An Ear to the Ground

By the time I was 18 years old I had only met three people with skin darker than my own. I rarely, if ever, thought about race. When I first heard stories of protests and riots on the news, I asked my parents about it. I thought of racism as something contained in a high school textbook closed tight and shoved comfortably under my bed to collect dust, but here it was, being protested live on my television screen in between stories of corrupt politicians and a public service announcement about wearing my seatbelt. I don’t remember their answer, only that I was confused and felt like the ground beneath my feet wasn’t as sure as I thought just a few minutes earlier.

Over the next few years, I, like the rest of the world, watched news stories about Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and countless others. Even mentioning their names here feels controversial, like I am dipping my toes into the neighbor’s pool while they are away on vacation, but their names feel etched into my white skin. Injustice is injustice no matter how you slice it, but systemic injustice is a different kind of evil, an irreverence for the image of God because of the color of someone’s skin.

Listening

I am not a social justice warrior. I have not protested or called my representatives or proclaimed my opinion loudly on social media. In fact, I have been silent and many would call that an injustice in itself, perhaps rightfully so. I have not been idle, though. I have been listening. I have been placing my ear to the ground to hear the blood of my brothers and sisters crying out, and I have been learning, slowly, that I am my brother’s and my sister’s keeper.

I didn’t have a plan for listening and it wasn’t something I consciously chose to do. Over the last few months, my social media feeds, once a sea of white, have begun filling with the strong voices of my African American brothers and sisters in Christ. Several of the writers I read on a regular basis online deal with the issue of race relations within the church, and I have found myself listening in to podcasts where conversations about race are taking place. When I looked over the list of books I have read this year, over half of the authors are black. It has been a great privilege to quiet my own thoughts and opinions and listen to these voices and the stories they are telling.

It should be noted I live in a primarily white community. I do not have African American neighbors to invite to my kitchen table for dinner or engage in conversation while walking around the park. There are very few people who attend Horizons Church on a regular basis who are not white simply because our geographical area does not have a large black community. While race is likely not an issue that concerns my church on a local level, it is an issue that concerns the capital “c” Church and many of my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Connecting

In the New Testament, Paul connected believers in different churches through his letters, passing along greetings and news from the lives of fellow Christians in other locations. A peek into the closing chapters of his letters will provide details about believers scattered throughout the churches he planted. He seemed to think it was important for believers to be aware of their brothers and sisters in the faith and the unique challenges they faced in different parts of the world. It is for this reason that I am so grateful for the gift of technology - today, I can connect with my brothers and sisters in Christ easily through social media, blogs, podcasts, books, music, and videos.

I must confess I feel inadequate in talking about race relations at all, but this is where I am starting and perhaps a starting point can be helpful. When I first heard the news stories and the anger on social media and the rioting over something I didn’t understand and had truly never thought about, I felt like I was hours late to a party I wasn’t invited to. There was too much to learn, too many nuances to understand, and too many minefields in language to even ask good questions. There was no one to take me by the hand and point me in the right direction.

What I am doing feels almost too simple to matter, but listening is changing and forming me from the inside out. It is a small step, but it is a step and one that we are all able to take. Below this post, you will find links to some of the resources I have found most helpful in my mission of listening and learning from my African American brothers and sisters in Christ. I am at mile one of a marathon, legs burning with miles to go. Will you join me?

Listen
Cultivated (podcast) Episode 11: Andy Crouch
The Village Church Podcast Episode #55 - The Sin of Racism
Cultivated (podcast) Episode 5: Propaganda
Precious Puritans (song) by Propaganda

Read
Black Womanhood and the War Within (article) by Jasmine Holmes
“But I didn’t mean to be racist.” (article) by Jemar Tisby
The Mothers by Brit Bennett
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Follow
@lecrae
@jasminelholmes
@thabitianyabwile