How small steps can lead to racial healing, and a plea to start now
Confronted with the realities of racial prejudice and disadvantage in our society, we white people have a couple of choices.
• We can avoid, ignore, or procrastinate. The problem is too big. It has been complicated by centuries of discrimination built into the way our society works. None of this is my fault. I have nothing against Black people, but I’m just one person, and my to-do list is already pretty long.
• We can talk about it. Let’s have a discussion group. Let me tell you what I just learned about my Black friend’s experiences, this incident I discovered from history, this shocking statistic I just found. Wow, I never knew that before!
• We can look down on those not as aware as we think we are. Don’t you know that (a) the politician you voted for, (b) the company you work for, (c) the state you live in, (d) the attitudes you grew up with have made this problem worse?
I’ll admit I’ve stood in all three categories, and each of them falls short of the productive move we can make next. We can do something.
What can I do?
We worship a God of justice and reconciliation. What he embodies we must pursue. It’s fine to talk; we need to learn. But having learned a little and talked quite a bit about this, I realize neither is enough. It’s time for action. But what can I do?
I posed that question in a couple of Facebook posts, and I must say I’m encouraged by the response. White folks—some I’ve known well and several who are only Facebook friends, men and women in every age category, leaders and everyday church members—offered so many practical answers I hardly have room to summarize them all here. In fact, I received so much practical and provocative feedback, I’ve decided to spend two weeks sharing it.
Even at that, this post is longer usual, so please stick with me. At least skim through my list and decide, what’s one step you could take? I dare say any of us can make a difference by pursuing even one, any one, of these ideas.
Make a friend
“Be open to getting to know people of color,” wrote Lu Ann Nickelson, a schoolteacher in Colorado Springs. “I’m now in my third year of working at an elementary school that is very racially diverse. . . . Getting to know people goes a long way in getting rid of prejudice.”
Karen Cain, a Christian professional in Cincinnati, said she makes it a priority to raise her kids with a diverse group of friends and other contacts. Gary Herbert, a patient advocate at Cincinnati’s Children Hospital, says he’s guiding his family to give time to hearing other voices and experiences that are nothing like their own.
Tim Stephens, a consultant with Christian Financial Resources and Point University grad, advises, “Look for as many opportunities to do life with Black people as possible. Mentor Black kids at the local high school. . . Volunteer at Big Brothers/Big Sisters and work with Black young people. Take a part-time job in the inner city. . . . Coach a youth sports team with some or mostly Black kids.”
Look for as many opportunities to do life with Black people as possible.
Valerie Reed, a friend from Mason, Ohio, spent many months at a rehab hospital with her husband who is recovering from a critical spine injury after a devastating car crash. She said the two of them were in the minority among the people of every group from all over the world seeking treatment there, including several African Americans. “We always greeted each other, talked, laughed, and shared tips for surviving this thing,” she remembers. “We didn’t patronize each other or act differently with each other. We cried together. We were just people bonded together by this devastating experience.”
Melissa Altman, who administers a Facebook group for those concerned about racial justice, summarizes it this way: “Building and investing in friendship with others is what will bring true heart change.”
Stop to listen
With each step like those above, we white people must continually do an attitude check. As Christian blogger Ally Henny puts it, “If you really started to ‘see’ racism only this past summer, two years ago, or even a decade or more ago, what makes you think you can add to a conversation that most Black, Brown, and Indigenous folk have been having our whole lives?” She quickly adds this doesn’t rule out speaking up about the problem or engaging in the conversation. It does mean not assuming the role of the Great White Fixer.
Start slowly and take time to listen. Don’t rush to talk about Black problems and Black history and Black suffering with your Black friends. Just be a friend. Earn the right to broach difficult topics, and then enter the conversation with humility.
Don’t rush to talk about Black problems. . . . Just be a friend.
This discussion, perhaps more than any other today, demands that we follow Paul’s directive to “do nothing from . . . conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. . . . look . . . to the interest of others” (Philippians 2:3, 4 ESV). One Black friend spoke to me of the “stunning hubris” he’s heard from some white folks talking about race.
Becka Moreno, a lawyer living in New York City, puts it this way: “What can I do? I can amplify, listen to, read, and follow people of color without adding my own two cents or talking about my own experiences. My voice is not particularly needed in the public conversation, and that’s an idea that runs counter to the way a lot of white people (add, if I may say, especially white men) typically think.” Ouch!
This means, among many other things, if you decide to start some grand initiative or project or even protest for racial justice, make sure you include Black leaders in the effort.
Scott Caulley, New Testament professor at Kentucky Christian University, spoke about efforts on his campus. “We are engaging in formal and informal discussions of racial justice within the context of a Christian community,” he wrote. “We faculty are committed to hearing minority voices (authors) in our respective disciplines by choice of textbooks as well as our own reading and teaching. It all feels like small steps, but we hope these steps will cumulatively add up to some substantive change.”
Take a step
Maybe “small steps” should be the beginning of a motto for every white Christian concerned about racial healing. Yes, the problem, when fully realized, seems overwhelming. Yes, it is complicated by many decades of discrimination, bias, and hatred. But what if 20 or 50 years from now the next generations could look back on this moment and say, “This is when the situation started to change”?
What if 50 years from now the next generations could look back on this moment
and say, “This is when the situation started to change?”
The key is intentionality. Each of us can do something. Each of us can commit to one, small step, and then add a willingness to explain to our white friends what we’re doing and why. Many small steps taken in unison will move us on a significant journey.
This will require learning more than we think we know now. Many of us will be prompted to invest more than time and give more than friendship to the Black community. And throughout our efforts, we will do well to continually reflect on our motives, asking God to help us see our own hearts.
I’ll share what others have said in each of those categories in next week’s post.
Photos by Connor Botts, César Rincón, Alexander Krivitskiy, and Jessica Felicio on Unsplash
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