Race & Hate? WHY?

One of the more difficult obstacles to understanding the present race wars is the fact that I’m White and assume I know everything. I was raised by an incredible dad who shielded me from the terse racial battles he grew up in around greater St. Louis. I can honestly say that my dad never used the N word to me as a kid growing up. Yet, my personal purview that I’m colored blind is truly out of touch with the world around me even as I work intentionally with at risk youth that are non-whites.

I will honestly admit that I initially reacted to the BLM movement and was too quick to say don’t all lives matter? Yet, as I read a post from a good friend that lives in St. Louis she was making the point, why does it seem to be the case that too many White Police Officers are killing young Black Men and getting away with it? The acquittal of the Police Officer who shot Anthony Lamar Smith has caused unrest in a city that is already on edge after Ferguson and Michael Brown. Our nation is presently in the center of a race war that isn’t going to stop.

I have been significantly impacted as I continue to read books, like White Rage, The New Jim Crow, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption and now a novel, Lightening Men that is about Atlanta in the 50’s. I’m ashamed of my own church’s background when it comes to the apparent disconnect with admitting that we have been a segragationistic community. As I read White Rage I was horrified to think that I might have had relatives who took place in public lynchings that were justified solely because of the color of an individual’s skin regardless of true justice!

How is it possible in 2017 that we still are struggling with racial and sexual discrimination in schools, the work place and still in church? I watched in horror over the last few months as key figures in our social and political arenas continue to normalize racism and sexism? I have a close professor friend who was fired for his passion for talking about social justice, White Privilege and elitism? He was teaching at a supposedly Christian University that sadly seems unwilling to come to grips with its inability to be real about the why of firing my friend.

So, what is the cause of our continued race wars? I attended a lecture recently of a seasoned White House speech writer who was up in arms because of our present nationalistic, America First and White Supremist mindset with our present administration. His point, which is very convicting, is that we might be changing back into a country that totally ignores its diverse legacy and attempts to erase our bigoted past or further more promote it.

The pathway to creating a healthier balance between different people groups is to stop judging and analyzing anyone by the color of their skin, gender, body size, educational background, income level and see each person as a human being. What happened to MLK’s statement that we are to look at a person not according to their skin color but according to their character?

There is only one RACE which is the HUMAN RACE!