Why Aren’t We Past The Race Issue?

I’m concerned today. I thought we were moving past all the race stuff. I thought my generation (I’m 34) had broken the majority of these walls. I thought  the amount of melanin (or in my case, the extreme lack thereof) in your skin was no longer an issue. Apparently I was wrong.

racism

Confession: my wife and I are HUGE Big Brother fans. We’ve watched every episode since season one. It was a much different show early on. The first season was won by a guy named Eddie who had only one leg. This week on Big Brother season 15, a young white female was fired from her real-life job because she made several racist remarks on the show. Sadly, she has no clue she’s lost her job. She won’t know until she gets out of the house and off the show. Which at this rate, could be fairly soon. And having heard some of the remarks she’s made, she deserves it.

The Zimmerman verdict has come down on the nation like a ton of bricks. The ugly head of racism has shown itself again. Protests abound. Sides have been taken. Sadly, it wasn’t just a case about a guy shooting a teenager; it was a case about a kinda white guy shooting a black teenager. You’d think we were beyond seeing skin color, but apparently we aren’t.

Differences still scare people. We just aren’t comfortable with those who don’t look or act like us, no matter what group you may be a part of. And that Zimmerman verdict, justified or not, has proven that many still feel racism is alive and well.

I was a youth pastor back in the early 2000’s in Georgia. The town was very diversified. I noticed then that our church kids would often call one another the N word. Every time they saw each other—even the white kids—they’d refer to their friends as their “niggaz.” At first this made me cringe because I knew of the history behind that word. But then I realized that their generation was removing the stigma the word had carried for so many years. White kids, black kids, and all other kids used it as a term of endearment. There was no mockery, no degradation, when they spoke it. In fact, they even used it to refer to me.

But some of the older generations heard the kids using the term and they were concerned. While it carried no stigma whatsoever for those teenagers, it carried great stigma and baggage for the previous generation. So, they asked the kids to stop using it. What happened in that exchange helped both generations. The younger realized that the N word had a large, hurtful history, and the older generation realized these kids were breaking down barriers of race with their language rather than recreating them.

Today my children (son, 8, and twin daughters, 6) don’t even notice race. They never refer to anyone as black, white, or any other color. They don’t know people by color; they know people by name. They don’t have Asian, Hispanic, or Black friends, they just have friends. I hope one day this can be true of us all.

But today it feels a lot further off than it did a week ago.

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4 Replies to “Why Aren’t We Past The Race Issue?”

  1. One of the best experiences a family can have is being a multicultural family, whether by adoption or marriage. Of course I have my Haitian brother and my sister married a tall dark drink of a black American (think Michael Clark Duncan). It’s a beautiful thing having diversity in our immediate family. Not only do my children give no thought to skin color, it has also given me great moments of pause and then redirection of thought. Whenever l have weak moments of fear and insecurity and the old ugly flesh rises up and I want to do a quick judge based on someone’s appearance, I consider how people may respond to my precious brothers and the idea that someone would fear or judge them negatively breaks my heart. My large family stems from the hills of West Virginia, and I’ve sat a gasped listening my great grandfather warn of becoming too close to “those colored people” (BTW, he adored my little brother before his passing some 5 years ago). So, I’m proud of how far we’ve come, but it has been very intentional, and I think intentional desire to change is the key. On top of some serious amounts of Christ-like love.

  2. Epinephrine is a stimulant and endorphins are natural opiates. Both of these are released in the brain when we experience fear and both are highly addictive. I believe the basis of the turmoil surrounding recent events is fear. And I believe the fear that people have in varying degrees concerning racial issues is being magnified by the media and politicians. The idea is being promulgated that there is a cauldron of unrest and violence roiling mere inches below the surface in America and one day, ONE DAY, one final unfair, unjust incident is going to be the last thing the people we’ve been convinced to fear can take and KABLOW!

    All of us, regardless of our skin tones, are being manipulated—told that there are people and cultures, and ideologies to fear. For what purpose? Maybe, just maybe, it’s about money. Wait a minute, listen to me. Maybe we are being whipped into a fear-filled frenzy to sell air time, and books, and music, and ratings, and most of all political campaigns—we just might need to follow the money to get to the root of it all. Money of itself is not evil but when you lie, cheat, and steal to get it, as I contend these fear mongers are doing, you are operating out of an evil place. “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith” 1 Timothy 6:10.

    We can’t allow ourselves to be manipulated, we cannot afford to fear. Like Joshua and Caleb, let’s speak life, let’s encourage each other , let’s declare what God is able to do through us in spite of the giants of fear, hate, and greed in the land. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us the spirit of fear,but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

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