If you are like me, you were sickened by the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd over the last few months. We should be horrified by the image of Ahmaud Arbery out on a daily jog, having to struggle with a couple of racists just to try and survive. He lost. We should be jolted and in tears at the image of George Floyd’s life departing in front of our eyes as a Minneapolis police officer murdered him by suffocation while other officers and bystanders stood by and watched. We have a cancer in our system that needs eradication. Our African American brothers and sisters have been trying to tell us this for years, but we have, for the most part, ignored the seriousness of the issue. We can’t stand by any longer without making some serious changes.
Most whites have found it easier to allow ignorance and complacency to be our blankets of comfort. To deal with prejudice and racism in our culture will be painful and challenging and we have preferred to give it lip service and retreat to the safety of ignorance. We cannot do that anymore. We must confront this issue, and we must do it now.
How do we begin to deal with the issues of prejudice and racism? The root of the problem cannot be fixed by legislation because it is a problem of the heart. I don’t know that anyone has all the answers, I certainly don’t, but God is with us as we venture into the unknown. Here are three things that we can begin to do.
Listen. In the Bible, James, who was the half brother of Jesus, encouraged his listeners, “You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry” (Jms 1:19). Listening has become a lost art. We have trouble listening to those we agree with, let alone to those we don’t. We are more interested in hearing ourselves speak. However, if we are going to address the cancer of prejudice and racism, we need to listen. We need to hear from those who are suffering, and we must listen without getting defensive. Slow to speak and slow to get angry speaks to defensiveness. The things that hurting people have to share will be painful to hear, but we must honestly, without defensiveness, listen if the wounds are to heal.
Conversation. After listening, we must have a conversation, not a debate but a conversation. Debates are designed to produce a winning side. A conversation, on the other hand, should lead us to an answer where everyone wins. Social media has had a devastating effect on listening and conversing. It promotes pontification, and it fosters contempt of different opinions. The cancer of prejudice and racism will not be healed through social media. It will require face to face, sit down encounters with those who have different views so that we can listen and have conversations that lead to heart change.
Empathy. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines empathy as, “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.” In other words, it is the ability to understand in-depth the feelings and experiences of others without being them. It is symbolized by the idiom, walking in another man’s shoes. The goal of listening and conversing is to come to a place of empathy, to know and experience what the other really feels. If we do this, then we can seriously begin to attack the cancer of prejudice and racism.
As to dealing with societal issues of needed change, I have even fewer answers. However, it is easy to see that changes are required. The ways we police, the justice system, and the prison system all need a transformation, a renovation if we are to proceed. Policing has too often become confrontational and punitive. It needs to be more service-oriented. Most of us desire to see our communities prosper, and see our young people grow into happy, well-adjusted adults. Our police departments need to have this as a goal. They need to work closely with communities, to listen and have conversations and respond with empathy.
The same is true with our judicial system. There needs to be more emphasis on grace and mercy. Too many lives are being destroyed by judicial legalism.
Lastly, our prison system needs reformation. Too many people are in prison, and too many will see their life defined by prison. This is especially true with the African American community. There are more African Americans in prison than any other race. How can this be fixed? Poverty and substance abuse are the doors that have created many prisoners. We need to find ways to deal with these issues and create opportunities for our young people to avoid becoming lifelong prisoners.
These are not new concepts, and our efforts at change have failed in the past. Why? Maybe the wrong people have been in charge of the reformation. In the book of Acts, we read about a system of bias within the newly formed church in Jerusalem. It was reported that Greek widows were suffering discrimination in favor of Jewish widows. When the Jewish leaders of the church heard of the problem, they made a profound decision. They chose seven Greek men to fix the problem. Did you get that? They appointed Greeks to reform the system that was discriminating against the Greek widows. We should proceed in the same manner. Let African American and other minority communities lead and direct the renovation of our police force, the judicial system, and the prison system. Perhaps they will succeed where others have failed.
The cures to our racial divide will not be easy. They will require us to open our hearts and be vulnerable. They will be painful and uncomfortable. But we cannot allow African Americans and other minorities to continue to suffer while we look the other way. That is not the way of love, and God is calling us to love both friends and enemies. We need humility and repentance at this time. God is saying, “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land” (2Chron 7:14). Are we willing to humble ourselves; are we willing to repent? It is the only way.
Very Good. Thank You Mike.