The Root of Racism

An enlightening moment last week: At a gathering of ministers from a fairly wide spectrum of backgrounds, shortly after the American elections, one younger, African-American, preacher was showing an internet video showing a series of images ranging from Dr. King at Birmingham to fire-hosed demonstrators and lynched bodies (obviously edited to breed a sense of racial pride and resentment), and culminating in a very good photograph of Mr. Obama. Curiously absent from the collection were any non-black people in either a martyr's or hero's role, or even humane or neutral. The message seemed to be that, no matter who he is, it's what he is that matters. He may be the most rabid sponsor of the wholesale murder of African-American babies yet in the womb (the vast majority of abortions in the US), even to the point of removing parental consent or a waiting period, he may have been one of the key players in forcing the banks to write loans for people who could never afford the payments (thus the recent mortgage bank fiasco), he may be about re-structuring the tax program to make the poorer folks in this country more dependent than ever on federal hand-outs, but that's OK, because he's "one of us!"

We see that in theology, with "Afro-centric" study Bibles in the stores which play extremely loose with history to the point of making all the "good guys" black, etc. (Taking the time to do some research would have given these authors some real heroes without having to re-write things!) Too many people, though, buy these books regardless, and miss the whole point.

The American media and, therefore, consciousness, seems to say that "racism" is about "Whites Only" lunchrooms and bus seats, or Aryan Nation or KKK. What, though, about assuming that anyone of lighter skin "probably does have a set of sheets in their closet?" The main effect is that we all, of whatever skin tone or neighborhood, tend to see things "with one eye in the mirror" and compare whatever else we see with that image. Not, "Is this person trustworthy?" but "Does this person match up?" It is no accident that the Lord designed us in just such a way that as we look at others we don't see ourselves in the picture. I happen to have some friends from East Africa. When I'm with them, I see them. I don't need to see my own small mouth to appreciate their broad laughter, or my blue eyes when I see the love and nobility in their brown ones. We all have eyes, and they all are set to look forward. To see ourselves we need something outside ourselves, and even the best mirror shows a backwards image. To understand ourselves takes more than a piece of silvered glass: It takes the work of God. Do I judge others according to (my) flesh, or do I judge according to God's righteousness (Holy self-giving love & goodness)? Search me, O God..."