Otherness and Unity

I've been considering the recent incident at the Missouri State Fair. I'm sure everyone has heard about it by now. If not, search for "Missouri State Fair Obama Clown," and you'll get an eye-full. Most of the thoughts I have about it have been shared in other places: the state fair is a publicly funded event, not Saturday Night Live; people should have a reasonable expectation of family entertainment at the fair; while politicians have long been the target of satire and punchlines of jokes, this incident crossed a line; etc.

And then there's the matter of racism. Bear with me for a moment, those on both 'sides' of this part of the issue. Let's look at it for a moment.

First, for those who are followers of the teachings of Jesus we simply cannot claim he would approve of racial or ethnic bias. We all agree on that, right? He broke down those barriers by associating with all sorts of folks his Jewish ancestry would have prevented him from doing -- all gentiles, perhaps most notably Samaritans. The New Testament says in Galations 3:28, "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Jesus did not approve of racial (or any other) bias or means of separating ourselves from one another; unity was one of his most adamant commands.
 
As for the incident in Sedalia, only the people involved directly in the event know their own hearts and whether or not they were racially motivated in their comments or in their reactions. If they say, "Hey, I don't hate black people, I only hate the president," then I'll take their word for it, but anyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus needs to take a hard look at that statement and see if it is sound and acceptable. Is it acceptable for Christians to 'hate' those with whom they disagree?

But here's a story about racism which comes to mind as I consider Sedalia. Several years ago my husband and I went on a trip to listen to a well-known Christian speaker. We stayed with a group of people from the church we were attending at the time. In the course of the trip, one member of the group told a joke which was shockingly offensive to me. I have toyed with idea of sharing the punchline so readers will know what I mean, but I just can't do it. The "n" word was not used, but it was entirely inappropriate.

Some in the group laughed more heartily than others, but my husband and I did not laugh and I said, "Don't you think that's racist?"

His reply was flatly, "I'm not a racist." He listed the reasons why he was not: 
- raised in Arkansas and had several 'black friends'
- his mother had 'black friends' 
- a black family had just moved in next door to him and he was glad to have them in the neighborhood

The rest of the trip was uncomfortable. It was the beginning of the end of our association with that church.

I understand the man's defense. He would never partake in activities which are blatantly labeled as racist...no using derogatory terms aimed at another's skin color...no joining of the KKK or endorsing their activities...he even mustered the courage to say he wouldn't 'care' if one of his children married someone of another race, even though he didn't think it would be 'fair' to their children.

But here is what should have been my question to him when he told the joke. "Would you tell that in front of your black neighbors?" 

That's the gist of it for me. I don't know how many people of color were in the stands on the day of the clown incident, but there weren't many we can be certain of that. If the event had been attended by a 'half and half' racial mix, I wonder how many whites would have been uncomfortable egging on the activities and how many blacks would have joined in. Maybe it would have still happened. Probably not to the extent it did, if at all.

The only time I can remember feeling anything close to being set apart in a negative way because of my skin color is when one of my junior high teachers referenced my "swarthy, German skin" in class. He may have been a racist, too, but I just thought he was a jerk and an idiot. (I do have German ancestry -- notice my maiden name -- but probably I have a more complicated ethnic background than I know.)

But for those of us in this country who are 'white,' or in my case like millions of others 'white enough,' we haven't had to live with racial inequality and biases for our whole lives. We approach 'racial sensitivity' from a different perspective. For the crowd at the state fair, racism may have been the furthest thing from their minds because of the context. But would each attendee have cheered as loudly with an African American family sitting next to them?

I hope not, and there's the point. When anyone, of ANY race, feels comfortable talking about 'others' in different ways depending on the color of the skin of those around them, then that is the creeping kind of way we allow differences to affect the way we feel about others. You may not call it racism, but as the gentleman who shared the video about the state fair incident was quoted in The Washington Post as saying, “If you’re a white man in a black mask in a former slaveholding state with a broom lodged in your rectum and you’re playing with your lips, you will be confused with a racist.” 

And the further point is that all of us -- black, white, brown, and everything in between -- we are 'sitting next to each other' in this country. The problems with the economy, with war, with social issues, they affect all of us. If we are to be "one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" we must stop allowing our differences to get in the way of working together.