“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 3: 5-6) I thought I would never say this about America; we are not putting God first in any of our present problems, in particular our troubling issues with racism. We are failing “big time” with each other’s rights and feelings. Just as most of the white population has been able to achieve their goals and dreams, only a small portion of people of color have been able to achieve theirs. If we all, as a nation, would get down on our knees and pray, our gratitude for all we have accomplished as a nation would be a wonderful offering to the Lord our God. He would direct our paths, and He would help us all to make a difference through discipline, consistency, and divine love.
Speaking as a white American woman, I believe we all have had experiences with various aspects of race, whether through news broadcasts, the entertainment industry, or our own personal experiences. The white culture and my own family’s beliefs have shaped me just as the cultures and family beliefs of people of color have shaped them. Many white Americans feel they have value to our society because they feel they belong; many people of color feel that they have never belonged in our country. Their inability to obtain housing, education, and jobs has not allowed them access to the American dream.
Racism has always been America’s way of sorting and ranking its people into angry armies of divisive people; it robs people of color of their humanity. Americans have been placed in racial roles that are powerfully self-fulfilling and self-perpetuating; these roles allow them to either succeed or fail. Throughout America’s history, race has become a social construct invented by white people so that their ideas and values have been heard over those of people of color. Because of the top placement of white people in the hierarchy of government decisions, they seem to have a free pass to everything. People of color have had their freedoms and rights impeded. Racism acts like a barrier against people of color because they don’t seem to have the same freedoms and rights that white people do. Your skin color is not the barrier; your beliefs that are attached to your skin color are the issue. They are much harder to identify and to change.
What are some of the pitfalls to a more equitable situation in America? Segregation and avoidance foster a fear of the “other” in many people, regardless of race. Racism lives in our hearts and minds; those in power, the predominantly white culture, embedded divisive beliefs into many institutional policies and practices. Skin color determines how people of all races work together or how they fight one another. The white culture has experienced this broken belief system and has fostered, by and large without realizing it, misunderstanding, mistrust, resentment, and violence among all races. Segregation enables avoidance and denial that creates the illusion that white privilege does not exist. The fact that the playing field is not level between white people and people of color means that life experiences are different, unequal, and unfair. Part of the problem is that white people seem to have a choice to ignore race and racism; people of color don’t have that same choice. They must learn how to fit into the white culture in order to survive. Because people of color are almost always under the lens of most news media, they need to realize how they are being portrayed to white people. The ideas of contacting and connecting are essential antidotes to segregation and avoidance.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. offered this advice to the American public in the early 1960’s; “Do not judge people of color by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” (Waking Up White) Although American educators have taught their students to do good things for all people, many educators need to spend more time teaching their students to be critical social thinkers and problem solvers. You may say that the way your life has played out is different because of the color of your skin, but actually, this philosophy of being color-blinded perpetuates the silence, ignorance, and denial that keep racism in place. We, as a nation, need to feel discomfort so that we can grow and change. Our children will notice differences in our adult behaviors without judging us. White people need to listen carefully to all people of color who feel like “outsiders” so that they can break the traditions that cause cross-cultural conflicts. It is no wonder that people of color feel they don’t belong, are invisible, or are not wanted. This sense of perpetual predestination causes them to feel hopeless and incapable of changing their lives for the better.
So how do we change our behaviors, our beliefs, and our futures? The status quo will continue as long as we blame each other for our problems. Change requires us to tolerate the kinds of emotions that arise when conversations become unfriendly. Tolerance is about accepting your own uncomfortable emotions, changing your own perceptions of imperfection and vulnerability, and admitting that you are human. When we face racism and all of its varying descriptions together, we will reap a national healing of magnificent proportions. We must not allow anger and mistrust to continue among any group of people because they perpetuate division and self-destructing behavioral patterns.
A sincere desire to understand “the others”‘ point of view and circumstances promotes healing and justice for all parties. Ignoring and invalidating another person’s dissatisfaction and anger is like pouring vinegar on an already open, volatile wound. We must learn to collaborate, innovate, and solve problems by realizing that change requires us to be flexible, adaptable, open-minded, and resilient. For us to survive as a nation, we must interconnect and be interdependent on one another. We must move from assimilation and differentiation to integration where understanding our differences will strengthen the whole nation. Courageously using language to heal our wounds, all people will be able to speak their own truths and will be able to listen to the truths of others. Race is not about winning or losing; it’s about mutual understanding. By uniting, strengthening, and prospering our combined cultures, we will become a multi-cultural American nation, not a “melting pot” of divided cultures.
With the passing of Georgia’s Congressman, John Lewis, this past weekend, his words should be the essential responsibility of every American citizen today. “Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society.” We cannot do this alone. We must put God first in our lives, and He will direct our paths. Our future is in His hands; all we need do is kneel and give Him our gratitude and praise for one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Only then will the wounds of racism be washed away from our hearts and souls.
Anna Hartt
