Everyone is talking about race

From people in the street to the President, everyone is talking about race. It makes perfect sense in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to gut enforcement of the Voting Rights Act and the jury decision to acquit an armed white man for shooting unarmed black teenager to death.

There seem to be two camps of opinion. One camp claims all (or almost all) have been cured of racism. Even a majority of Supreme Court justices believe that racism is so last century. Now that racism is a thing of the past we really, really (!) don’t need any affirmative action or federal supervision of voting rights. Trust us.

The other camp says that racial discrimination is alive and well in America right here and now. The statistics support their claim since people of color are more likely to live in poverty, struggle with unemployment or slave wage employment, been imprisoned for a crime, and die of gun violence or chronic disease in 21^st century America.

So how do the folks that believe that racism is dead explain all those bad things happening to people with dark skin? Easy. Bad things happen to bad people. They are just a bunch of gang thugs, thieves and addicts that cannot live within the bounds of the Law so they deserve to suffer. Throw them crumbs and pennies for that is all they deserve. It’s God will.

Perhaps it is my overactive imagination but all that sure sounds racist. Now that Jim Crow laws have been taken off the books, policies that hurt people of color are fine as long as that is not the stated objective. You can restrict voting rights but slyly claim it is to prevent voter fraud. You can jail and even execute people who cannot afford a top legal defense team. You can starve people that cannot find a living wage job by accusing them of being welfare cheats. As long as you do not get caught muttering racial slurs, the racism charge will never stick. Just ask Paula Deen.

Rhetoric (and presumably attitudes) do seem to have evolved. Many now fear the poor rather than skin color. I guess that makes them color-blind. As a nation that rewards business success with obscene wealth, those that cannot pull their own weight economically are a burden and need incentives to work harder. It is almost like they were predestined to suffer according to God’s plan for them. The Lord smiles down on the successful as symbols of destiny fulfilled. The poor are moral failures. So goes the rhetoric popular in some segments of our enlightened society. 

If you believe some of the political pundits, President Obama is a racist that just wanted to stoke racial tensions in the wake of the Zimmerman verdict by claiming kinship with the shooting victim. How dare he speak from his own experiences as a man with dark skin about people assuming the worst of him!? Obama’s call for a little soul-searching on race is proof of his divisive intent.

And then, finally, I think it's going to be important for all of us to do some soul-searching. There has been talk about should we convene a conversation on race. I haven't seen that be particularly productive when politicians try to organize conversations. They end up being stilted and politicized, and folks are locked into the positions they already have. On the other hand, in families and churches and workplaces, there's the possibility that people are a little bit more honest, and at least you ask yourself your own questions about, am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can? Am I judging people as much as I can, based on not the color of their skin, but the content of their character? That would, I think, be an appropriate exercise in the wake of this tragedy.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that racism is truly a thing of the past. Our economic and justice systems are color-blind even though too many people of color wind up with the short end of every stick. Let’s give folks the benefit of the doubt that it is not race they fear, but they have every right to fear the violence, addiction, and property crime prevalent in poor neighborhoods because those are character flaws that deserve judgment.

As a follower of that Jesus fellow, I am trying to get my head around how classism is morally superior to racism. The Lord warned about the trap of materialism. You cannot worship Mammon and God. He also said the rich have a snowball’s chance in hell to reach the kingdom of heaven. Perhaps He was kidding. Maybe He was only talking about rich Romans and Palestinian Jews, but certainly not about Americans, God’s new chosen people. 

Christ calls His followers to lift the burdens of the oppressed and care for the most vulnerable. We are to serve others as if we are serving the Lord in each person. I would say we have more than a little soul-searching in order. Now about those sins of Sodom . . .