For months, I have been watching America’s political narrative spiral further and further than we ever thought possible. As if the chaotic response to COVID-19 didn’t give us enough to think about, the resurgence of Black Lives Matter has forced all of us to acknowledge the vestiges of racism that exist in our nation, no matter what end of the political spectrum you find yourself on.
This is not my first attempt to write on this issue. I held back for a long time, because I never want to use a platform to say something that is already being screamed in 50 other ways on Facebook. Other times, I stared at the blank page for a while, not knowing where to start. I am forcing myself to break silence, because I no longer wish to be numbered among the silent majority letting the nation burn.
I think racism is such a hard and scary issue for people to address, because with one slip of the tongue, you can end up in the middle of the blame game. Everyone has picked a side, and if you aren’t on it, they will tear you to pieces.
I find it terribly ironic that we are trying to eliminate racism by picking sides and spewing hate at anyone who is not like us. The Republicans would have you believe this is all a liberal agenda designed to undermine their president. The Democrats would have you believe we still live by a 19th century social hierarchy.
Maybe they’re both wrong. As a Christian, I believe that there is always a deeper issue beyond what we can see. Perhaps, the way we are trying to combat racism is only making it worse.
Before I apply that statement to specific events and methods, I want to establish what the root of racism is. Racism begins in a person’s heart when they place themselves at the center of the universe. When you elevate yourself to be top dog, everyone else becomes an enemy threatening your position. When you assume you know everything, one experience becomes the reality you project on everything else, whether or not it has any relation. America is a highly individualistic society, which means it is very easy to develop a superiority complex, and naturally, those who have it don’t self-examine enough to know it’s there. The result is disdain for people who do not live like you, and this is where racism springs forth.
The tragedy of our situation is that we have been pleasantly distracted from the truth. Emotions run high, tempers build, and social justice ends up looking very different from what it should.
I understand the heart behind protests (and please understand the crucial difference between a “protest” and a “riot”), but these are not the answer. I appreciate the passion behind a #blacklivesmatter post on Facebook, but that is not the answer. These things only stir up emotions and draw lines in the sand. We are running in circles looking for a solution from a movie, a desperate, physical, and visible fight for equality, but the answer is not on a visible battle front.
The protests, the celebrity statements, the social media posts, they are puppets on the end of a string which Satan is pulling to keep up distracted from the source of all this animosity. Racism is an issue of the heart, and its solution comes from a person’s quiet decision to love their fellow man.
Before we stand in solidarity, each of us as an individual needs to fall on our knees before the Lord and offer our hearts to be made clean. We cannot love strangers of our own accord, we must have our hearts filled with God’s pure, unconditional love.
This is a quiet battle. It isn’t visible. It isn’t glorious. But this is where the real fight is against the real enemy.
We can’t solve racism fighting an “us vs them” battle. We have to get our hearts right and learn how to love people who are different from us, how to appreciate and value another person’s background.
And we have to get our hearts right with God for any of it to last.
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