After watching the film Cracking
the Codes: The System of Racial Inequity (http://crackingthecodes.org/), I have
been mulling over a set of truths and the problems they cause.
·
We are all (in this instance, I speak of those
living in the USA) conditioned and taught to be racists.
·
Racism goes deeper than personal choice and
belief; it is structural and generational, practically in our DNA.
·
Even well-intentioned white people who work for
racial equality hold biases, some of them subconscious.
·
Economic, social, and governmental structures
propagate racism.
When I face these realities, I am tempted to feel defeated
and hopeless. I was set up to be a racist long before I was born, long before
my parents were born. As a white person in this country, I automatically have
privilege, and this same privilege—and the system that birthed it—hurts other
people, all the time.
White people are uncomfortable talking about racism. We like
to think that we understand it and that we’re doing something about it. What
might happen if we talk about it, openly and bravely, with people of color? The
moment the discussion starts, some quite specific fears set into my white mind
and body:
·
I will say something that reveals me to be
biased, prejudiced, racist.
·
I will discover that I indeed carry biases,
prejudices, and racist tendencies.
·
I will have to face this horrible fact: I have
been wrong.
·
I will have to face this horrible fact: I have
hurt others.
·
I will have to face this horrible fact: I am a
sinner.
And if all of these things happen, where in the world can I
go from here?
If I have tried hard, perhaps for decades, to be a
compassionate, fair-minded, un-racist person, and still I have failed, what can
I possibly do now?
If I have been wrong in my perceptions, for years, being as
smart and aware and moral as I am, then what good is all that?
I believe that I resist these conversations because I don’t
know what I will do with the shame, guilt, and disappointment that are bound to
come.
Racism is complex, and I won’t pretend to simplify it or
supply an answer that is easy to implement. However, I do believe that if we
treated racism as the sin it is, perhaps we could allow Divine Love to deal
with that sin.
I’ve been a practicing Christian for 47 years, and all that
time I have claimed that God’s forgiveness can deal effectively with any and
every wrong, sin, defilement, shame, guilt, and wound. Yet, when it comes to
racism, I pull back, as if I’m the one in charge and it’s my responsibility to
clean up my act and prove to everyone that I’m okay now.
So what if I have been a racist? I’ve also been a liar. I’ve
also been jealous, envious, hateful, lustful. All these other sins I entrust to
God. I can confess that I’m greedy and too worried about money and can ask for
help in adjusting the way I think about money and possessions. My greed may
have caused all kinds of grief for others. But I can acknowledge and own my misbehavior
and my bad attitude and treat them as sins.
Why can’t I do this so easily with racism? Why am I so
afraid of discovering the depth of my sin in this area? Why am I so afraid to
say, “Yes, I’m a racist. I keep trying to root out these attitudes and
perceptions, but some of them are deep in my history and culture, and I still
have a long ways to go” ? Why is the possibility of discovering and naming this
sin such a threat to me? Why is it such a threat to us, as white people in the
USA? Why is this one thing that we fight and fight in regard to our personal
confessions?
I’m not sure why racism, out of so many sins, is so
difficult to treat as sin, and I mean that in the traditional, centuries-old
Christian sense. It’s a defect, a wound, an interior crime, an orientation away
from love and toward self-seeking and self-protection. Sin is not something we
solve. It’s something we learn to recognize and confess and for which to seek
healing and restoration.
Racism, like all other sins, hurts both the victim and the
perpetrator. It cannot simply be solved. Of course, it can be dealt with in
structures. We can pass legislation and revise organizational processes and
communications to deal with structural racism. But we won’t have the will or
the strength to do that until we face the personal racism that riddles us with
cruelty and bad judgment. Personal racism makes us defensive and afraid.
Personal racism shuts us down and triggers our self-justification.
I can’t speak to people outside the Christian community, but
to other Christians I can say this: Treat racism as the sin it is. Ask the Holy
Spirit to help you see it in yourself. Identify it, grieve over it, confess it,
and ask for help to move on. Ask for wisdom to make apology and reparation when
necessary. If you truly believe in the power of Divine forgiveness, racism will
not remain this huge black hole of shame and avoidance. It will become yet
another aspect of your spiritual growth and your growing, Christlike compassion
for others.
