I haven’t wanted to say anything . . . mostly
because I don’t know what to say. Instead,
I find myself sitting alone at night, wondering how in the world I can raise
three children with beautiful brown skin – two of them boys – in a world where we
so clearly judge people based on the color of their skin, sometimes even “to
death.”
I have heard from some African-American believers that
they are angry over the relatively few Christian white people who are willing
to “go there” in discussions about race in this country: Michael Brown, Ferguson, Trayvon Martin, and a
host of other facially racial issues have been widely reported by the media in
the last couple of years but resulted in painfully little Christian discourse. I’m writing in solidarity with many other
believers who are now #goingthere.
As a parent of nonwhite children, I am tired of
hearing that racism against black people in this country has been eradicated. It’s
simply not true. Yes, we have a
black president – more specifically, about 50% of Americans who voted cast a
vote for a black man. Does that fact
mean that we are “beyond” race as an issue in this country? Not even
close.
Michael Brown is dead. I have no idea what was in the mind of the
officer who shot him. I don’t know him;
I haven’t interviewed him. But there are
some known facts around this situation that we can discuss. Michael Brown is a black
man; the shooting officer is a white man.
Five witnesses with no relationship to one another (and only one of whom
was with Michael Brown) have provided witness statements to the press. Every
single one of them said that Michael Brown was running away from the
officer after the initial exchange by the officer’s car. Every
single one of them reports that Michael Brown turned around and put his hands in the air when he realized the
officer was in pursuit. It is undisputed that Michael Brown was not armed. It’s hard to imagine what could have happened
(even in the worst case scenario) for an officer to chase down and kill a
surrendering suspect who was running away, unarmed, and then put his hands in
the air. I just can’t swallow it.
Some of my white brethren have asked why “we”
{presumably, people who see this as potentially
a racially motivated shooting} refuse to give the white officer the benefit of
the doubt. I’ll respond to that more
below, but before I do, I’d like to ask the other {unasked} question which is
this: Why are we unwilling to give five
independent eye witnesses the benefit of the doubt? Or even {heaven forbid} believe them without
question? Could it be because all five
of the witnesses are black? Amidst the cries
for us not to assume too much about the officer before the investigation is
complete, where is the support of numerous witnesses who have clearly stated
that Michael Brown was in a surrender position when he was killed? I believe that as much of the outrage over
his death is about Michael Brown, it may well be equally about our refusal to
listen to people who are telling us – clearly
– that this was an unwarranted shooting.
Instead, we question and we wring our hands and we search for {nonexistent}
inconsistencies within the eye witness stories.
Sigh. I’d be angry too. I am
angry. #goingthere
Here’s what I am not
saying. I am not saying that the officer had some deep seeded anger against or
hatred toward black people or black men.
{Maybe he did; more likely he didn’t}
I am not saying that he woke
up that day and decided to kill someone.
I am not even saying that the
officer had a conscious thought about the color of Mr. Brown’s skin when he
encountered him. It is quite possible
that the officer saw two men on the road and approached them as he would have
any other person. What I am saying is that racism is
insidious. It can operate without us
knowing or being aware of it. At its root,
racism is fear. Fear of the
difference. Fear of the unknown. Fear of what might be or could be. Perhaps that fear (without even being a
conscious fear) drove the officer to react more strongly than he otherwise
would have. I don’t know. What I do know is that it isn’t very often we
hear about police officers killing unarmed white men while walking down the
street. And that concerns me.
It doesn’t really matter whether the Michael Brown
shooting was race-based. Let me
explain. What we have learned since his
death is that people who live in the community where he was shot feel racism in their lives, every day. And that’s where the discourse needs to take
place. We have a problem in this country
with people who don’t have white skin.
We have to own that reality before
we will be able to get anywhere in this “debate.”
We view beauty as light {white}, straight hair,
small features, and scrawny thin bodies.
That description leaves out a huge number of our {beautiful} fellow
Americans with brown skin, pronounced features, and curvy bodies. What a shame!
What would happen if we started to talk with our children openly about
the beauty of all of God’s creation:
sizes, shapes, and colors. Just like we are quick to tell our little
girls that they “can be anything when they grow up,” what if we stopped being
afraid to talk about race and instead embraced that our differences are our strength and make us more beautiful and
powerful?
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#goingthere is a trending hashtag related to Christians speaking out about race
