We need to learn something: Evening 1

My roommate suggested that we take a couple minutes every night this week to watch a TED talk, because we need to be intentional about exposing ourselves to new ideas and other people's experiences. She's right, and so we have been watching something every night in order to grow. Stagnation is not allowed in this apartment!

Because I won't retain much of a new idea unless I process it, I decided I'd post a little something I took away from each talk...

Evening 1: How to raise a black son in America

Clint Smith, a poet and educator, describes his experience of being raised to be ultra-aware of his skin color and the biases in America. From his story, I am reminded of just how deadly a wrong perspective can be if I let it take hold. And that is what has happened in America. We have allowed negative perceptions of black men to take root until our eyes have become clouded with prejudice.

The question I need to ask myself is this, "Will I allow my eyes to stay clouded?" I am a white, middle-class woman, so my experience is far removed from the American black man. But I can seek to understand and change my perspective. And I can seek to be part of creating unity.

I am grateful to have grown up in a church that proactively seeks to create unity despite cultural and racial differences. I recognize that the issue of race in America is extremely complex, involving socioeconomic factors, spiritual factors, historical realities, and more reasons than I have yet to understand. But I have hope for change because of the Spirit of God working in the hearts of the church.

New Life Providence, the church where I was raised, decided that it would not be part of Sunday morning segregation which Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of when he said that 11 am on Sunday is "the most segregated hour in this nation." To build unity, this church decided to blend worship styles in order to include people from different backgrounds with different musical preferences. To encourage understanding, this church facilitated conversations. This church chose to have blacks and whites in leadership, in the pulpit, leading worship, and in the Sunday school classrooms. They hosted a conference about creating trans-ethnic communities of faith.

I believe advances in the local church such as these are necessary to create long-lasting change in America. I wish I knew how to end the racial prejudice once and for all, but I do know that I must endeavor to do my part in building unity and healing divisions.