Dr Metzger loves to say “this isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon.” As Americans, we love to solve problems ASAP. But realistically, prejudice is as old as race itself, and it’s epidemic, yet it’s invisible to the perpetrators (I don’t know many people who claim they’re a racist, do you?). Let’s not declare the “mission accomplished.” Both systemic change and discipleship take time. People from the dominant culture need to take the time to listen, examine their attitudes and habits, listen to the Word, and retrain themselves; their brothers and sisters of color need to participate in this journey with them.

We have been so “stoked” about this journey that we decided to invite others to join. Because it’s a marathon, we’re pacing ourselves and preparing for the long haul. This spring we expanded this discussion into class offered through Imago Dei’s School of Theology. You can view the class syllabus below. If you would like to write your own story, we would welcome that as well. Send it as a comment, up to 1500 words, and I can post it for others to see.

—MerkerMatic.

Likening skin color to ice cream flavors does make sense. Most flavors are somewhere between white and brown. But to define Northern Europeans as “vanilla” or “white” implies that they are tasteless and colorless, which is yet another way of defining white as the racially and culturally neutral “background” color of our society.

I long for the day when white Americans realize they aren’t just part of a neutral vanilla background. Here’s an example of what I mean: April 15′s episode of World Have Your Say posed this question to minorities: “Do you feel like you have to leave your culture at the door when you go to work…?” Whites would have a hard time answering this query. Our response would be somewhere between “I don’t have a culture” or “My culture is the culture.” Therefore, as white figures on a white background, the cultural baggage that we carry is hard to see or grab ahold of, and impossible to leave at the door…

Everyone has a culture. Let’s start with that. Everyone has an ethnicity. Everyone has a story. Knowing one’s story–really a compilation of stories about one’s family and how one got to be where one is today–is vital. God tells his people in the Shema in Deut 6 (“Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one God…”) to retell again and again the story of their people. Knowing one’s story…let me begin again in the first person…knowing our stories helps us know how we were formed, appreciate who we are, laugh at ourselves, and live an examined life. And it’s fun.

It’s fun and profitable to share our stories, too. A dozen of us formed a multiracial group this winter to gather, pray, study the Bible with Dr Metzger, and take turns sharing our stories. It was a moving experience to participate in a group where people could be open about everything, including their sin and their anger. Now we are inviting others to join the group as we begin a class entitled Removing the Blinders of Prejudice in the Church starting April 6.

At times, I refer to myself as a Scottish American and Swiss American; when I do, I’m not necessarily trying to be funny, nor am I trying to “get in touch” with my roots; I’m just trying to be conscious of having a particular identity, in the same way that African or Native Americans are always seen as “particular” when set against that white “background” of the dominant culture in North America.

I only know a little about my ancestors. They came to America fleeing war and famine in Alsace, religious tensions in Graubunden, and who knows what in Scotland. I probably know more about the stereotypes concerning Swiss and Scottish people! Of course we need to be careful with racial/ethnic stereotypes, but they don’t have to be used for ill. It may explain why I’m cheap and why I’m a perfectionist…and why I look good in a kilt! It may also explain how I was raised: don’t be too demonstrative with your emotions; don’t be too showy; don’t ever be late. No matter who you are, I would suggest that it’s important to know how you were raised and what you are like: your communication style, your sense of humor, your cognitive style, your attitudes toward privacy, money, your tastes, what your gifts are–and it doesn’t hurt to acknowledge that these qualities were influenced by the culture of your race, ethnicity, religion and family.

As far as I know, my white Protestant ancestors met very few barriers to becoming prosperous once they settled in America. The only barriers I know about were self-inflicted: cases of drunkenness and incest. The Great Depression set their standard of living back for awhile, but my parents say they never knew they lacked anything. As adults they were very successful and moved our family from Portland out to a new suburb in the early 60s. I suppose you could call it “white flight.” There was a 1200 square foot minimum for houses on our street (that was big in 1964) ensured a solidly middle class demographic. Every neighbor was white as I grew up.

My family’s expressed attitudes about race were a mixture of bigotry and benevolence that has slowly evolved with the times. In the 70s I can remember racist jokes. In the 80s those completely stopped, but I remember xenophobic comments and a state of denial about racism: “The schools aren’t what they used to be.” “The worst racism is visited on dark-skinned blacks by light skinned ones.” “The children of mixed race couples have lots of problems (a not-so-subtle hint to marry a white girl)” “First they want to be called negroes, then blacks, and now African-Americans…what next?” Also, special praise was heaped on minorities who’d succeeded, because they demonstrated that the barriers are gone: anyone can prosper in America with a little hard work, just as our family had. I remember probing this world view as I got older, and finding a complete blindness to white privilege.

The houses in that neighborhood where I grew up are nearing their 50th birthdays and the neighborhood is less white– only around 50%. Crime levels have risen dramatically. There have been two attempted murders and one homicide in houses immediately adjacent to my parents’ in the last 3 years. Given experiences like that, it’s typical for whites to conclude that decline and crime are directly associated with color.Today, my parents have become a little bit cognizant of white privilege, and the barriers that obstruct minorities. They are very conscious of race and nervous about it. As they talk, and a character in a story is a minority, it will come out in the telling. We often chuckle about it later, that whenever they mention a black person, the adjectives “neat” and “distinguished” and “articulate” are soon to follow. If any minority makes a favorable impression, they’ll mention how nice the people were. Many of my friends’ parents are the same way. I remember laughing about a friend’s mom who came home from the supermarket saying “there’s a new black checker, and she could sure work that cash register!” Clearly, the generation that lived through the civil rights era feels bad about racism, they’re trying to put things right, and they’re terribly awkward as they go about it.

We are, of course, trying to put things right in our own way. When we bought a house, my wife and I chose the smallest house we could stand. We believe in voluntary simplicity, which includes a desire to live among people that are diverse in terms of race and class. But as parents, we face a decision: where should our son go to school? The neighborhood schools offer fewer academic and extracurricular opportunities than those in more affluent neighborhoods; the culture of the other students is less college-bound as well. Portland Public Schools has a pretty generous transfer policy, so it’s possible to transfer up if we want. Many families do this. Should we? We are challenged by John Perkins’ call for the redistribution of the fruits of white privilege. And we’re encouraged by Sandra Tsing Loh, one mother who decided to buck this trend of abandoning local schools. Her essay appeared in the March Atlantic Monthly. As a result, we have decided to enroll our son in the local high school and have already started talking with the faculty there to see how we can help them offer more opportunities.

Enough about me. Thanks for reading this. This is a space where you are invited to respond with your own story.Will you share your story–and how it was shaped by race?

Class Overview:

We all struggle with prejudice—pre-judging people. Even in the church, we distort and minimize those whose stories and experiences are different from our own, as we view them through our limited cultural lenses. We need to see others rightly from God’s global kingdom perspective. This 8 week class hosted by a group of Christ-followers from Imago Dei will develop further the themes addressed during the “Are You a Passive Racist?” forum led by Paul and Mariko Metzger at Evangel Baptist last November. The aim of the class is to share God’s kingdom vision where God invites all of us and incorporates each of our stories into Christ’s story through the Spirit. Building on the biblical story where God invites all of us to participate in his story, we need to invite others whose experiences are different from our own to share their stories so that we can move beyond the pain, victimization, and isolation associated with prejudice toward healing, victory, and hope. As our eyes are opened as we listen in love, we hope to move from racial, ethnic, and cultural prejudice to just forms of perception as we look through God’s eyes as viewed through Christian Scripture.

Ground Rules:

*Stay engaged: Participants should do everything possible to come to all classes as these 8 weeks are a relationship building exercise.*Be prepared to experience discomfort: You may experience guilt, sorrow, conviction, followed (possibly) by repentance, renewal, greater self-awareness, and a heightened appreciation for God and one another.*Speak your truth in love: Truth can be objective and scientific. But it can also be personal and passionate. It can be complex, reflecting pain, anger, disbelief, or even ambiguity as a result of encountering unfamiliar experiences. If all truth is God’s truth, then God’s truth includes crying truth, stuttering truth, expressing truth with uncomfortable pauses, and even angry truth. Make sure to express hard truths, and also to express them in love, seeking to build up one another.Listen well: It’s so easy to write off those whose experiences are different from our own. Listen well to others as they share their experiences. Good listeners are often God’s healing agents.*Expect and accept non-closure: Sometimes offenders have to give time to victims to heal before they can experience full reconciliation and move forward. No one in this class should expect closure for racism on the macro level at the end of the class; if anything, our hope is that we will all come away more sensitized to racism and other forms of prejudice, becoming more effective agents of reconciliation.Sense your own brokenness and need for God: We are all victimizers and victims, depending on the contexts in which we find ourselves. Accept one another, seeking reconciliation with God and with one another.*Four of the points listed above as ground rules were adaptations of points made in the book, Courageous Conversations about Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools, written by Glenn Eric Singleton and Curtis Linton (Corwin Press, 2005)

Select Resources:

Mark DeYmaz, Building a Healthy Multi-ethnic Church: Mandate, Commitments and Practices of a Diverse Congregation, J-B Leadership Network Series (Jossey-Bass, 2007).Curtiss Paul DeYoung,Michael O. Emerson, George Yancey and Karen Chai Kim, United by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation As an Answer to the Problem of Race (Oxford, 2004).Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith, Divided By Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (Oxford, 2001).Martin Luther King, Jr., The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., ed. Clayborne Carson (Grand Central, 2001).Charles Marsh, The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today (Perseus, 2006).Paul Louis Metzger, Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church (Eerdmans, 2007).John M. Perkins, Let Justice Roll Down, 30th Anniversary Edition (Regal, 2006).Spencer Perkins and Chris Rice, More Than Equals: Racial Healing for the Sake of the Gospel, Revised and Expanded (IVP, 2000).Glenn Eric Singleton and Curtis Linton, Courageous Conversations about Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools (Corwin Press, 2005).Richard Twiss, One Church, Many Tribes: Following Jesus the Way God Made You, Revised Edition (Regal Books, 2000).Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Free To Be Bound: Church Beyond the Color Line (Navpress, 2008).Other helpful works include significant works of literature, such as the following: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man; Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird; and John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Other important sources include the following films: The Color of Fear, Crash, Eyes on the Prize, Race—the Power of Illusion, and Unfulfilled Dreams.Removing the Blinders of Prejudice in the Church©2008, Paul and Mariko Metzger and Imago Friends