamic is
the tendency to assume that one can live in America and be aloof from the
conversation. The issue of race in America is a national artifact, it is part of our collective history, has
created our present culture, and affects every single person residing in this
country. The way we react or fail to
react to the artifact of race and inter-racial conflict adds to the artifact.
Because race as a created social construct
played so heavily in the creation of America it is very difficult to walk
around in public without people assigning you to a racial category. Whether or not anyone told you how and when
it happened, certain privileges and complications go with that designation. The designation can be solely in another
person’s mind, and the privilege or hindrance associated with their designation
can cause one to have a blessing or be cursed.
Sometimes this designation ends up being fatal. An example of this would be “driving while
black” or being profiled and creating a confrontation that leads to
violence. There are always exceptions
and negative designations are not universal, yet our history reveals tendencies
depending on the lightness or darkness of skin color.
Majority culture people who have had the possibility
of living a segregated life and not actively mingling with other kinds of folks
sometimes act as if they can intellectually observe all this discussion from
afar, as if they have not been the recipients of racial privilege due to
racism. We often enter racial
conversations as if we can be neutral, can walk away from the issue if it
bothers us too much, or think that we bear no responsibility for the national culture and how
it affects minority cultures.
Unfortunately we seem to get away with it too often, but it is an
illusion that besets obtuse individuals who do not realize how offensive and
destructive to relationship healing that they continue to be.
We have met Europeans who have immigrated
to the U.S. in the last decade or so who claim that none of these problems are
theirs, that they are somehow not involved.
We have met Africans who have reacted exactly the same way, and might
insist to any white racist that they are not African-American but African and
should be treated differently, and react to African Americans as if this
American fight is not theirs. Again, to
enter into this society is to enter into a society one of whose major and
significant historical and cultural artifacts is the color of your skin, not
your language nor your tribe nor where you are from and not how long you have
been here. It is part of the mess in
which we step and gets on everyone’s shoes.
You might deny it but the stink of it goes with you.
Since only those people in denial think
they can escape it the only realistic way through it is to deal with it, to think about
it, to discuss it. That discussion will
inevitably be with those of “another” people group, as least if one actually
wants to make progress in coming to any kind of reconciliation. Many of these discussions can be painful,
opening up wounds to heal them.
There are those who believe that “it is best
to let sleeping dogs lie.” Some might
believe that those problems from a past era are over, might even be regrettable,
but why bring them up now? Again, this
presupposes a certain sense of denial about current racial tensions and
injustices and betrays a lack of concern or sense of responsibility about the
past. Some people think silence is a
mark of peace or even a way to maintain peace and unity when in actuality it is
too often a resignation (on the part of some), to the idea that progress and
healing cannot be pursued or accomplished.
To others it is a convenient hiding place from dealing with their sin.
I am looking (and I am looking for it first
in myself) for a discussion in sincerity, conducted with honesty, of truth
telling. I am looking for humility, a conversation of hope, filled with mercy
and readiness to forgive and be forgiven.
I am looking for a hatred of sin, not just that of others but our own,
and a great rush to repentance and revenge.
Revenge? Yes, the kind that the
Apostle Paul spoke of when he wrote the Corinthians about how they had dealt
with sin in their church in 2 Corinthians 7:11.
I don’t think the reference concerns revenge against a person, but a revenge
against sin, uncleanness, and against the Devil. My hope is for a godly sorrow that leads to a
great zeal for repentance, holiness, and justice among us; not to harm anyone
but rather to heal our souls and our church.
END.
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