Race, ethnicity, equality, slavery, hate, terror, derogatory thoughts, ideas, and practices...
I grew up in a mostly white area. I am (phenotypically) white. I have blonde hair, blue eyes, and white (some say pasty... I prefer alabaster I guess), I am fit. I've never been looked down on just because of how I look (well... one time in high school but that's a long story and had more to do with the way I dressed.) In fact, two times I was asked by someone coming to work on our home (once in a mostly low SES, Middle Eastern apartment complex in San Antonio and once in our "slightly" shady, low SES 75white/25black neighborhood in Pittsburgh) I was asked why I lived someplace, under the assumption that I "looked" like I shouldn't live in such a poor area.
I didn't grow up "rich" but I always had enough. I always had food, always had shoes, always had a new outfit for the first day of school. At Christmas time I was always blessed with lots of goodies including toys that I wanted.
I always carry what many people refer to as "the invisible knapsack." That is all that comes along with being white in America (not being suspect of theft when I walk into any store, not "driving while black," an assumption that wherever I am I am "allowed" to be.)
Ok... get to the point... Adelaide is getting close to two years old and I was really excited for MLK Jr Day to be able to share with her the legacy of this great man and all that he has done for humanity. I set off into pinterest world and started searching but I've got to say I was pretty disappointed with the choices... it was a lot of the "crack two different colored eggs... see they're the same inside" stuff which is fine and dandy but it doesn't celebrate our differences that idea just tries to gloss over race and says "just ignore it"
I wanted to tell Adelaide (age appropriately) of how beautifully we are all made, how beautiful the world is with all of our differences, because of our differences; I wanted to tell her that sometimes some people do evil things and think evil thoughts but that sometimes there are heroes among us ordinary people that stand up to hate and proclaim beauty and equality!... but I didn't find a lesson plan for that.
I headed off to the library. Up on their special displays they had books for Ground Hog Day (o brother!) and books for Valentine's Day (don't even get me started) but there were no books out on display for Martin Luther King Jr., a true hero, a real man actually worth celebrating. So I go and try the computer system... no luck... seriously... I go over and ask the librarian in the kid's section if there were any books on MLK Jr. in the kids section. "Ummm... let me see. Hmmm. Hmmm. Looks like we have one." We walk over there and buried in the stack of "random holiday" books, misplaced, a couple spots over from it's proper Dewey Decimal system was the one kid's book on Martin Luther King Jr.
Maybe we as Americans think we are "just fine" regarding race equality and equity... maybe it seems antiquated to talk about race or maybe it's too uncomfortable. Open your eyes! People are still prejudiced, mostly in "little" ways. Though in some places, some people are still filled with racial hate, filled with ethnic hatred, filled with cultural hate. Right now the Sudan is on the brink of war, one ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is massacaring another, the Taliban battles and oppresses those with different views. Even in places in the US the only interactions black and white have together is in an "official" capacity, never friendship, never family, never in church, and rarely in school, take Little Rock for example.
The truth, the truth is hate is still all around us. Hate runs around, hate cloaks itself under apathy, hate hides in "a comfort zone," hate gains its power in ignorance.
C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite authors. He wrote "since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage" YES! I want my daughter to know all about brave knights and heroic courage. I've started read her chapter book stories of heroes like Matilda and Ms. Honey standing up to the evil that was in Ms. Trunchbull. I plan to read her the Chronicles of Narnia soon. But how much more important is it to tell her of real, life heroes. Heroes that walked this earth and looked evil and hate in the face and made it run! I tell her about King David, I tell her about the Apostle Paul who stood up to the evil that was even inside himself, I tell her of Saint Nicolas and his love for the poor that others looked down on, I tell her about Irena Sendler who looked the Nazi party in the eye as she snuck out over 2,000 Jewish children before they could be gassed. Why would I not want to tell her of Dr. King?
Dr. King, in his famous "I Have a Dream Speech," said that "we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation."
Why is this injustice allowed to sneak back in on us? Injustice is not something that once is fought back and we are forever loosed of it. Evil is not something once retreated and forever vanquished (not yet, at least)
So why does this privileged white girl want to write about this of all things? First, I believe that we are all valuable, important, people (yeah, I know, shocker...) Second, we have no choice how we are born, ethnically, economically, locationally, etc. (yes, another huge shocker)
Way back when, way, way, way, back when the children of the tribe of Israel were the "supreme" people they were God's chosen ones, the only ones that had access to God. They were his chosen people. The ones he wanted to show his love to, to show the rest of the world how great his love was. They were enslaved and freed. Captured and exiled but always restored, always blessed.
God graciously adopted people from all peoples, not just the Hebrews, through the fulfillment of the law through Jesus Christ. I am not of Jewish heritage, I am not one of the chosen of Israel. I am one who was called out from "the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back' bring my sons from afar and daughters from the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 43:6) I was fought for and bought at a blood price. Racial slavery was fought against and bought with a blood price. Civil rights were fought for and bought at a blood price.
God's plan was always for infinite beauty to give infinite glory to it's creator. God didn't create just one type of flower. God didn't create just one type of tree. God didn't envision just one type of people.
In John's vision of the end time he "looked, and there before [him] was a great multitude of that no one could count, from every, nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne of the Lamb*...they cry out with a loud voice saying, 'Salvation to our God who sits on the throne'" (Revelation 7:9-10) *Remember that this Lamb is Jesus, the great equalizer, the one who created the path for all of us come to God and bask in his amazing grace.
God wants people of ALL the beautiful colors. God wants people of all backgrounds (David was a shepard, Jesus was born in a barn, St. Nicolas was born to wealthy parents that left him a large inheritance) God wants people of all languages. Anytime that I stretch myself, anytime that I spend time outside of my cultural comfort zone I am blown away at the different types of beauty there are. I love worshipping in different places, just glimpses of the beauty to be embraced once we are in heaven. We, as a people, speak thousands of languages, dance millions of dances, are tall, are small, are strong, are beautifully weak, are hundreds of shades of skin, different hair, different eyes, all uniquely shining the amazing creativity of God.
Dig in to other people, learn other cultures, let ignorance have no foot hold within you.
Stand up to hate, stand up to ignorance. Don't stand by apathetically when you see hate. Do what Dr. King did. Speak truth even when it's hard. Demand justice even when the judges are corrupt. Love fully even when love isn't reciprocated. Dream in the face of a nightmare reality.
Don't let race define you or others but don't ignore it either! Embrace others for the content of others characters, don't judge them for their skin color. Usher in Dr. Kings dream within yourself!
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