Ugly word, ugly state of society. I had a conversation with a buddy of mine just recently and he made the point that we are all racists. I sat about that and we continued in our discourse and as the conversation unfolded I was able to understand that his point was that anytime we speak a slanderous statement against another person based on their appearance this is a form of racism. His example "if I am driving down the road and get but off, and notice its a woman driver and curse her out for being a stupid driver because she was a woman, that is a form of racism." I had to concede the point.
Today, I driving my kids to school. As I traveled down the road, I noticed a group of elderly people standing at the side of the road not really engaged in doing anything and I wondered aloud, "I wonder what they are doing there." Now I had expected my son to ask the follow up question (although he didn't) of "Who?' Based on my expectation I had already formulated my response "That group of elderly Aisian people."
And my thought continued. Why did feel it necessary to qualify that they were a group of Aisian elderly people. Was there any significant difference in them being Aisian, as if white elderly people would never do something like that? Why could I not just say that group of eldery people. And in qualifying that they were elderly as well.....why did I need to do that? Am I stating that I don't think younger adults would congregate like that? What in me created the need to qualify that they were elderly and Aisian? I don't believe that I am racist. I like to believe that I am accepting and non-judgemental of everyone. I can list the standard reasons that I am not racist...I school with other ethnicities and value them for the person they are etc etc.... But then why this inherent need to have qualified that this group of people today were Aisian.
I wondered further...is it then a sign of respect for their difference? Am I respecting that they are not entirely like me and recognizing that? Does this come from a political and societal outcry that we here in Canada, being a diverse country, recognize the inherent differences within our population and honor and respect their differences? Is taht where it stems from in my heart? If so, why did I feel the need to point out that this group of people standing outside in the cold this morning, were Aisian.
K, well huge epiphany here and one that I am ashamed of to say the least. I guess that to a degree I am somewhat racist. I have been guilty of the example that my friend portrayed above. Even against women. That is shameful to admit. I have found that I am a firm believer in "when in Rome do as the Romans do" I do tend to qaulify this with the caveat that it's not that I think that other cultures should give up their heritages, however, I do tend to get somewhat disgruntled when other ethnicities get tax breaks and financial returms in Canada because of their ethnicity. I do get frustrated when other ethnicities are amongst the general public and are discourteous to us English speaking people. It does make me suspicious that they are perhaps talking about us "whites." I have no issue with other ethinicities celebrating within their own home their cultural heritage. I have no issue with them gathering with other people and having festivities where they converse in their language and where they celebrate things taht are culturally important to their heritage but I do struggle with other ethnicities bypassing common courtesy and displaying rude mannerisms in public, or having side converstaions with others in their mother tongue. Those are some of the things that I do struggle with. I struggle with our government giving them monetary handouts that we as Canadians are exempt from.
I remember a sermon I was at, and this sermon gave me more grace and tolerance for other ethnicities, albeit, I still have work to do here. Canada has been prophesied over to a rather large extent. The gist of the prophecy was that Canada is in part a multi-cultural nation, for it is here that the last revival will occur and that is because we are multicultural. For it is our multiculturalness that enables us to be ripe for the last revival for within our own country, we have the ethnic ability to take Jesus out to all the other nations, for we are composed of the other nations. So when know Jesus, they will be more readily accepted back within thier own country and therefore have an ability to take Jesus there, that is not open to us whites. That started the shift ini this paradigm of mine.
I had hoped that blogging may have cleared my thoughts and allowed me to draw some conclusions and sort this out, but this looks like a journey I will continue on in. I could carry on but I would be asking the same questions another way. One thing I do know.....the fact that this stirs my heart is a good thing, for it allows me to examine myself, my motives and my hearts intent and that is a good thing and I would hope that that is somewhat indicative of not being or at the very minimumm wanting to be racist. Evil flourishes when good men do nothing.....
I think that mostly what you are talking about is White Privilege. the assumption that white is "normal or usual" ... google white privilege and back pack (a famous essay).
ReplyDelete