Children Weren’t Born Racist, So Why Are We?

Children’s aren’t born racist. They learn it. They learn it from the adults around them…

They learn it from us.

Kids learn who is deemed worthy and who is unacceptable, by what we say. But also by what we don’t say.

Kid’s watch…

How we act and re-act. Who we do and don’t smile at. They watch who we impress and those we ignore in public.

Kids see…

Who our friends are and who they are not. They see who we find “worthy” of entertaining and what people look like in our groups of influence.

Kids observe…

How we cater to some, ignore others and walk past even others.

Kids learn…

Belief systems about people by our words; short, concise, one-word answers with some people and our long, drawn-out, engaging conversations with other people.

Kids listen…

To who we choose to linger and chat with. And who we glance at and walk past without any comments.

Kids model our demeanor…

They watch our body language. Who we open doors for and who we don’t have to have a conversation with.

Kids see us.

Racism is learned, not something children are born with.

And Eye for an Eye?

George Floyd. Can we just say his name?

He wasn’t just a man….a black man.

As Christians, He was our brother. He was a youth leader who spoke against violence and preached, God is greater than street life.

Yet, might we not stoop so low as to care about George Floyd, just because he was a Christian…like us?

Even if he was a drug dealer or murderer even…

Wouldn’t he have had just as much right to not die by the cruel act of those who took oaths to serve us?

The police?

Like all of society, there is always a handful of men with bad motives, evil hearts, hateful intetions….power hungry and relentless.

A small handful should never reflect the whole. Black or white….or blue even.

Isn’t the very core of racism rooted in judging the whole based on a few?

Yet, we must demand justice for George Floyd, for all of those victims of abuse, hate, and unjust treatment by anyone asserting their power, purposed to harm.

We can do better. We all need to do better.

An eye for an eye just makes both people blind.

If we seek justice we must BE justice. If we want equality, we must hold the same bar, the same measure to every people group and society.

All of us must live lives that ACT justly, without just preaching equality on social media in the midst of a national crisis.

Kids are Watching. What are They Seeing?

Kids are watching those who we talk about this crime of George Floyd’s murder with….And who we don’t.

I know, talking about this henous act, feels uncomfortable. Teaching our kids about inustice, makes us fear we will destroy their innocence.

Explaining that evil, any evil, any injustice, any abuse of power exists, makes us feel like we are crushing something precious inside them.

But, black children are put down, daily, and no one asks them for their permission.

We must call sin what it is, evil.

If I were honest, I didn’t want to share about hate crimes with my African American daughter.

Yet, I was driving the other day, slowly through a parking lot. An older lady and her friend stood on the side of the road…

That lady looked at me, held her rake above her head and clearly was talking to me.

I slowed, thinking, “Maybe something is wrong? Maybe her spouse is in the house, needing medical help?”

I worried. So, I slowed.

I rolled down my window on the side of my daughter. The older lady spoke. But I couldn’t hear her.

Then, I asked again, “Excuse me? I couldn’t hear you.”

She looked at my African American daughter directly and said to me louder, “Maybe she can help me rake” holdering her rake up higher out towards me.

I drove slowly away, not even thinking about the color my daughter’s skin. Forgetting I was a white mama with a black teenager next to me.

As I made my way to the freeway, my blood started boiling. What felt like an evil, condescending, clear attack on my dark skinned daughter, wasn’t something I could always protect her from.

If I’m from one of the most diverse, liberal states and yet, a woman can stop us to treat my daughter like some second hand citizen, put on this earth to serve her…

What was it like in the South? In other communities where segregation is prevelant?

If an old lady could stop my car to degrate my daughter intentionally…How much more might a stranger, another teenager, a hostile individual drunk on power, harm her when I am not there?

I would like to think I am unbiased. That I raise my children, including my foster children, to think, act, and behave different than the rest of the world.

I’d like to think that I bring awareness, without stirring hate or indifference.

But the reality is, when any group of people exploit, degrate, or abuse their power for their own gain, I am not quiet or as humble as I’d like to be.

I have no tolerance for hate. No tolerance for bold, biased evil against any group of people.

Yet, I know…

My Children are Watching Too

My children are watching how I repond, what I talk about, and what I listen to. They can learn to hate from me if I am not careful….

Or they can learn to seek justice without burying their heads in the sands of indifference.

They can learn the truth of how the world is, and yet have hope, grace and forgiveness….

Pursuing justice, holding their heads high, living in truth, and walking in humility and equality for all.

We all must be brave and do more than chalk up George Floyd’s death as “one more hate crime”, then move on forgetting about it….until the next evil arises…

We all must sit. Sit and talk about the hard with uncomfortable honestly.

We must feel the pain of the African American community, and let those tears fall from our eyes…The same tears that drenched my face as I told my daughter of George Floyd.

Because tears shed today, help water true change for tomorrow.

Are You a Christian? And Can I Encourage You?

If you are a Christian….

• Don’t just “feel bad” for George Floyd and move on.
• Don’t grieve his death more because he was part of your religious “club”.
• Don’t hide your children from uncomfortable conversations, from riots, from the silent ways we discard any other group of people, daily.

If you want good to return to the world, fight injustice by drawing close to people who are different from you.

Strive to seek to understand.

Be aware of who you talk to at church on Sundays, the cashier you walk through her stand. Do you only connect with people who look like you?

Invite those of different colored skin into you home. Be honest about your bias…

Then, go home and repent for any people group you might have segregated or felt prejudice against….overly or inadvertently.

Fires don’t just start and keep burning randomly. They are started because of years of so many of us keeping quiet, pretending not to see what’s wrong in our soceity.

They keep burning because too many of us like to just slap on some Bible verse or a comfortable saying, like, “just love” or how we need to “all just get along”….

Instead of rising in righteous anger at the hate that’s in our world.

Instead of bringing change….in us. Now. Right where we are.

Friends, people of all color….We can do better.

No, we may not be able to do better for the old lady shaking her rake at me to stop so my black child can rake her yard….

But we can do better for those who play together at recess despite the color of their skin. Those who hold hands as brothers and sisters, though they were born into different families.

Our children are watching. And listening. They hear what we say. Do we love those with different stories than us?

Let’s Be the Change We Want to See in the World

Let’s stop closing our eyes because it’s all too painful to see. Let’s stop playing church, while condemning those with generations of pain.

Children weren’t born racist. We as a society teach our children how to treat people. We all do.

We all share messages by what we talk about and whose lives and stories we choose to highlight or ignore.

So, what if we started with George Floyd?

What if we talked about him, so he wouldn’t have had to die in vain?

Isn’t it time we get uncomfortable and tell his story, so the next generation doesn’t have to see the horrors our society is experiencing?

The world doesn’t need some pat answer, some sticker posted, telling everyone to just “keep loving”.

The world needs us to address this horrific crime and then begin to impliment real change….

In the world…but first…in US.

• It needs us to be brave and see, what is really happening all around us.
• It needs us to talk about the truth and teach our children to embrace differences.
• It needs us to embrace those who don’t act and think like us.

Love isn’t just some feel-good word, void of action or truth.

We can do better. Here. Now. In our very own homes…

Because children weren’t born racist. They are learning it, from us…

Especially now.

What will be the message we teach them?