RACISM IN MIXED COMMUNITIES
Barna research has discovered a rising percent of mixed race churches. However, they have also found in their surveys that many minorities in those churches continue to have racially offensive experiences. It is as if these congregations are saying “You are welcome here but you must adapt to the White culture.” Often unconsciously, the message is “Don’t forget who is in charge and who sets the tone.”
FIT IN AND ADAPT
Let me give you an analogy from the larger society. How would it make you feel personally if a Hispanic community, with many fine amenities, invited you to invest a lot of money and become a resident?
What questions would immediately occur to you? Do most of them speak English with an accent? Is the food served in neighborhood restaurants mostly Hispanic food? Are most residednts from Latin America? Do they have fiestas and celebrate specific holidays from the Latin culture? What customs will they have that I won’t understand? Do they dress differently than I do? Are most of them immigrants and are they overly sensitive about how they have been treated? Will they judge me before they even get to know me?
You could add to the list, but you can get an idea about what it means to be a minority in a community that is dominated by people of another culture. You would be the one who was expected to adjust, fit in, adapt to the way that most people live. Without trying to be unkind, your neighbors might offend or make you feel uncomfortable and not even know that that was what was happening. In fact, if you spoke about how you felt, they might even conclude that you were being over-sensitive and should just learn to adapt. After all, you are the one who is choosing to move into our community.
NOW LOOK AT THE CHURCH
Consider the experience of Black people who attend a Caucasian church. First, throughout the week there are many hurtful or offensive reminders that they are different. Let me identify some of what we might call microaggressions that many Black people have experienced on a regular basis. As I identify them, try to imagine how it might make you feel if you had had these experiences and/or known they had happened to family members on almost a daily basis.
- You or members of your family been stopped by police because you were driving through a White neighborhood.
- When you go shopping, you are watched closely or followed by security guard.
- You are asked to explain the behavior of others of the same race? (eg, “why do Black people behave that way.” Or “I’ll bet, being Black, you are going to vote for so and so.”
- You receive poor service at restaurant because of your race.
- You hear someone using a negative word to refer to people of your race.
- You are excluded or see your family excluded from an activity because of your race.
- If you are successful, many assume that you have achieved your status as an exception engineered by the government. (Reverse racism.) Or you are celebrated as “the first Black person” to . . . “
- You are spoken to in a manner that assumes you are less intelligent.
- Need to be extra alert when you enter a new social situation.
- You hear a race centered joke and being expected to laugh.
Many Black Christians prefer to attend a Black church so that they can relax and set aside their “alert antennas” at least for a couple of hours.
OPEN-MINDED IS NOT ENOUGH
The point is, it is not enough to assume that we are being “open-minded,” by allowing THEM to attend OUR church. Rather than assume that they are the ones that need to adjust and fit in, what might it mean for the “dominant” members of the church to make the adjustment so that we all might benefit from the richness of our full humanity.
What might we need to do as individuals and a church community to demonstrate the type of hospitality that would attract our neighbors? And are we willing to both make those changes and encourage other members to do the same?
