The Heart of Racial Justice

Last week, I finished The Heart of Racial Justice by Brenda Salter McNeil and Rick Richardson. It was a powerful book on the subtle and not-so-subtle effects of racism, and racism's true nature: spiritual sin. They believe that because racism is a sin, it can't be simply educated out of us. Everyone, no matter their race, deals with deep pride which leads to ethnocentrism (thinking your ethnicity is better than all others). Everyone, no matter their race, struggles with fear for provision or protection, which leads to treating the "other" with suspicion and carelessness. These are sins, so we need to confess, repent, and seek forgiveness.

They had an intriguing new way for gaining freedom from racism, based on a healing prayer model. First, worship God. Then, affirm our true ethnic identities, and renounce false ones as idols. Receive and extend forgiveness. Renounce the larger spiritual forces that have allowed racism to flourish - especially the spirits of pride and fear. Embrace the fact that we are a new creation, made for partnership.

They had some intriguing and sometimes painfully true ideas about false identities we put on in regards to race: rage-filled, victim, model minority, color blind, or hip white person (the one I tend to try to cast myself as).

They also believe racism is peculiar to European Americans, because we have galvanized many ethnicities into one powerful whole based on our skin color (White), and not our birthplace or our culture. And we have used that power to clump others into categories based on their skin color.

Their call to be agents of reconciliation resounded in my soul. I long to see InterVarsity at Texas A&M become a place of learning to understand the "other," perhaps coming to desire the gifts of another culture for our culture. I want the scales to drop off our eyes, to see the ways privilege, pride, and fear have blinded Whites, to repent and to see God's power in our weaknesses. I hope that minority students can find healing from wounds, old and new, and find their God-given voice to proclaim justice, freedom, and love. I'm praying that God might use some of the tools in this book to make this vision a reality.