Yesterday as I was on what ended up being a 7 hour bus, motorcycle, and tap-tap ride sitting next to my black friend Osier Frantz (with myself being the only person of light skin on the bus or anywhere in sight) we got into a discussion about the Ferguson case. Frantz told me stories about how some of his friends talk about how terrible white people are. He told me he shared with them that the only reason they say that is because they have never known the white people he knows...white people that take in the poor and house and feed and employ and love them in their own home for years when not even their own black families or churches would help them, white people that are his close friends whom he ministers alongside, stays in their homes and they stay in his, who were in his wedding and helped with his new baby. But not every white person is like that. There are some that are truly terrible. I shared that I have very close friendships with African Americans as well as Haitians like him. How I have watched them give selflessly to the poor (even though some have very little themselves), that they have been our true friends and that we love and trust them. But that has also not always been our experience. What if I based my feelings of black/browned skinned people solely on the negative experiences I have had. Experiences like when a young black man with dreadlocks and baggy pants stepped out of a crowd pointing a gun at my children and friends then a held a gun to my head shouting I hate f******white people! What terrible experiences had this young man endured to make him do such a thing to us who had done nothing to him? If this was myself or my friends first encounter or we had experienced only negative encounters with people of a different skin tone would you expect that we would be super open and accepting the next time around...or would we be super fearful? Frantz and I wondered with each other out loud why cases like this get so much public attention. When a black kills a black accidentally or unjustly, and a white kills a white accidentally or unjustly, why is that less newsworthy when it could be the same scenario with the same outcome? Why wasnt what happened to me and my children and friends on the news? If it would have happened to us in America would it have been? Would either the white or black communities riot because of the utterly unfair nature of the situation with kids involved considering there were 3 white kids and 3 black kids put in arms way? None of this makes sense to me. Should it ever make sense? My boys are the only white kids in their school and neighborhood. They are often mistreated simply because of their color. How thankful I am that they have had enough good experiences to understand that this is not a skin issue, but a sin issue. They also have black/brown people that love them that are family. I dont believe there is any such thing as racism. Prejudice, yes. Racism, no. To be a racist you have to be against all humanity. The ambiguous concept of race defined as a type of person is a social constriction that is not based on reality but solely on how people look, not necessarily where they come from or what culture they identify themselves with, were born into, or where they are raised. I know it has become an acceptably used term but to me it is ridiculous and just plain wrong. Because there is only one race of people. The human race. Other than his use of the term racist, I love what Benjamin Watson says below to close his thoughts on the matter. Its why we are here in Haiti. Its why we stay here. IM ENCOURAGED, because ultimately the problem is not a SKIN problem, it is a SIN problem. SIN is the reason we rebel against authority. SIN is the reason we abuse our authority. SIN is the reason we are racist, prejudiced and lie to cover for our own. SIN is the reason we riot, loot and burn. BUT IM ENCOURAGED because God has provided a solution for sin through the his son Jesus and with it, a transformed heart and mind. One thats capable of looking past the outward and seeing whats truly important in every human being. The cure for the Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner tragedies is not education or exposure. Its the Gospel. So, finally, IM ENCOURAGED because the Gospel gives mankind hope.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 03:36:33 +0000
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