“When have you been hurt by racism?”
This question was asked by Catherine Meeks, Ph.D., the Executive Director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing in Atlanta, during a Zoom conference call I attended recently.
I interpreted the question as a call-out to the few clergy of color among the vast-majority of white attendees.
I thought she was asking them to consider the ways racism has impacted them.
Well, she was asking them.
But to my surprise, she was asking all of us, including and especially the white folks like me.
She said that the black and brown folks in the room could answer this question easily— while the white folks in the room might have a hard time.
Yep. That would be me.
She was making the point that change doesn’t happen—we don’t get involved and we won’t heal the racism of our hearts—until we know how it is personal.
Racism has hurt all of us.
Empathy is great and necessary. But harm from racism hasn’t only hurt people of color.
It has hurt every human heart.
She asked us to sit with that question. I still am, to be sure.
Here are some of my wrestlings that can be applied to preaching. I hope they help you and your listeners consider the ways racism assaults everyone’s well being.
Who Have We Missed (Without Knowing It)?
When we conduct biblical exegesis, we pay attention to:
Who’s represented in the text?
Who isn’t?
Who’s named?
Who isn’t?
How come?
The same is true in our lives.
Who are the people who aren’t there?
For example, when I was a young kid in Dayton, OH, in the era of the 1960’s civil rights protests, my mom was on the board of a day camp for inner city kids. I attended for several summers and had a blast.
But then those kids disappeared from my life.
They weren’t in my public schools because I lived in what was seen as the “good” part of town and they didn’t—by intentional, racist maneuverings—so I missed out forever on those friendships.
What a dehumanizing, dis-integrating, sinful twist on God’s hopes for us.
Yet we’re still doing it, because—racism.
Who have you and your listeners missed out on because we keep ourselves separated?
How are we hurting ourselves to remain separated from and deprived of friendship, expertise, leadership, and preaching?
We Could Say We Got Robbed—Except…
You are probably aware that the entertainment industry disproportionately portrays people of color negatively or in minor roles.*
Our paying for that only begins at the box office.
We pay to watch movies and TV with people of color more often as the sidekick, because (the faulty assumption goes) they don’t have central stories to tell that would interest everyone.
Which means we don’t hear stories we deserve to hear and that deserve to be told.
We also pay to watch more negative than positive portrayals of people of color.
That makes a profit for the entertainment industry, which incentivizes them to make more movies like that, which we then pay for, which….etc., all the while reinforcing the inaccuracies that ramp up our fear and distrust of people of color.
Truth be told, the only people who ever assaulted me are white people.
Yet I pay others to rob me of my serenity by promoting an irrational fear of people who are darker-hued than I am, because—racism.
That’s also a dehumanizing, dis-integrating, sinful twist on God’s hopes for us.
Our heads might know about false images in entertainment and poo-poo its impact.
But an examen of our hearts would likely reveal otherwise.
We repeatedly hurt ourselves by paying for our own disinformation in the guise of entertainment.
We could say we got robbed—except that we handed the thief the family jewels.
Gaslighting
We’ve all been hurt because we’ve not been told the truth.
Whether by omission or commission, confabulations, propaganda, stereotypes, and sometimes plain old lies, we’ve been gaslighted for centuries that people of color are “other.”
They are described, treated or overlooked as less than white people, deserving of their lot (that they created themselves), could fix themselves if they really wanted to, and/or are generally happy with the way things are.
We have fooled ourselves and been fooled for centuries. Consider this excerpt from Isabel Wilkerson’s book, Caste:
Making enslaved people perform on command…reinforced their subjugation. They were made to sing despite their exhaustion or the agonies from a recent flogging or risk further punishment. Forced good cheer became a weapon of submission to assuage the guilt of the dominant caste and further humiliate the enslaved. If they were in chains and happy, how could anyone say that they were being mistreated? Merriment, even if extracted from a whip, was seen as essential to confirm that the caste structure was sound, that all was well, that everyone accepted, even embraced their station in the hierarchy. -Wilkerson, Isabel. Caste (p. 136). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Many of us have no idea how race has infiltrated every fiber that knit this country together because no one told or taught us. (Even Oprah Winfrey, who chose Wilkerson’s book for Oprah’s Book Club, was shocked to learn that she didn’t know what she didn’t know.)
For truth to replace myth is painful.
Examining the myths makes us question ourselves for having placed our faith in idols: beloved institutions and families, and our identities as “good” people who aren’t racist.
The possibility that we were wrong so twists our worldview inside-out that it’s too terrifying to contemplate, so many refuse to discuss it or listen to a sermon about its possibility.
Indeed, we know gaslighting’s devilishly, ingenious infiltration has been successful whenever a member of the Body of Christ declares racism “off the table” for discussion or preaching.
Every one of us has been fooled. Every one of us has been gaslighted.
It’s tragic that someone else decided, and I bought into, what I should know, and the topics and history that should not be discussed or preached about.
That hurts me and it hurts all of us, because—racism.
Yet Jesus promises that the truth sets us free.
Free to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Scary, for sure. And still way better.
What are the untruths and idols that you and your listeners have clung to?
What part of God is eager to fill in the gap when the idol gets dropped?
Chronic Spiritual Therapy
Dr. Meeks emphasized that when we appreciate racism has broken every human heart, it becomes personal, moving us to act.
The cure is not going to be a quick fix. It’s not going to happen with a “pill” like reading a book, taking a class, or completing required anti-racism training at work.
Nor does it come by calling oneself or one’s congregation “woke,” “progressive,” “liberal,” or “right.”
Sometimes our bodies have a chronic problem that requires chronic physical therapy.
Racism is a chronic problem of our hearts that also requires chronic treatment.
I call this treatment “chronic spiritual therapy” that we engage together as the Body of Christ.
Because the whole Body has been hurt.
Even you.
When have you been hurt by racism?
_________
*See for example:
https://perception.org/representation/
https://www.opportunityagenda.org/explore/resources-publications/media-representations-impact-black-men/media-portrayals
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1059&context=communication_faculty_pubs
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2020/09/17/study-black-americans-no-representation-movies-tv/3476650001/