Racism in Today’s Culture

Embodied Pedagogies: Engaging Racism in Theological Education and Digital Cultures is a chapter title in Mary E. Hess’ book Engaging Technology in Theological Education and for me a fascinating chapter!

Questions I had when finished reading this chapter: What does racism look like in our culture today? How do we as Christians called into this world to live Christ’s word answer racism in our culture and world? Is there more we should be doing to address not only our own Racist views but others?

As many of you have foundI do not have answers to these questions just more questions. The musings I have thought of are what in my personal life have I put out into the world that has added to the viewpoints or addressed them at their root? I am a White American raised in a culture that perpetuates selfishness. I have stated things that are racist without realizing what I was saying and I have acted ways in which I am not proud of. I am thankful for the grace of God that gives me an opportunity to look at myself and know that I am sinner and saint all at the same time and have the capacity to be both all of the time. So when I think about this question of what we should be doing, I would agree with many that it is a subject that we on a personal level have to work against everyday. We need to recognize that we are different and yet all children of God.

As I think on these questions it brings back the study I learned in Psychology classes at UNL. It was the Blue-eyed/Brown-eyed Exercise by Jane Elliot. She first preformed the exercise in a class room full of third graders. If you go to You- tube there is a three part story that shows the first experiment and how she has continued to use this exercise to teach about racism. I only linked the first video but it is beneficial to watch all three. It was interesting in this video that certain people who were white and in the brown eyed group had to leave because they did not want to see other people discriminated against. At times I believe this falls into the idea that if we do think about it, if we don’t act one way or another it is not really there. I can say that at times I would rather just pretend it is not there and since I am white, I am a part of a group that benefits from the racism that is out there. In essence, whereas others don’t get to just act like it is not there because they live with discrimination every day. I pretend that it isn’t pertinent to my daily life. This is something I have to work against. This is something we all have to work against. We all discriminate in one way or another. Not just regarding the color of our skin but accepting all of God’s people as God’s people.

The aspect that they do not deal with in this video or for us is it is often a question of who has the power. Those who have power believe there is no problem and those who do not have the power recognize that there is a difference in power. I wonder what this may look like in your every day life?