The past week has been full of racism, anti-racism responses, and swings on the emotional pendulum that feel as though the cycles refuse to dampen, refuse to lose energy and amplitude. Count me among those whose anger, sadness, and rage has felt as though the needle on the gauge was pegged at 100.
Having stated this, I would remind you of the following:
I’m of Afghan descent: my paternal grandfather migrated here from Afghanistan. Hence, my family name. He left a high-elevation tribal village as a late adolescent to avoid injustice.
I’m of Mexican descent: my maternal paternal grandmother migrated here from Mexico. She migrated because of domestic violence directed toward her, her sister, and my great-grandmother.
I’m your ethnically-ambiguous, white-passing friend: Hello, Mom! Yup, my mom is as white/Northern-European stock as they come. So, if you didn’t know my family name, you’d likely default to “Mike’s a white guy.” And, as we press into this, I’d agree: So much of the world I grew up in contributed to and authorized me to live as a white guy.
And, I would remind you of another matter: I’m a racist.
You see, that I am racist is not because I am a vicious, mean-spirited bastard who acts maliciously toward people of color. Rather, I am a racist because the social world of the USA has made it possible for persons with my appearance to receive education, employment, goods, social capital, distribute wealth to family, move about freely in most social spaces, and flourish: all at the expense and suffering of people of color.
So, when someone like Trump comes along, and exclaims through tweets and campaign rallies that persons like the four congresswomen should “go back to their countries”, the same social world described above authorizes white and white-passing people like me to remain silent, remain calm, and remain distant from such ugly statements.
As some may have observed (but, I doubt anyone, really), I’ve been relatively quiet on social media about these repellant statements, utterances that further disclose how manifestly ignorant the president is of the Constitution and the subsequent forms of government institutions. I’ve re-tweeted some, and shared what others have posted. I did propose on Facebook that people send a message to the White House, requesting that the President apologize to the four congresswomen, as well as to the nation. I know how far that will go. But, apart from that, I’ve kept relatively quiet. It’s easy to do that when you are white/white-passing. But, there’s more to it than that easy social world.
That silence flowed from a sense of indignation that has astonished me. Like so many of you, I have felt so utterly helpless to respond and correct this kind of incivility and hatred directed toward people of color.
I know that my grandparents, my father, and my aunts and uncles, probably some of my cousins, too, have heard, “Go back to where you came from.” When I read that first tweet, and his self-righteousness that followed in subsequent tweets and other contexts, I felt a volcano rising inside myself. So, I decided to keep quiet. I knew emotionally I was on Caps-Lock earlier this week. I picked my spots.
So much of my praying in the Psalms this week connected with my anger and longing for justice:
16 But to the wicked person, God says:
“What right have you to recite my laws
or take my covenant on your lips?
17 You hate my instruction
and cast my words behind you.
18 When you see a thief, you join with him;
you throw in your lot with adulterers.
19 You use your mouth for evil
and harness your tongue to deceit.
20 You sit and testify against your brother
and slander your own mother’s son.
21 When you did these things and I kept silent,
you thought I was exactly like you.
But I now arraign you
and set my accusations before you. (Psalm 50:16-21)
And the following:
You have rejected us, God, and burst upon us;
you have been angry—now restore us!
2 You have shaken the land and torn it open;
mend its fractures, for it is quaking.
3 You have shown your people desperate times;
you have given us wine that makes us stagger.
4 But for those who fear you, you have raised a banner
to be unfurled against the bow. (Psalm 60:1-4)
I make no special claims to remedy our current predicament. Only that we have a God in Heaven that guides us, white/white-passing people who are racists, and that we are called into the way of Jesus, to participate in the remedies that promote God’s justice in our nation. Better this, rather than claiming, “I’ve got this racist problem figured out.” Surely, I do not.
Find your voice, not only in your prayers, but among family and friends, and your government to reject the racism that so many white/white-passing people benefit from. Ask your family and friends how they benefit from the current set-up in our society as it pertains to white people. No doubt you will learn that they are “not racist,” and don’t have a mean bone in their body. It is also likely they don’t have any friends who are Black, Brown, or Asian.
More than this raising of your voice, Jesus calls us to live in such a way, daily, that repudiates racist governments and social environments that enact racism against people of color. You can start by naming yourself as a racist, fully confident that you may not have a mean bone in your body and you will be completely misunderstood. But, you can daily live in ways that, even if incrementally, make our world less racist, and confident the Lord will lead you into that anti-racist future. A future that no longer elicits red-hot anger or confirms silence in the presence of racist injustice.
Rising4Air 