There's a book by Cornell West by that same title. It's about racism and how it is still prevalent in our culture. It plays on the statement that people often say (particularly white people) "I don't see what the big deal is about the color of someone's skin-I consider myself color blind". Or something similar.
The book and I along with it though indicate that being color blind is not the solution to the complex problem of racism. Noting differences and learning about them as well as from them is a significant part of coming to terms with one's own racism. It is also a beginning for understanding some of the systems within our culture and our own thinking that promote racism.
For whites many of us believe that racism has ended-Obama's in the White House (you know there's something racist about it being called the white house right?) But just because the Civil Rights movement began in the sixties and got us integrated that it is enough and Obama won the presidency it doesn't mean we are in a "post racist" society. If you believe that then I invite you to reconsider.
Obama's election is definitely a stride towards progress. But just as we've come a long way, we've got a long way yet to go. It is amazing to have elected a mixed race person as President of the United States. However it is not by any means the end of racism.
It's the beginning of further struggle and growth. Whites in general (me included) often don't recognize the privilege we enjoy just by being white. Because we've owned nearly everything (by force and by oppression according to history) for so long-we begin to feel as though blacks or other minorities gaining "special" treatment through quotas, affirmative action, or any other form of program designed to help us along is an unfair practice.
Our worldview is skewed by the lack of awareness and honesty about how privileged we are and have been throughout the history of America. So much so that we may even get upset at the suggestion that more progress has to be made. One might here someone who is white say "Well they've got a black history month, they've got the White House, what else do they want?" Note the "they". What "they" want is what all of humanity wants-to be viewed as part of the "us" as well as valued for the differences we enjoy. Equal access, honest dialogue, and commitment to ongoing repentance of the sin of racism is a good start for all of us.
In fact the definition of racism incorporates the distribution of wealth. If whites own more corporations, more businesses, more companies hence more wealth overall then that puts us as a race in a position of power. Those who own have the power to oppress consciously or unconsciously. This context then offers me privilege not enjoyed by those not in power. That privilege and the structures that promote it are the definition of racism-one race having the ownership and power of wealth over other races.
So by virtue of being white-I am racist because of the power my race holds over other races. If you feel offended by that statement then it is an indication of the type of racism that I'm talking about that needs to change. We are often unable even to acknowledge the privilege we enjoy-even entertain the idea of that being white offers unequal access to goods, services, and power not enjoyed by others. So if we are unable even to THINK about the issue then there may be some place for us to grow and learn. God knows I need to keep learning and facing that within me that would remain silent and inactive in this struggle.
So I pray God gives us Grace to own up to our own racism and that we are able to take the insight we're given and use it to shape the future.
Grace to you and peace in this new year 2009.
Dwight
Showing posts with label grace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grace. Show all posts
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Love for self
I wonder what Jesus' command to love one's neighbor as one loves themselvese looks like exactly.
I get the whole Love the Lord your God with all of your heart mind and strength. I along with other Christians are asked to put Jesus above all else and base our life and relationships on his love for us-then extending the same type of love to others.
But what does loving oneself involve?
I think it's some of the following.
1) Eat healthy foods-and take time to cook and eat them sitting down with others when possible.
2) Get 7-9 hours a sleep often
3) Exercise often.
4) Hug your children and tell them you love them
5) Hug your spouse or significant other and tell them you love them
6) Believe it when God says we're forgiven. Jesus says that when we confess our sins that God is just and forgives us of our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Don't beat yourself up or degrade who you are in the name of being humble.
7) Be truly humble-seeking first how we may offer a loving word, action, or thought rather than how we might judge or point out the speck in someone else's eye when we have a plank in our own. When we don't spend energy judging other people then we have more energy for loving-this builds us up.
8) Remind yourself every day that you are created in the image of God-and that God dwells within you-Christ is in you the hope of glory.
9) Wear clothes that make you feel good-shallow one-but effective nonetheless. Even if its something you got from the thrift store-if it is comfy and makes you feel good-enjoy it.
10) Seek the enjoyment in every task-even if you hate whatever it is you are doing-like a necessity at work or home-think of what you are doing as giving glory to God-and seek how it can be thought of as fun. This won't always work-but if you re frame the thoughts-then the feelings follow.
11) Think positive thoughts-if you find yourself thinking a negative thought-ask God to help you replace it with a positive thought. It works-re frame the thought-the feelings follow-positive thoughts=positive attitudes=positive action=positive results.
12) Don't waste your time arguing. Stop and ask yourself "What is going on with this person?" Seek first to understand and then to be understood (As in one of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People)
Typically if you understand where someone is coming from, their motivation if possible-then you can determine if a response is appropriate. Sometimes people are coming from a place of hate-and sometimes they are coming from a place of love. If hate, then shake the dust off of your sandals and move on from that village is how Jesus worded it. To spend time in the presence of one who will not accept you as the child of God you are takes away from your place as a child of God. The problem then lies with them.
13) Laugh, laugh some more, laugh again, laugh laugh and laugh. There was some statistic that said children on average laugh four or more times in an hour-and they're happier in general for it. Granted they don't have a job, a mortgage, a relationship with a mate, taxes, or responsibilities to weigh them down-but Jesus instructed us to have faith like a child, and to receive the Kingdom of God like a child. This means with happiness, and laughter at the ready-lightness of heart and mind, and freedom to not worry about what other people think about us. Another factor to consider is that children laugh when someone says "You're a dookie head." and comments similar to that. It may take a LITTLE more to amuse us when we're older.
and FINALLY my last morsel of wisdom for us to savor:
14) Go outside and play instead of spending time writing blogs all the time.
Gotta go there's a swing outside with my name on it. I have to find out who's going around writing my name on playground equipment.
Dwight
I get the whole Love the Lord your God with all of your heart mind and strength. I along with other Christians are asked to put Jesus above all else and base our life and relationships on his love for us-then extending the same type of love to others.
But what does loving oneself involve?
I think it's some of the following.
1) Eat healthy foods-and take time to cook and eat them sitting down with others when possible.
2) Get 7-9 hours a sleep often
3) Exercise often.
4) Hug your children and tell them you love them
5) Hug your spouse or significant other and tell them you love them
6) Believe it when God says we're forgiven. Jesus says that when we confess our sins that God is just and forgives us of our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Don't beat yourself up or degrade who you are in the name of being humble.
7) Be truly humble-seeking first how we may offer a loving word, action, or thought rather than how we might judge or point out the speck in someone else's eye when we have a plank in our own. When we don't spend energy judging other people then we have more energy for loving-this builds us up.
8) Remind yourself every day that you are created in the image of God-and that God dwells within you-Christ is in you the hope of glory.
9) Wear clothes that make you feel good-shallow one-but effective nonetheless. Even if its something you got from the thrift store-if it is comfy and makes you feel good-enjoy it.
10) Seek the enjoyment in every task-even if you hate whatever it is you are doing-like a necessity at work or home-think of what you are doing as giving glory to God-and seek how it can be thought of as fun. This won't always work-but if you re frame the thoughts-then the feelings follow.
11) Think positive thoughts-if you find yourself thinking a negative thought-ask God to help you replace it with a positive thought. It works-re frame the thought-the feelings follow-positive thoughts=positive attitudes=positive action=positive results.
12) Don't waste your time arguing. Stop and ask yourself "What is going on with this person?" Seek first to understand and then to be understood (As in one of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People)
Typically if you understand where someone is coming from, their motivation if possible-then you can determine if a response is appropriate. Sometimes people are coming from a place of hate-and sometimes they are coming from a place of love. If hate, then shake the dust off of your sandals and move on from that village is how Jesus worded it. To spend time in the presence of one who will not accept you as the child of God you are takes away from your place as a child of God. The problem then lies with them.
13) Laugh, laugh some more, laugh again, laugh laugh and laugh. There was some statistic that said children on average laugh four or more times in an hour-and they're happier in general for it. Granted they don't have a job, a mortgage, a relationship with a mate, taxes, or responsibilities to weigh them down-but Jesus instructed us to have faith like a child, and to receive the Kingdom of God like a child. This means with happiness, and laughter at the ready-lightness of heart and mind, and freedom to not worry about what other people think about us. Another factor to consider is that children laugh when someone says "You're a dookie head." and comments similar to that. It may take a LITTLE more to amuse us when we're older.
and FINALLY my last morsel of wisdom for us to savor:
14) Go outside and play instead of spending time writing blogs all the time.
Gotta go there's a swing outside with my name on it. I have to find out who's going around writing my name on playground equipment.
Dwight
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Fantasy Sports
Hey there. Fantasy football time here in the United States of America.
It's time when all of us who like numbers on a screen indicating performance on a field of play can match our skill at choosing who is going to have the highest numerical value each Sunday and why that makes us have value as human beings.
Cynical way of looking at it. I enjoy fantasy football-sometimes baseball too.
In case you are not familiar with Fantasy sports it is when you field an imaginary team of athletes from the particular sport and place them on your imaginary roster. Then you keep track of their real life statistics during a specific game to come up with your "team" score. It is your fantasy team-hand chosen-to produce the best set of stats you can-to outscore your opponent for that week-who also has fielded a team.
It is because I have a fantasy football team that I can honestly say that I have imaginary friends.
I was thinking how it would be amusing to have fantasy Bible study. Choose biblical characters and score them according to their accomplishments vs. their sinfulness. For instance David gets negative points for having Bathsheba's husband murdered-but gets positive ones for inspiring some of the Psalms. Then we have teams made up of a prophet, two Hebrew Bible people, a disciples, and then maybe Jesus is the all time quarterback.
How many points would John the Baptist get docked for losing his head?
Would the Pharisees get penalized for their abuse of the rules?
Maybe if it was Bible fantasy study we could say a prayer before the games and all the right wingers would be happy-and we could take proceeds from the games and give them to justice projects in the area and that would make all the left wingers happy.
The concept of fantasy sports plays along with our desire to rank and rate things in the United States. Maybe because we all have some areas where we don't find self worth happens easily. And so we rank and rate so many facets of our world that it becomes the norm to judge rather than accept. This is against the basic truth of Christian faith-to love, to know we're loved, and to proclaim God's love.
Truth is our value is something given to us at birth-all of us have it-and we can choose to believe in it or not. Its there-and its infinitely more than we imagine it. Each person has value-no one more than another...although sometimes I think Jessica Alba comes close...all of us are precious in God's eyes.
No matter how we perform the Grace of God helps us be everything we are called to be.
Grace,
Dwight
It's time when all of us who like numbers on a screen indicating performance on a field of play can match our skill at choosing who is going to have the highest numerical value each Sunday and why that makes us have value as human beings.
Cynical way of looking at it. I enjoy fantasy football-sometimes baseball too.
In case you are not familiar with Fantasy sports it is when you field an imaginary team of athletes from the particular sport and place them on your imaginary roster. Then you keep track of their real life statistics during a specific game to come up with your "team" score. It is your fantasy team-hand chosen-to produce the best set of stats you can-to outscore your opponent for that week-who also has fielded a team.
It is because I have a fantasy football team that I can honestly say that I have imaginary friends.
I was thinking how it would be amusing to have fantasy Bible study. Choose biblical characters and score them according to their accomplishments vs. their sinfulness. For instance David gets negative points for having Bathsheba's husband murdered-but gets positive ones for inspiring some of the Psalms. Then we have teams made up of a prophet, two Hebrew Bible people, a disciples, and then maybe Jesus is the all time quarterback.
How many points would John the Baptist get docked for losing his head?
Would the Pharisees get penalized for their abuse of the rules?
Maybe if it was Bible fantasy study we could say a prayer before the games and all the right wingers would be happy-and we could take proceeds from the games and give them to justice projects in the area and that would make all the left wingers happy.
The concept of fantasy sports plays along with our desire to rank and rate things in the United States. Maybe because we all have some areas where we don't find self worth happens easily. And so we rank and rate so many facets of our world that it becomes the norm to judge rather than accept. This is against the basic truth of Christian faith-to love, to know we're loved, and to proclaim God's love.
Truth is our value is something given to us at birth-all of us have it-and we can choose to believe in it or not. Its there-and its infinitely more than we imagine it. Each person has value-no one more than another...although sometimes I think Jessica Alba comes close...all of us are precious in God's eyes.
No matter how we perform the Grace of God helps us be everything we are called to be.
Grace,
Dwight
Monday, August 11, 2008
More than you can carry
I chose Veranda font for this post-it always reminds me of the line from The Three Amigos where the Mexican woman says to Chevy Chase's character-"Would you like to kiss me on the veranda?" He says "No...the lips would be fine."
I was thinking about people who try to carry too much at one time and wondering if its something in our DNA. Maybe its something that happens when we become parents I don't know. Seinfeld said we all like to think we're superheros of some sort-that's why we see guys driving down the road in their car carrying a mattress on top of the car and have one arm out the window holding it on the car-as if they could keep the mattress from flying away using one arm.
I think the same is true of parents-we frequently try to carry way more than we can all in the name of not making more than one trip. Intellectually we may realize that one more trip would not actually be that much more effort or that much more inconvenient. But if you're like me I convince myself that I can carry a bag with my things in it, a twelve pack of Diet Dr. Pepper, a stack of books, my calendar, and maybe a couple of protein bars or something. Then I actually have the gall to get angry when I drop something.
Parents I think do this when we have our children-especially when they're infants. We have the stroller all loaded up-the baby is in it-then we have to get all of the things that we carry as parents-the diaper bag, the stuffed toy, the book to read (as if) and maybe an item we're trying to return to the store. More than once I found myself with one or both of our daughters balancing what seemed like ten items or more along with one girl on the hip and one in the stroller-women do this with their eyes closed AND work full time AND balance a checkbook-me? I get sympathy/pity/"what are you a moron?" looks from women who see this clueless dude about to topple over from the weight he's carrying.
So why is it that I insist on attempting to carry more than I am able at one time? No good answer other than wishing I was Superman.
We have to be careful that trying to avoid more trips from the car to the house isn't demonstrated in all the ways in which we live. If we're not careful we can try to take on more than our fair share and this only wears us out in the long run.
So I end by sharing this piece of good news: "No matter what we do think or say-we CAN'T make God love us any more or any less." That's truly Good News.
So lay down your five grocery bags, the mail, a movie rental, your keys, a pair of gym shoes, your overnight bag, and umbrella and rest in the knowledge that we can make more than one trip-and that we don't have to carry it all. God will help us and our brothers and sisters around us will help us. I pray that this gives us strength and encouragement.
Grace,
Dwight
I was thinking about people who try to carry too much at one time and wondering if its something in our DNA. Maybe its something that happens when we become parents I don't know. Seinfeld said we all like to think we're superheros of some sort-that's why we see guys driving down the road in their car carrying a mattress on top of the car and have one arm out the window holding it on the car-as if they could keep the mattress from flying away using one arm.
I think the same is true of parents-we frequently try to carry way more than we can all in the name of not making more than one trip. Intellectually we may realize that one more trip would not actually be that much more effort or that much more inconvenient. But if you're like me I convince myself that I can carry a bag with my things in it, a twelve pack of Diet Dr. Pepper, a stack of books, my calendar, and maybe a couple of protein bars or something. Then I actually have the gall to get angry when I drop something.
Parents I think do this when we have our children-especially when they're infants. We have the stroller all loaded up-the baby is in it-then we have to get all of the things that we carry as parents-the diaper bag, the stuffed toy, the book to read (as if) and maybe an item we're trying to return to the store. More than once I found myself with one or both of our daughters balancing what seemed like ten items or more along with one girl on the hip and one in the stroller-women do this with their eyes closed AND work full time AND balance a checkbook-me? I get sympathy/pity/"what are you a moron?" looks from women who see this clueless dude about to topple over from the weight he's carrying.
So why is it that I insist on attempting to carry more than I am able at one time? No good answer other than wishing I was Superman.
We have to be careful that trying to avoid more trips from the car to the house isn't demonstrated in all the ways in which we live. If we're not careful we can try to take on more than our fair share and this only wears us out in the long run.
So I end by sharing this piece of good news: "No matter what we do think or say-we CAN'T make God love us any more or any less." That's truly Good News.
So lay down your five grocery bags, the mail, a movie rental, your keys, a pair of gym shoes, your overnight bag, and umbrella and rest in the knowledge that we can make more than one trip-and that we don't have to carry it all. God will help us and our brothers and sisters around us will help us. I pray that this gives us strength and encouragement.
Grace,
Dwight
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