I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Deuteronomy 5:6
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1
In high school a white friend of mine said these words to me, “You know I saw a black boy kissing a white girl and it was disgusting.”
I said one word in reply, “Why?”
Do you know what he said?
“You’re trying to make me a racist.”
And my friend didn’t talk to me for about a week.
Interestingly enough, I didn’t really think anything about what my friend said. I didn’t think he was or was not a racist. That’s not what was going on in my mind. I should know. It’s my mind. The scriptures agree when it says, “no one knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man who is in him; in the same way, non one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”
When I asked, “Why?” I actually wanted to know what he found disgusting about a black boy kissing a white girl. But he said I was tyring to make him a racist.
Now how could I do that? He was the one who said he thought it was disgusting for a black boy to kiss a white girl. But I, who only asked "why," was “making him a racist.” This was in highschool, where I was voted home coming king; later that year I and a black girl were voted prom king and queen.
I remember a controversy about the prom, something to the extent of a “white court” being put in place...but this is not the real issue.
Racisim is the issue.
According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, racism is “actions, practices or beliefs, or social or political systems that consider different races to be ranked as inherently superior or inferior to each other, based on presumed shared inheritable traits, abilities, or qualities.”
Racism is a sin against God the Creator and against His creatures made in his image and likeness and glory. Every person, boy and girl, man and woman, culture and ethnicity, reflect God in some way. For one creature to assume superiority over the other is to assume equality with God, who alone knows how each of His creatures each reflect Him. Yet even all of this is not my issue.
Here it is.
I’ve never thought of African Americans as “victims” of “the white man.” I’ve never thought of “the white man” as “the devil.” In fact, my whole focus has been my own history, which of course involves slavery. My ancestors in this country were slaves. I remember and honor them. I also remember and honor the ones who never came to this country as slaves, my original people and culture and land. Some assume my home land is inferior, third world, backwards, etc. Yet I can honestly say I have never cared what racist or non-racist thought about me, my ancestry of slavery, or my home land.
What I do care about is a satanic lie: That simply to remember my history means “I’m trying to make some white person racist.” Again, in remembering my history, I’m not thinking about “the man.” I’m thinking about the God of the weary years of my ancestors. I’m thinking about my grand parents, my mother and father, my heroes who made the way for me to be with a white woman without being lynched, and for people to see that my children are not ‘disgusting” because they come from a black man kissing a white woman.
Some feel like the mention of black history month, race, Africa, etc, has to be said in a whisper. They feel like African-Amercians are hyper sensitive race card players. Again, these people don’t bother me. I have the same question for them that I had for my friend in highschool: Why?
And I really want to know the answer. Not to prove anyone a racist or not. But because I have a mind, and when I hear something I don’t understand, I ask why. That’s it. I’m free to think.
Contrary to what we’d like to think in America, we do still have a long way to go. We think we have to be “the same” to be together. We don’t embrace differences, God given differences, as a blessing to each other. We think these differences in history and ethnicity equals racism. In the mind of many Americans, differences must mean superior and inferior. Only sameness is equality.
When someone says, “When I see you, I don’t see color. I just see a man,” they don’t realize that I want them to see my melonin, my thicker lips, my style of hair. God made these. They need not be ignored. Yet again, I’m not concerned with whether this person sees me or not. God sees and loves how He made me. So does Jesus and His Spirit.
And in heaven, where every ethnicity will be seen, it will be clear that heaven is not America, or Africa, or Asia alone. Every ethnicity will be there, and our Jewish Savior will be there, still a Jew, not a democrat or republican American. We may be suprised at how non-American or African or Asian Jesus is.
Why is remembering African-American History not racist?
Because it is African-American History.
Did you catch that?
Some people can't even think of Black History Month without thinking about White Racists. But it's not "White Racist History Month." My history is not focused on the whips and lynching, but on the God who gave my ancestors the power to resist slavery. My focus is on the God of my people, just as Israel remembered the one who freed them.
When ignorant people speak of "white history month," or simply see no need for a Black History Month, I wonder if they will ever see 09/11/01 as irrelevant.
I wonder if they expect the Hebrews to change their minds and forget the holocaust.
God wanted Israel to remember the deliverance of His people from slavery.
I too will remember the God who delivered and empowered my people.
If you find this racist, ask yourself: Why?
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