For days now, as I have watched so many different events unfold, I have struggled to find the right words. Anything I came up with sounded shallow, repetitive, and honestly I was afraid they would be turned against me.
I grew up being taught to love everyone! My grandparents welcomed any and everyone into their home, and those people often stayed long enough to be called family.
I, in turn, taught my children to love any and everyone. But I will admit, I often used the term “colorblind” to explain that love. Until recently, I didn’t realize how hurtful that term could be. I learned that choosing to be colorblind erased a persons uniqueness, that God specially designed them to be. It also erased my ability to see the detriment that was happening to my friends and family around me who had a different skin color than my own.
I grew up in Colton, which is predominantly Hispanic, and second was African American. I was the minority in all of my classes. So I believed that I didn’t have white privilege, because I knew what it meant to be overlooked, or picked on, or feeling like an outsider because of my skin color. I didn’t realize that those in itself were a part of my white privilege. I didn’t get accused of things because I looked suspicious. My parents weren’t fearful if I walked down to the liquor store to buy some candy. In fact, if I went into that liquor store, I was barely watched, when friends of mine were stared at until they left the store! But I still didn’t understand that was white privilege. If I were to be honest, I really do not understand still all that being white does for me. But I am learning to see what it doesn’t do to help my fellow friends and family who are a different race than me.
I am just as outraged by the senselessness that so many people incur at the hands of someone abusing their power, especially when they are a person of color and the abuser is a white person. I do believe that often, over history, waves get made but then things seemingly go silent. I do believe that protests can do good in making those waves.
But I am just as outraged when I see all the hard work that really good people put in through those protests get eradicated because several bad apples turn it into more senseless violence and theft.
Someone recently posted a photo of Jesus turning tables over in front of the tabernacle turning it into a marketplace. He was outraged. I have seen this multiple times, and usually with some sort of call to action about Christians doing what Jesus did and making rioting ok!
I am not a Bible Scholar. In fact, I am still learning all about the attributes of Jesus. But the way I understand it is this! Jesus didn’t go to shop owners struggling to make ends meet and destroy their property. He didn’t go into the neighborhoods where these people lived and burn down their homes. He didn’t threaten to murder those shop owners because they wronged God!
Change needs to happen. God calls us to love one another. He doesn’t say, only if they look like you. He doesn’t say, only if you agree with them. He doesn’t say, only if you aren’t offended by them. He simply says” Love one another!”
God made us, one and all! He made us in the likeness of His image. He made us all different colors, different ethnicities, different languages, different genders. He made us each unique. There is nobody else on this earth exactly like you. Not even if you are a twin and a mirror image. He loves all of us! Even the ones who don’t choose to do what is right, He loves them.
I don’t know if those words do anything at all to help. But they were in my heart. And I needed them to come out.
I will stand up for what is right, but sometimes I may miss the mark. I may not always see someone else’s point of view, but I will keep trying to listen and learn. And sometimes my own selfishness will get in the way. And for that I apologize.
