RACISM – A Self-study

As Americans, we often refer to our culture as a vast melting pot into which all races, cultures and languages are assimilated into one, new whole. Recent events in Ferguson, MO, and in other parts of our nation reveal that the ideal for which we strive is still very fractured by the sin of racism. For all the advances we thought our culture had undergone since the time of the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s, the sin of racism that split our country asunder during the Civil War, and produced the Jim Crow laws, the Ku Klux Klan, and the many other clones of the same ilk, still gnaws at the innards of our nation like a cancer.

It is a huge mistake for any of us from the North to be self-righteous and point fingers at those South of the Mason-Dixon line and accuse them of being heartless bigots. I can just as easily find the same racism and bigotry in my little town of New Prague. My Ford Focus once sported a bumper sticker stating the need for immigration reform, “God does not create illegal human beings”. One of the citizens of New Prague felt it necessary to write above the bumper sticker, with a permanent black ink Sharpie, “F..k those God-damn Mexicans! And F..k you!!” So much for racial tolerance and acceptance in little ol’ Czechoslovakian New Prague, Minnesota.

Racism and bigotry are learned behaviors. We learn these behaviors from our parents and relatives, our friends, our communities, and our culture. Those of us who derive our heritage from Northern and Southern European ancestry have, over the years, contributed to an ongoing Social Darwinism that purports that those whose skin color is white are smarter, more productive, and racially superior than those whose skin is not white. Much of our nation’s infrastructure, industry, and agriculture has been historically built by people of color, people for whom white society has either had little regard, or has patronized as being pitifully inferior.

For years our social media has reinforced this false creed of racial superiority. For decades, movies, stage shows, and television portray a world dominated by white people. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find any people of color in the television shows of the ‘50’s or ‘60’s. If there are any people of color, they are often portrayed as being worthy only in so much that they serve white society, as servants, or as entertainers, or, in later decades as being a threat to the white dominant society, e.g. criminals, prostitutes, terrorists, drug abusers etc. The number of times people of color have been portrayed as equals to white people in stature, culture and intelligence are far fewer than we think. Heavily influenced by what we see and hear in our culture, is it any wonder that this false doctrine of white superiority is perpetuated in our society?

Racial superiority is a false doctrine and is in direct opposition to the Gospel of Jesus. We are all made in the image and the likeness of God, each and every one of us, male and female (Don’t get me started on sexism, too!). The DNA of God is imprinted in the DNA of all human beings whether our skin tones are light or dark. Each and every human face is a window upon which we gaze on the face of God. Jesus did not incarnate as a human being in order to lord power over others, but to share power with others.

Lest I be guilty of Jesus’ admonition, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?” (Mt 7:3), I need to confront the racism that I harbor within myself before pointing it out in others. I remember having to come to face my own racism when I was an undergraduate at the then, College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota in the early 1970’s. Every day, I rode the city buses of St. Paul (I transferred 3 times along the way) in order to get to school. As the Snelling Ave. bus approached the St. Paul Midway, the entire “color” of the bus changed from white to black. I remember, as the lone white person on the bus, feeling very intimidated by this change. I had no rational reason to feel thusly. It was an irrational fear that rose up within me. I was puzzled by this and uncomfortable with myself for feeling this way. I had no more to fear from someone who was black than I did from someone who was white, yet, I still felt this way nonetheless. To discover why this was, I had to seriously begin to search within myself for the source of this racism. 

My dad and mom are not racists. Catholic to the core, and very faith-filled people, they considered racism a great aberration and a sin against God. I did not learn racism from them. If I didn’t learn racism from my parents, from where did I learn it? I learned my racism from my white culture. With the exception of my first 2 years of life on the South Side of Chicago, I have grown up in exclusively white neighborhoods and towns. Whether it be the white Meccas of Chicago suburbia, namely, Downers Grove and Naperville, from the 50’s and 60’s, or the area around Como Lake in St. Paul, and Roseville, Mn, my formative years were lived with very little contact with people of color. The racism to which I have claim was garnered by the culture in which I lived, and in the social media that I watched.

Note in my bus story, the use of the words “irrational fear.” Racism is fear based. Racism is also irrational. Racism is spread by irrational and unfounded fear. Racism sows division based on a fear of the unknown. To beat the sin of racism, one must first confront the fear upon which the racism is built. We have to come to know the fear that grips us and see if it is truly real. The way I finally and fully confronted this fear was during my time of ministry at St. Stephen’s in South Minneapolis. For the three years in which I was assigned to St. Stephen’s, I ministered with and to people of color. I ministered to and with the homeless. Just a walk down “Eat Street” (Lyndale Ave) was to encounter culture and races of all languages, and colors. Working with Muslims, Latinos, Native Americans, Africans, and Black Americans, the racial fears and stereotypes I assimilated from my white culture, I found quickly dissipated. Every human face revealed to me the face of God. I found myself envious of my Latino brothers and sisters. The parable of the mustard seed came alive for me when I experienced their tremendous faith, and I found my own faith so wanting.

At the present, 61% of the population of the United States is white, and 39% of the population is people of color. The percentage of people of color is expected to rise to 57% by 2060. There is a palpable rise in racism as our white society fears the increased numbers of people of color. Within recent years we have seen a conservative Supreme Court strike down laws that have protected the voting rights of people of color. Legislatures controlled by conservative white majorities have enacted legislation that obstructs the right to vote of people of color. Conservative politicians express great umbrage when charges of racism are leveled against them and try in vain to parry those accusations by leveling the same charges of racism at people of color, failing to realize that while minorities may have prejudices, only the race in majority can be racist. We have seen time and time again the racist attacks on Barrack Obama throughout his tenure as president of our country.

The preaching and teaching of Jesus illustrated dramatically that in God’s Reign there is no such thing as an exclusivity of race, or culture, or gender. All people are welcome into God’s Reign. God seeks to unite the entire human family as brothers and sisters. Racism takes the way of Sin seeking to destroy all unity and sow suspicion, fear, and division. 

The United States is now at a racial crossroad in which each citizen is going to have to make a decision. Are we to follow Jesus and unite our diversely rich nation of people and cultures as brothers and sisters of one God, or are we to take the road of Sin and continue to spread the cancer of racism within our nation? To echo the words of Joshua from the Bible, “as for me and my house, we will serve God!”