This past October, I had the opportunity to take a weeklong vacation with my family to Northern California. We saw all the sights of San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Muir Woods National Monument. When returning back to our hotel in Sacramento from the Bay Area one evening, we stopped to eat at a fast food establishment in Richmond. I will never forget what I saw there as we waited for our food.
We were the only white people in the building. All the customers and all the employees were black. Did this make me uncomfortable? It absolutely did, but not for the reason you might expect. I was not afraid the black patrons and employees would hurt me. I was afraid I would hurt them. As I normally do when waiting for food at an eating establishment, I double-checked that my car was locked, hopeful the others would not see me doing this and automatically think I was suspicious of them. This event challenged an assumption I had made about myself.
We all run across prejudices in our lifetimes. It is a fact of life. It is not these attitudes, but our reaction to them, that define us. I will remember that night in Richmond for what it made me see. I was not this perfect, unrepentant guy you see all over social media these days. I saw inside myself a prejudice that I sought to vanquish.
In the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has largely consumed our national attention these last few weeks, I feel it important to make some pointed distinctions. Black Lives Matter does not mean that no other lives matter. Trying to counter that narrative with an “all lives matter” attitude doesn’t advance the cause of black people fighting for justice or the white people, who have systematically marginalized them, consciously or not, for hundreds of years.
With this attitude of change, the national dialogue on race has advanced to some degree, but has also reached a stasis where both ‘sides’ dig in to their own opinion, unwilling to listen to the concerns of others. The idea that black lives matter is not some anti-white agenda. Black people are asking us white people to help solve a crisis that affects them personally every single day. I feel that doing so is the right thing to do.
By now, you may have seen the meme circulating that describes a biblical story of a shepherd and one hundred sheep. Black people are not the only victims of police abuse, but tragedies like the one from which we continue to reel disproportionally affect black communities. Black people are asking us to leave the ninety-nine protected sheep for a while to help them achieve equal justice.
Prejudice is not only present in racism. It infects everything from LGBTQ rights to political ideology. Mentioning this is important, because too many of us these days assume the worst of everyone else based on these prejudices. Racism is an obvious sin for which God would have us repent. But bigotry in all its forms needs to be cast aside if we as a human race are ever going to advance beyond tribalism and discord.
Lost in the national discussion of race, especially this month, we read news that LGBTQ groups are trying to stop Boise from hosting the NCAA basketball tournaments over the legislature’s short-sighted anti-transgender laws. The basketball tournament brings a lot of money and tourism to our lovely state. Turning it away because we have a law some don’t like seems just as petty. It is possible to disapprove without attempting to financially hurt thousands of people who had little to do with the law in the first place.
Another item that has gained a broader following is recent comments by Harry Potter novelist JK Rowling. In recent comments about being a woman, Rowling spoke about her perception that those who don’t ‘menstruate’ inherently take something away from those who do. This is being perceived as transphobic, causing a large backlash.
I don’t happen to think Ms. Rowling was in the wrong with her statement, but I am not transgender. The outrage and offense being taken on both ‘sides’ has been nothing if not predictable. What I think of as innocuous might be flat-out insulting to someone else.
Taking offense at comments like these is more a choice than a person’s gender or sexuality. We can choose not to be offended, but that doesn’t give us carte-blanche to say whatever horrible thing we might be thinking about at the moment without any consequences. Freedom of speech is a wonderful liberty we must not take for granted, but that freedom does not liberate us from the perceptions and opinions of others. The common proverb says that if you don’t have anything nice to say, it is best to say nothing. Try not to take offense at everything, but also try not to say anything offensive.
Circling back to the issues of race, we see a grieving nation committed to change. Sports organizations have outlawed images of the confederate flag due to perceptions that it promotes racism. A popular country music band as changed their name in an effort not to offend sensitive groups. It is easy for us white people to pass these changes off as unnecessary and a little ridiculous, but perhaps we should ask how our black brothers and sisters feel about these acts, since they are the ones most affected.
This nation was not built on an ‘us versus them’ attitude. When we reduce our fellow Americans to ‘them,’ we only perpetuate the prejudices that divide us, rather than the qualities that unite us. Anne Frank, who would turn ninety-one today, wrote in her diary “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
Whether we are black, white, gay, straight, transgender, male, female, bond, or free, we all call this world home. Committing to right injustices and correct issues that affect any of us is our responsibility. Ignoring the problems we face or solutions that make us uncomfortable is no way forward and will not make the issues go away. We must meet them head-on. We don’t have to set out to change the world in a single step, but we can each start improvement today.