Racism in America

Over at God's Politics Blog, a blog by the Reverend Jim Wallis and friends (and the Sojourner Community, down in Washington), we have a discussion of Race by Edward Gilbreath.

Here is the beginning:

The Shirley Sherrod incident, the latest stumble in our nation’s clumsy dance with race, should be the one that finally breaks us out of our rut of racial dysfunction and shows us that we’ve got to change our moves if we’re ever going to advance to a more meaningful discourse on the subject race relations in America.

But it won’t be.

We’ll continue to play our respective race cards, working ourselves into stalemates of anger and cynicism … casting blame and derision on others over perceived slights, both real and imagined … barricading ourselves behind walls of suspicion and resentment. And the end result: We’ll continue to be just as clueless and divided as we were before.

Post-racial? Ha! More like post-human, as we’ve become comfortable with the practice of turning people who are different from us or with whom we disagree into ugly labels, devils that we can rightfully attack or simply ignore.

There it is in a nutshell.  While I don't agree totally with Mr Gilbreath's analysis of what went on with regard to the Shirley Sherrod imbroglio, his opening paragraph says a lot.

Here is a paragraph that speaks to me, but drew some criticism of the author:

Calling a white person a “racist” has in many ways become the equivalent of calling a black person a nigger. White people are tired of being repeatedly cast as the villains in our nation’s racial drama, especially when it seems political correctness forbids them from broaching racial topics while blacks and other ethnic groups are free to bash whites for their racial prejudice. This perception of a double standard looms large in our dealings with race, and it will hinder our efforts at progress unless we’re all able to engage in frank communication about these tough subjects without fear of being labeled a racist.

This paragraph spilled over into other blogs and from Mr Gilbreath's blog there is a link to the blog of David Swanson, where the subject is hashed over.

From my own point of view, I see the too free use of the term Racist as a tool for trying to limit me in the public square.  That is what I think was happening when the NAACP made the acquisition against the Tea Party Movement.  There is for sure racism out there, but it needs to be dealt with in a laser like fashion and not used as a justification to shut up people one might not agree with politically.

At the end of the article the author brings out the most taboo word in the English language in the US today—sin.

Finally, as we engage each other across racial and cultural lines on these difficult subjects, we must start thinking less in terms of racism and more in terms of sin. Many take issue with the notion that there’s such a thing as “reverse racism,” because the balance of power in this nation would need to have always been equal in order for that to be true. While those matters remain a topic for honest debate, for Christians one thing is indisputable: We all stand on level ground when it comes to sin. The Bible says we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). When we acknowledge that, we realize that we are all guilty of stereotyping, of falsely accusing our neighbor, of harboring prejudice, suspicion, and ill will toward those who are not from our particular interest group.

We have to be willing to rediscover the true meaning of Jesus’ command to love our neighbor, that it’s not some hackneyed truism or the cute poetry of a Middle Eastern hippie. Loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves is at the center of everything we’re supposed to be about as Christians, and those Americans who argue that we are a Christian nation should be the first ones living out this “love your neighbor as yourself” truth. Unfortunately, when ideology becomes our idol, disregarding our neighbor can become the acceptable thing to do, especially if the story about something she did two decades ago can be conveniently manipulated to make our political point.

A very good point, that.

Regards  —  Cliff