Becoming Friends or Remaining Fools

The Problem of Modern Racisim

by JR Kerr

“I do not imagine that the white and black race will ever live in any country upon any equal footing.
But I believe the difficulty to be still greater in the United States then anywhere else.”
Alexis De Tocqueville

De Tocqueville offered these comments in his famous treatise regarding the current and future promise of the United States when he visited America early on in her history. Race, it seems, has been a central part of our story as a nation from the very beginning.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. first preached at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church on Chicago’s south side during the civil rights movement. Mayor Richard Daley Sr. found out about Dr. King’s visit and phoned Reverend Clay Evans, Fellowship’s young senior pastor, to tell him that if Dr. King came to preach, he would “shut down his church.” The threat had teeth as the church was in the middle of a building project. Without permits, Daley pointed out, the trucks would “pull off the lot on Monday morning” and the building would remain a shell.

Reverend Evans responded, “This is not my church, this is not your church, this is God’s church…so he is going to come and preach.”

[Huffington Post: “Remembering Ten Black Christian Leaders.”]

Sunday came and King preached, the choir sang, and the congregants rejoiced. Monday followed as it always does, and Daley made good on his promise. The permits never came, the trucks had to leave, and the steel beams stood vacant.

Daley’s bold move did not have the effect that he intended. For 7 years, the unfinished building stood in resolute protest of a city and mayor that had little room for King’s message. They became an international symbol for the civil rights movement and the courage of one church that chose to stand in opposition to racism. Countless dignitaries—from Sidney Portier to Nelson Mandella—came to join in prayer and protest.

On Monday, January 17 of this year—some 30 years later—over 1,000 Chicagoans gathered in the snow under those same steal beams, which still stand empty. Together they celebrated Dr. King and the courageous ideas that building shell represented. The gathering included Soledad O’Brien, Jesse Jackson Sr., Coach Wayne Gordon, and Reverend Clay Evans, They spoke about the opposition to racial reconciliation that remains today—both throughout society and within individual human hearts.

I too was there, and my eyes were opened to something I previously thought false: Racism is alive and well today.

Sure, we don’t have separate lunch counters or water fountains. We don’t have segregated school systems. But the racist spirit endures. That day, I heard stories of those on welfare, in largely African American neighborhoods of our city, who have no hope for getting out of poverty. Because they are on welfare, they can’t purchase a vehicle and our city’s public transport system simply does not address the needs in the poorer neighborhoods.

I heard a story about two high school seniors—one black and one white—who were wrongfully accused of drug use and were expelled from school weeks before graduation. The white student was allowed to take his finals and graduated; the black student was not.

Jesse Jackson Sr. pointed out that the average child being raised on Chicago’s predominantly-white north side has a 300% greater chance of learning to read by 3rd grade than a child born into an African-American neighborhood on the south side.

The aftermath to this gathering has been difficult for me to process. I had overlooked the unjust systems that make it difficult for certain races and classes to access education or transportation, and achieve a decent standard of living. To my shame. I had separated myself from underserved parts of the city and so didn’t have to confront those problems. I was reminded this night how difficult it is to follow Jesus and “do justice” if I am not actively pursuing friendships with those unlike myself.

Isn’t that like most of us in the church? So many of us have little connection to those who are different than we are. Sure, we may come together for an event here or there, but we live separate lives in different neighborhoods in different parts of our cities.

I’ve benefitted greatly from a growing friendship with Charles Jenkins ,the current senior pastor at Fellowship. I am ashamed to say it, but Charles is my first African-American friend. I learn things from Charles that my other friends could never teach me. Our bond makes me wonder how different the church would be if we began collectively engaging those who are unlike us?

As Dr. King once reminded us, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” It seems we have a choice to be fools or be friends. May we confront the sin of racism, challenge systemic racism in our city, cross barriers to build relationships, and perhaps partner with God to restore our small parts of the world.

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Do you agree with JR that “racism is alive and well?” How big of a problem is our insular approach to relationships?

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Editor’s Note: The picture above by Ted Williams is of Martin Luther King at a Chicago rally in 1966.

Comments

Mark Gomez

While I would certainly agree that racism is still alive and well, I do not think I could agree that the U.S. is holding the primary cards on this issue. One would only need to look at the Middle East and it is blaringly obvious how far we have come in the U.S.

I have personally endured prejudice and outright bigotry in these good states of the U.S. over the years. My last name has relegated me to a lower position in the minds and activities of others around me at various times in my life. I do not expect anyone to give me anything that I have not earned, but I have not enjoyed the feeling of being distanced, discarded, or seen as less just because my last name is Hispanic. Such is life and at this point I am neither surprised nor set off by those who see me in any way good or bad because of the color of my skin.

Like South Africa, the U.S. has come a long way in regard to racism. To imagine anything else is a narrow-sighted view of the world. This issue is far from over of course; no one who is watching could disagree.

Some things need to change. Each race needs to stop doing those things that live up to the negative prejudicial expectations of everyone around them. A new reputation is earned, so is trust. This requires work on our own part and not the part of others. Each person no matter what color, must look at themselves first. Prejudice and total bigotry are learned, we must train each new generation in another way of seeing the world and the people in it.

DB Beem

Just throwing out a question/comment.

Are we lowering the bar, by focusing on racism? Racism seems to imply a bias at its most benign, or hatred and animus at its worse. You talk about racism, and many people will disagree vehemently that either they are racist or society is racist, and their rationale is simply because they personally have not acted out racism in their life. But is indifference, insularity and benign neglect, any better than racism?

Jesus called us to actively love, which is to say, that he called us to have empathy, to care and to have compassion. All of these things require us to move beyond our carefully hewn cocoons. I do think hearing stories of racism, is helpful, because it does shock our system, to see the reality that so many people face today and the cost of our indifference. At the same time, I think, that we are called to so much more than simply “not be racist.” We are called to love.

I totally buy into Kerr's comments about our insular relationships. Generally I don't cross those boundaries, not because, I don't like African American people, or people from other ethnicities or background, the reason I don't cross those boundaries is because my life is busy, with work, with my family. My friends come from my neighborhood, which happens to be racially pretty homogenous. Fortunately, my church is ethnically diverse, but you get the idea. Having these kinds of relationships requires me to be intentional and that's not always easy.

Kristen B

I spent some time talking to a friend back home in Chicago this week. We're struggling with a Jewish friend of ours and pinpointed some areas of culture as why we see things differently in the world. And we then turned to race and culture in our discussion. I do believe racism is still alive. But I think until we bridge the differences in our family and historic cultures, it will not budge.

I left Chicago and Park to teach down in Urbana. Not my first choice but I needed employment. There is a high percentage of African-Americans here and most of the students at my high school are low socioeconomic families, too. The culture and lifestyle they have is so different than the Chicago lifestyle I had. It took crossing that culture bridge to see things through their eyes to really understand the racial differences.

I think that is one of the things that made Dr King so brilliant. He understood that race was often more than just color. it was culture. Jesus did the same thing, right? He spoke to people in ways that they understood based on their culture.

Glennda Hardin

This is not news. While I am glad it is getting some exposure, one need only look at the 11:00 hour on Sunday morning, long called "the most segregated hour in America". If we don't worship together, if we live in segregated areas, if we separate ourselves from each other on the campus and in the workplace as I have often seen, how can we overcome this? It's time to stop talking and start acting. And it has to be done as Kerr suggests--intentionally and prayerfully.

Julian Newman

I agree with Glennda. This is not news. It is only news to those that don't experience it. I happen to be the lead pastor of multi-ethic/multi-generational church in a largely suburban area in a almost all white denomination. A few things that I have learned over the course of my journey concerning multi-ethnic ministry:

1. If you aren't intentional, you can't make progress.

2. If people aren't connecting outside the Sunday morning gathering, then things are just surface.

3. If there isn't gut level honesty at the leadership level regarding race and authentic relationships, sustainability is next to impossible.

4. Costly and sometimes uncomfortable leadership decisions are necessary to make a 'mosaic' community possible.

These things take courage, take boldness, and take the willingness to go against the grain for sake of the kingdom of Jesus. It takes core change to make lasting change. Unfortunately in too many cases, we want to reap the fruit of change without making the investment change requires.

Thanks for posting this. A step in the right direction. God Bless.

Renee

JR: I appreciate your honesty on where you fall short. As an African-American woman, I don't always see that in articles from white men.

Vaughan

I'm part of a multi-ethnic church fellowship where members come from higher than average socio-economic neighborhoods. We help out in the pooer end of town with working bees ; school make over etc. however I don't see solid relationships being built. I'm sure that none of our fellowship would consider to send their children to the lower end schools.

Thus we help the poor - comprising ethnic groups outside the mix of our fellowship, but we don't integrate.

I'm struggling with the question of which school to send our daughter to. The one down the road (poor end), or the one 3 miles away (better end).

I'd be happy if one of your team wrote an article addressing this - because schools are such a key part of our commmunity and integration into our community. Yet it is through our choice of schools for our children that we perpetuate the divides we see.

Seeking...

Aaron Brown

I find the posting very intriguing and insightful. I've been working on a committee for a leadership conference to be held at a Private Christian Charismatic University in the Midwest. One of my responsibilities has been to research how leadership conferences began and what it entails.

When doing my research, I found the predominant origin of leadership began with the civil rights movement. I immediately tied this truth into our modern generations' desire for social justice and activism - we again have a generation today who wants to make a difference and improve life for many different walks of life.

Having said that, I think it is important to acknowledge that race relations have improved in our modern day. This doesn't mean that we turn a blind eye to the fact that there is still much work to overcome prejudice and racism that still exists and that it does still exist, but let's be encouraged by the positive that has taken place.

If we look around ourselves, we will see that America is indeed becoming a melting pot. We see more and more mixed marriages and children who come from very diverse ethnic backgrounds. This is amazing, in comparison to America's prejudiced past.

In having said all of that, let's be encouraged by our advancement, but let's remember there is still barriers that need to come down. Like our forefathers of civil rights, let's keep getting out there and pushing for equality and helping each other come together.

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