Today I participated in a hands-on seminar led by James Whitfield, CEO of the Leadership Eastside organization.
We went through a series of exercises and discussions about the topic of racism—what it is at a personal level, what it is at the systemic level, and what it is as expressed in our social structures. It was a preliminary discussion—in three hours with 27 people it can be difficult to get much deeper than introductions and first steps.
But it did make me realize a bit more of how deeply the systems of racism are entwined in the American definitions of “American” and “white” and even “Christian.”
As a class (as individuals, as small groups, and as the entire group) we wrestled with some of the issues, one which was “but how did this come to be?” as well as “how do we break it and live so that we are free of racism and racism’s hold on us?”
Racism isn’t something we’re going to sit down and study, come up with the Five Things to Break Racism, do them—and have this mark of success!
It’s something to wrestle with not just daily, but in our systems and relationships.
The situation reminds me of the situation in the Old Testament where Jacob is said to have wrestled with an angel. Not everyone agrees in their interpretation, but the essence of the story is that Jacob encounters someone he cannot best through his wit or his strength. He meets someone who is more than his match, he is bested, and more than that, he is left with a mark—a limp.
That’s one way that I see this issue of racism, that it is something that I cannot overcome with my good intentions, my wit, my strength, or my resolve. It is bigger than all of my efforts and strengths. And yet I wrestle, even knowing that the result might mean damage to me. (A damage I’m kinda blithe about, but that I suspect lies in wait.)
I wrestle, and I fight, and I am often betwixt reason and despair. But I pursue something in spite of the resistance.
It is right and good to resist and push back, and seek to overcome.
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