Racism-something I don’t fully understand why it still exists, but here is something I want to tell you:
So many classify racism as black and white. It isn’t. It is any color or race that one considers to be INFERIOR to whatever color or race you are-usually, as I have stated, it is white vs. black. Sometimes, the biases formed in our minds of someone’s race is because of ignorance. Sometimes, we know better but CHOOSE to continue on with our racist thinking because of this and that…we classify a color or groups of people to be lower than us because we THINK WE ARE BETTER THAN THEM.
When I was in college, I was a part of a discipleship group that traveled to different churches to work with youth. One of these lock-in events was a question and answer panel…A teen in the church asked my group of friends if any of them believed in inter-racial dating? To my surprise, all my friends answered adamantly with, “NO!” With their answer in mind, I looked around our group and for the first time, I saw color was finally defined when my “white” American friends said no and I saw my “black” American friend get upset. Then, I, the “brown” one on the team, asked the guys, “So none of you, guys, would date me because I’m not white?” They told me that I didn’t count because race was black and white…
Then, there was this guy I really liked. This guy and I were talking, and he said something that really bugged me. He said that he liked me but he “Couldn’t really tell his mom about me because I was NOT white.”
Friends, I am 38 years old, I was in college in the 2000’s. RACISM or whatever the evil exists in seeing people’s color, is here and it has been here…This Land of the Free has lent to us the notion that PRIVILEGE means we are ENTITLED TO TAKE IT AWAY FROM OTHERS we deem lesser than us.
You think this is a black and white issue still?
Here are examples I have seen and heard with my own eyes:
A Hispanic boy told my little girl she had “chinky-eyes” -remember, I am brown, but I am not from China…My kids are Filipino Americans…Not all brown people are from China.
Hispanics are all here illegally because they jumped over the wall.
You aren’t smart because you aren’t as educated as I am.
The Bird Flu and COVID19 is a Chinese virus so don’t associate yourself with “their kind.”
A person who wears any type of head covering is a terrorist.
A person from the middle east is a terrorist.
A black man in a hoodie is automatically a threat…
From a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. entitled “What is Your Life’s Blueprint,” in encouraging a group of young people at a high school 6 months before he was killed is still a message that is just as relevant today as it was then:
“And finally, in your life’s blueprint must be a commitment to the eternal principles of beauty, love, and justice. Don’t allow anybody to pull you so low as to make you hate them.
Don’t allow anybody to cause you to lose your self-respect to the point that you do not struggle for justice. However young you are, you have a responsibility to seek to make your nation a better nation in which to live.
You have a responsibility to seek to make life better for everybody. And so, you must be involved in the struggle for freedom and justice...”
I could go on and on, but racism and injustice are a cancer that infects us all because WE ARE ALL SINNERS.
Racism doesn’t exist because one is a republican or democrat…
Racism is not about politics, but about something in our thinking that is SOOOOO BROKEN.
Racism is SIN that separates us from the Lord.
I share this because I have to say something about the injustice of today and the horrible deaths of the innocent because of their color. As a person who claims to have a relationship with the Jesus Christ and know Him as my personal Savior, I have a duty to speak up for the oppressed and seek justice. I have a heart for those who are being trafficked daily all over the world-young and old, into sex slavery and I speak about that. I have a heart for those who suffer from mental illness and speak about that…If these are the people I consider to be oppressed, so much the more when it comes to racism.
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” James 1:27
Friends, let’s all live what we preach. Take note from the One who set the example of loving those who was different from Him in every way…The One who was found to be in the presence of the tax collector, the pharisee, the harlot, the adulterer, the demon possessed…the One who was so Pure, Higher than any of us because He is our Creator, but yet, He took on all our ugliness of sin and bore it on Himself-making His own Father turn away from His one and only Son, because of our sin, to die on the cross.
Let’s use our voices for good and not for complaining. These passions that rise up in us to do something is urging us right now, to speak, speak. Use your platform to encourage those in your circle of influence to do what is right. Use the tools you have been given and do something for the good. Don’t allow yourself to be influenced in thinking that not saying anything is better for everyone, it’s not…As followers of Christ, we are mandated to “learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” Isaiah 1:17
