Early in our marriage, when we first were having kids, I developed some serious joint pain. My wrists and hands were weak, and I once again had trouble holding things. Remembering the problems I had before, I was understandably distressed. I was worried that maybe I had Keinbach’s again - not really understanding that can’t happen. The pain was really debilitating. I thought it might be Carpal Tunnel, since I used my computer a lot for my job. I switched to an ergonomic keyboard and mouse. I had to get a different desk so my wrists were not tilted the wrong way. I switched chairs to try to help. The pain was still horrible. Finally, at a doctor’s appointment my physician was asking me questions about the pain. I always had joint pain and weird joints, so I wasn’t overly troubled by things hurting. It was the intensity of pain that drew my attention. But there was a much bigger problem going on. I had nodes in my elbows. There was constant pain that moved all over my body. My doctor ordered blood tests and I found out that I had an advanced case of Rheumatoid Arthritis. The wrists were just a symptom of the overall disease. It didn’t matter how many wrist braces I wore; nothing was going to get better until I started dealing with the RA.
I am reminded of this as our country faces yet another challenge in this crazy year 2020. Except this is not a problem unique to this year. I am talking about the issue of race in America. While it has burst into our consciousness again thanks to the repulsive actions surrounding George Floyd, this issue has been woven into our history from the very beginning. You could argue that the history of America is the history of one group climbing higher by pushing others lower. From soon after the first colonists arrived, people of color found themselves on the receiving end of the insatiable need of whites to dominate everything in their path. Examining the history of this country - the true history - one should not come away with a favorable picture, something to be proud of. The more history I learn, the more offended I become. The more disheartened I am. I am ashamed of what has happened in the name of establishing America. While I appreciate living in the Land of Plenty and I have benefitted by being one of those who received that Plenty, I am continually horrified by what has happened to grant me that place and keep me there.
George Floyd’s murder was a despicable act. It has been the spark for a much needed discussion of race in America. Much of the anger has been directed towards the police officers involved. Naturally, the focus also has been magnified to include all police officers. Inevitably, this has led to an overall debate about police brutality, inherent racism in the police force, and even police training. There are definitely some topics that need to be discussed and changes that need to be made. However, this singular focus creates potential disaster. The issue is not police brutality. Yes, that is a very important issue. It is something that needs to be talked about in general and regarding race specifically. But this is also a symptom of something much larger. Zooming to focus only on the police issue is robbing treatment of the more important disease. Just like my wrist pain, police treatment of blacks is a symptom of something more insidious, something we must fight. THAT is the diagnosis. THAT is where we should be focused.
I’m not saying to ignore the police situation. But what I am offering up is that it becomes a too easy distraction. When police are involved in the discussion, there will always be people who refuse to discuss any further. The police are a vital element of our society. There must be a line drawn for “law and order” and a group of people willing to stand there defending that line. And, like many people retort whenever this discussion arises (as it does far too often), not all cops are bad. I have dear friends who are police officers and who are married to police officers. They are good people who are doing the right things. And most of us can say the same thing. During the recents protests and inexcusable riots, I have been concerned for these officers as well as the citizens exercising their right to protest. You can see the problem in this issue, right? We keep swirling around and around, accomplishing nothing. Meanwhile, the root issue, the disease, goes unhandled.
We MUST do better. Yes, I want police officers to be held accountable for their actions. Yes, I want police to be more careful in their dealings with blacks and all people. Over 7,000 people were killed by officers from 2010-2019. A disproportionate number of those were black (over 33% despite being 12% of the US population.) But I don’t want this to become a fight between whose lives matter more - black lives or blue lives. Even if we completely solve every single institutional issue in the police system, we still will have problems due to the racism that is so deeply scarred into the country.
This discussion is not a comfortable one. No one said it should be. The other day my wife and I were having an argument with one of our children. Another child was very distressed by this. He wanted it to just go away. I tried to explain to him that making the argument disappear was more unhealthy than to actually have it. People need to be able to talk through things, to express their feelings and opinions, their hurts and disappointments. The argument ultimately led to a greater understanding in our family, which was a good thing. We had a goal, though. We aimed for reconciliation and were able to achieve that. In America, we need to have a similar approach. We need to have a goal of reconciling the races. We need to do whatever we can to heal this shattered land. There are going to be very painful and awkward conversations. Seismic shifts in our country need to happen. Those kind of things never happen easily. But it is more unhealthy to avoid these discussions than to face the pain.
Even if it makes you feel uncomfortable, even if you feel angry or offended, there is a fact that needs to be embraced early on in the process. Black people in this country are not seen as equals. They never have been. They are not given equal opportunities. They are not living on equal footing. The concept of White Privilege may be troubling to think about, but it is real. My son can leave our house, drive around, wear whatever he wants. He will not be harassed or suspected of anything. He can shop and not be hassled. My wife and I can go car shopping or look into buying a house with all options presented before us. The black family down the street from us do not experience life the same way. Nothing I did led and nothing they did led us to these diverse experiences. That is the difference between being white and black in this country. Now, there is a large group of people in this land who take this even further and hate blacks. White supremacists, outright racists. The fact that this subsection even still exists is nauseating. Yet they are here and they have more of a platform than ever. Dealing with that group is going to require much different tactics. Beyond them, though, there is the much larger slice of the population who harbor racist thoughts - maybe subconsciously, maybe overtly. These people harbor thoughts that affect how they see and treat blacks (and all minorities, but we will keep the focus on black/white issues today). They could believe that blacks are inherently lazier and more violent than whites. They could believe blacks aren’t smart enough to be quarterbacks, supervisors, head coaches. They may cross the street to avoid blacks. They might assume that blacks in the store are using welfare to pay. They could think that blacks are more likely to use drugs, to get pregnant out of wedlock, to abandon their families. They might refer to young black men as thugs and young black women as sluts. If they see a black person driving a nice car or wearing jewelry, the thought could pop up about how those things were paid for - or if they even were. They might swear that blacks want everything handed to them. Or they may drift closer to the white supremacists, touting the belief that blacks are the descendants of Ham and cursed forever. Conversely, they may flee those extremes and settle for a more low-key, subtle racism. “You ever notice how black people…”
I grew up in the South - if you consider Florida the South. I do. I was exposed to racism throughout my formative years. I went to a Christian school where there were a grand total of three black students in my class throughout elementary: Tanisha, Tamara Kay, and Richard. Once in middle school, I only had Phaedra and/or Ellis in most of my advanced classes. There was a similar case in high school where I usually would only have some combination of Tasha, Sam, and Ellis in my higher level classes. That was it. The way things were districted, blacks were directed into other schools. So in my school, it wasn’t unusual to see blacks treated differently. Administrators were more likely to punish black students than whites, and the punishments were usually greater. Subtle comments would be made by teachers or students. My eighth grade math teacher once told us to write something on our hands. Then she said, “Well, Phaedra you may need to use white out.” Everyone had one of those “did that really just happen” moments. She didn’t say it to Ellis, though, which I pointed out to him. He said, “She knew better.” That and the fact she didn’t like Ellis. Phaedra was one of the sweetest, quietest people ever. Ellis wasn’t. He was one of my best friends all through middle and high school, but everyone knew not to mess with Flip. He stood up for himself and his friends. My mom was born in Florida, just like me and my kids. Her parents were from Canada and Pennsylvania, though. My dad was from Vermont. People assume racism is worse in the South, but from personal experience I can tell you that isn’t true. Racist beliefs and comments were just as prevalent in my house as in any other Southern home. It isn’t based on geography; it is based on the heart. I learned just about every racist term there is from my father. When we said he was a bigot, he would respond, “I’m not a bigot; I hate everyone the same.” Or he would launch into the “it isn’t a stereotype if it is true.” His comments were so audacious that they were easier to identify and avoid. My mom’s and her family’s statements were tougher because they came from people who would not be labelled “racist.” There were many times my mom would have to fix things around the house in a less than professional way. Like holding the falling tile up in the bathroom by putting contact paper on it. Or duct taping the drainpipe together. She would call it “N*****-rigging” it. I remember in college telling her that was a completely inappropriate term, which she seemed shocked to hear. So she switched to “jerry-rigging” or “MickeyMousing.” When I talked to her about dating a black girl, she cautioned me that my father would go nuts. I already knew that, but I still argued that it wasn’t wrong. “I don’t personally think it is wrong, but if you married one I would be scared for your children.” Of course, I had a friend at church in high school who explained how dating blacks was wrong because “cats and dogs don’t get together.” I was floored because he was one of my best friends and not someone who I would say was racist. “We aren’t different species! The correct analogy would be black dogs and white dogs.” There was a lingo that was used in the world I lived which just became common to me. Rap and hip-hop music were identified as “jiggaboo” music. People down the street in “brown town” were called monkeys. Black babies were called “niglets.” Rants were launched about drooping waistbands, durags, gold teeth and grills, backwards caps. This isn’t to condemn my family or community. My mother was one of the most godly women I ever knew. I loved her deeply and valued what she taught and how she lived her life. However, even in that wonderful lady rested a river of evil thoughts towards a group of people. I want to show that even among “good people” there is a tendency to embrace these beliefs. That is how deep this cancerous mindset is rooted.
The temptation among Americans is to try to compartmentalize racism to the Civil War or the South. We desperately want to pretend that it is something of the past, something limited to one region. But that is NOT TRUE. We have to accept this to start to understand what we are dealing with. Racism has been ingrained in every step from the beginning of this nation. The earliest colonists stole from, murdered, banished the native people already residing in this land. Slave ships rolled up off the coast in 1619. The very documents this nation was founded on classified blacks as 3/5 of a person. The country grew into a world power because it was the only empire-building nation that did not have to pay for labor costs due to slavery (and indentured servitude and mistreating immigrants). The Civil War was fought over slavery. (Let’s just concede that point. It isn’t worth fighting on that one thing; there are more than enough other examples.) For those of you who feel the 1st and 2nd Amendments are endangered by other groups in this country, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were passed to “solve the problem” of racial divide. But it took one hundred years before the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960 actually gave teeth to these amendments. Think about that: there were amendments outlawing mistreatment of blacks and other minorities for one hundred years. Yet there still was the poll tax and the literacy tax and gerrymandering and stripping of voting rights for felons and voter intimidation and moving polling places. And the sad thing is, those things still exist! We have been involved in two elections so far since we moved back to South Carolina and both of them moved and shuttered polling places within a week of the election. Rigging election districts is an even bigger practice now than ever, ensuring a concrete divide between parties. ELEVEN states still have various bans on ex-felons voting - only half of them in the South. This is not over. It isn’t even close. It isn’t relegated to the South, either. If you want to have your eyes opened about America’s history with racism, I am going to list some places to go. Be prepared, because after you look at these things you will never see this country the same again. And that is a good thing. Until we fully acknowledge the wickedness that courses through our veins, we will always be guilty of the sin of racism.
- Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson. This book will devastate you. After I read it, it took me weeks to be able to think clearly. I could argue I’ve never come back, for which I am glad.
- 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann. It is easy to justify slaughtering an indigenous people if you see them as unintelligent savages. But that was a construct of the colonizers/explorers/invaders. You’ll be shocked at what America looked like before the white man arrived.
- New York Time 1619 Project This investigative project looks at the history of slavery in America on the 400th“anniversary” of its arrival on our shores. It is brilliantly executed and horrifying.
- The Underground Railroad by Colton Whitehead. You know those books that are so well written that you keep reading even when you are so disgusted by what is happening that you want to be sick? This is that book.
- Tulsa Massacre of 1921 I am also including a link to the Wikipedia page on this event, which also tells more on the attacking aircraft during the massacre. There also are links on the right side of the page with several other events along this line.
- Minneapolis (White) Race Riots This was an interesting post by Nora McInerny about 1930s era Minneapolis and the way whites drove blacks out.
- Ex-Felon Voting Rights - If you aren’t sure how this applies, I am including several different sources discussing this issue. Some of them surround Florida’s Amendment 4 in 2018. The Amendment was passed by nearly a 2 to 1 margin, yet it still has not been put into practice - as evidenced by it is still being debated and hashed out. Voter disenfranchisement is a racially motivated technique that has been in place since the Civil War. It has taken many different forms and this is just another one. It was a Jim Crow era law where states would create a law against loitering, for example, and make that a felony level crime. That would mean any unemployed black man who was arrested for standing around, since they couldn’t get a job and had nowhere to go, could be banned from voting for life. The number of people affected by this issue is staggering, and it could ultimately change the 2020 election.
- The Original 33 in Georgia. These were the first 33 blacks serving in the Georgia state legislature. They were thrown out, after being elected, then brought back in, then permanently ejected. One-quarter of them were beaten or killed. The final one left in 1907, after which no blacks served in the legislature for 55 years. Again, wikipedia to add more info.
- Blacks in Public Office This is almost a microcosm of racial mindsets in this country. During Reconstruction, blacks ascended to public office. They were elected to national and state- level positions and filled many governments roles. By 1913, those numbers had plummeted. The backlash against the South after the Civil War was strong, but in time the segregationists reclaimed political strength and reinstituted their policies. Woodrow Wilson, elected in 1912, is more known for his involvement in World War I and failed League of Nations. He had been president of Princeton and Governor of New Jersey. He has this image of an intellectual, a devout Presbyterian. Yet, he was the picture of a good man doing nothing and letting evil to arise. He didn’t personally segregate government offices, but he let each office decide if they wanted to segregate. He didn’t allow the federal government to help blacks who were assailed as they migrated north to fill industrial jobs. He spoke out against lynching, but did nothing to outlaw it. (The repercussions echo even today.) He allowed Reconstruction to die and whites to reclaim the governments in the South.
This list is hardly comprehensive, but it is a place to start. We have to do something. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a Christian and that my faith is what guides and defines me. However, I will be the first to say that the Church(capital C means Church Universal - all Christians; little c means individual church) is failing HORRIBLY in this battle. The Church should be at the very forefront, demanding social change. It should be leading the charge, embracing all colors. Go and read 1 John and see what God teaches about LOVE. It is what defines being a Christian. Not judgment, criticism, hate, conservatism. What part of love is shooting a black man because he was looking at a house? What part of love is defending a police officer for choking out a suspect? What part of love is trying to find a justification for why someone was killed? Go read the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. I know a lot of you have heard of this story or read it. But it is a great story for today’s situation. Here’s my version of the story. A dude gets jacked up by villains. He is laying there in a big mess. A pastor walks by and ignores him. Actually, he crosses over to the other side to avoid him. Then another minister walks by and does the same thing. Then a Samaritan comes up. Now, the Samaritans were hated by the Jewish people. It wasn’t over something as minor as skin color. Long ago, some of the Samaritans had collaborated with the Syrians when they occupied Israel. Even though they were of the same bloodlines, the people of Samaria were labelled unclean by Jews. This got so ugly that the Jews destroyed the Samaritan temple and the Samaritans defiled the Jewish temple by leaving bones in it. It was ugly. This Samaritan dude comes up and helps the injured Jewish man. (The big twist in today’s setting is that the beat up man would have been white and the helper would have been black.) Now, the Samaritan didn’t ask the beat up guy if he deserved the beating. He didn’t say that he needed to review the video to make sure he didn’t do something first before the bandits jumped him. I mean, maybe the victim had mouthed off. Maybe he went through the wrong neighborhood. Maybe he had a criminal history. Maybe he didn’t do what the bandits asked him to do right away. The Samaritan didn’t ask questions; he just helped. Of course, this isn’t a real story. Yeah, that’s right. Jesus made it up. So it wasn’t just some fluke example of someone doing something nice that made it onto YouTube. “Samaritan finds Jewish mugging victim. You’ll never guess what happens next!” It was something that Jesus - the person that Christians value the most - made up as an example of how we should act to each other. We should take care of even our worst enemies. How much mores should this apply to people who merely have a different amount of pigment?
Now the religious leaders of that time got irate at the story. That kind of angry response from religious people has been a theme throughout history, actually. Just a cursory glance at US History will demonstrate that those who embrace Christianity have usually been the worst at racial understanding. And, unfortunately, that is still the situation today. Christianity has become so tangled up in politics that churchgoers find themselves forming logical contortions to defend their support of Donald Trump in the face of overtly racist behavior and statements. “He is holding up a Bible in front of a church! What a righteous man!” Don’t be fooled! That photo-op is not indicative of what that man believes. The tear-gassing of peaceful protesters so he could take that picture is where he stands. His flirting and defending of white-supremacists is where he stands. He calls whites demanding the right to shop and not wear masks and racists violently protesting in Virginia “fine Americans.” He calls blacks protesting “thugs.” The 70+ year old man shoved by the cops intentionally fell. (Reminds me of the police case down in Riviera Beach when I was a kid when the wife claimed her husband fell onto the knife…. over 20 times.) He is master at muddying the waters. His behavior is not unlike how focusing on the police minimizes and damages the racism issue. He says protestors aren’t patriotic. They are dishonoring the country and the flag. He says to get those sons of bitches off of the football field. Let me be perfectly clear: patriotism is not blindly agreeing with everything a country does. A person does not betray his or her country by protesting inappropriate, illegal, and inexcusable actions that country is doing. I am not dishonoring my father’s military service by calling people to change the way that minorities are treated. A true patriot demand that the country lives up to the sacrifices made over the decades by its soldiers and citizens. America is NOT proving it deserves that blood that was shed. This country that promises freedom, liberty, and happiness to its citizens need to adjust its mindset and behavior to heal this rift, to make things right, to reconcile the races. I believe this is the most important issue in the nation right now. I believe it is the most important issue that faces the Church right now. It is a crack in the foundation of both that is threatening to rip both apart. The diagnosis has been handed down; we need to work on treatment. Now.
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