Racism and the division it produces has become a serious issue in the U.S. during the recent few of years. Well, it has always been a serious issue, that’s for certain. But it has again come to the forefront of our society. I don’t need to rattle off all the examples; you know what’s happening.
A lot of people know what’s happening and want it to change. Can it change? When the civil rights movement resulted in new laws and policies, it seemed that change was happening, but now look at the anger and fear and hatred and violence that are present – if there was change it certainly didn’t last. Why not? What needs to happen?
I want to share succinctly what happened to me.
I am a white man and I was a racist, growing up in Texas during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Not the white supremacist kind; I didn’t hate or fear other races. I just felt we whites were somehow better than other races, specifically African-Americans, and to some extent Hispanics . Well, yes, that is a white supremacy stance. I grew up in a culture that functioned with that belief. I have a very poor memory and there are only a few specific things from my childhood that I can remember. One is going with my mother to the Leonard Bros. department store in Fort Worth when I was about 6-8 years old. The image is still in my memory: separate water fountains and restrooms marked “Whites Only” and “Coloreds Only.”
We lived in a small town. A railroad ran through it. I heard stories from years past when black men riding in boxcars would try to get off in our town, and they were physically stopped by some of the local men. I felt proud of my town.
One day when I must have been about 10 years old, I was playing in our front yard. A two-lane road ran by. I saw a dump truck coming around the bend just south of our house. A black man was driving it. When he passed me, I blurted out a racial slur without even thinking about it. When the driver jerked his head around and looked at me, I ran into the house. Fortunately, he didn’t stop and beat the hell out of me.
Schools were integrated when I was in the 5th or 6th grade. I didn’t even know there was a separate school for African-Americans in our area. Only a couple of families from it enrolled in our school. One of the boys was in my class. Obviously, he was treated poorly. For my part, I can say that I liked him but I felt he was inferior to me because of the color of his skin.
My church in that small Texas town fostered that racist attitude. When there were protests and marches and demonstrations going on all over the country, my church voted on and adopted the policy that if any black person came into a service, the deacons would escort him out. The purpose of that was supposedly to avoid a confrontation and the disruption of the worship of God. “Go away! You’re not welcome here!” instead of, “Welcome! Let’s worship together! Let’s work together and make things better!”
I am embarrassed and saddened by these things.
When I was 19 years old, I put my faith in Christ and surrendered my life to him. I became a Christian, a follower of Jesus. Abracadabra – racism disappeared! Well, no it wasn’t that easy.
One of the critical features of my new life was learning that I needed to look at things, everything, from God’s point of view. I couldn’t have explained it very well at the time, but looking back now, I was developing a new belief system. Not just doctrine – an internal guidance system, core beliefs that shape my values and behaviors. There were truths that God wants his people to accept and live by instead of the ideas, values, and feelings they had been living by.
Then I read this (using the King James Version of the Bible at the time): “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus… There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ” (Galatians 3:26, 28). From the apostle Paul’s perspective, being a first-century Jew, there were two “races” in the world: Jews and Gentiles (“Greek” in KJV). God’s point of view is he doesn’t distinguish between these different kinds of people, including races, but makes all of us his children, unifies us in a faith relationship with Christ.
I had to compare what I had been believing with that and follow it to its logical conclusion. I realized if God doesn’t put the different races in any kind of pecking order, then who am I to think my race makes me better than another? Here was a new belief for me. It took some time of course, but I accepted this truth for myself. The Spirit of God changed my racist mindset. I began and have continued, imperfectly, to look at all people from that perspective. (I’ve learned many other truths which reinforce this key idea that God does not make a distinction between us and he desires unity in place of division.)
In the efforts to overcome racism, the idea often presented is that we need to try to understand others and appreciate others’ perspective and gain insight from others so we can reconcile and be united. I’m thinking maybe the process needs to be turned around. We need to be united then we will be able to understand and appreciate and gain insight from others. That kind of unity happens when we follow Jesus Christ and accept truth from him as our core belief system, when we pay attention to the Spirit of God transforming our hearts.
This is my basic story. I know that in practice overcoming racism is a complex process. I want to share that change can happen.