Racism 1.5 - RANT

The seminar this weekend I would say was 98% good. I have to be honest that I am not entirely happy with one particular event that occurred and needless to say this space will not be sufficient to express all of it. I have actually just got back from the 3 hr ride it took me to get home and on the ride I thought about the misunderstanding that occurred when I spoke. At a point in the seminar we were asked if you could raise your hand (as a white person) and say that you’re a racist. I’m honest, I didn’t. I have several issues with it, one being the individualization of racism rather than acknowledging the fact that it is in large a systemic issue that we are dealing with. Also for me I don’t feel that I can say it because of my hearing, and because it would discredit the memory of a friend of mine.

My direct concern is that by getting people to say that they are racist, make better racist. I honestly have issues with people who never thought of themselves as racist all the sudden going, “oh I got this evidence this weekend, I must be a racist.” This was not brought to the individual level. Yeah all people who are Caucasians can intellectually say that they are racist, but can you mean it so quickly? I don’t me to question their experience, I’m just naturally a skeptic.

So the question is as a white male who am I? I am a child of God, who has been born into a system that victimizes people who are ethnically different from me. I am a child of God who has been victimized by this system of oppression that had deprived me of experiences, and relationships. I am a broken child of God, and I take my place within a broken humanity.

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