We had a good discussion in our Bible study last night. Out of that, some good thoughts on race and diversity were mentioned; I would like to discuss a few of them.
1. What is diversity, anyway? Society tries to tell us conflicting ideas about this. On the one hand, we are supposed to treat each other equally, irrespective of race, class, etc. On the other hand, we are not allowed to forget even for an instant a person's race, class, etc. This tension has led to a ridiculous reality. We are supposed to treat each other like equals, but the moment we try to do so, frivolous charges of racism and bigotry abound. For instance, there is the United Negro College Fund. What if there were a United White College Fund? How about the National Association for the Advancement of White People? I'm not advocating the creation of these groups, but are we not going against Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech? He wanted people to be judged not "by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Imagine a white person saying that today to a crowd of white people. Double standard, anyone?
2. Why is diversity only skin-deep? If a black man and a white man grow up as neighbors in Detroit, I would tend to think that they had more in common with each other than the white man in Detroit would have with a white man from South Africa. Is it not the height of superficiality to suppose that every person of the same color is exactly the same? In our Bible study, for example, we are all Caucasian, but we are certainly not a homogeneous unit. My good friend in the study thinks differently than me on many important issues, and his life experience is vastly different than mine--but the amount of melanin in our skin is roughly the same. Does that mean that we are not diverse from one another? Hardly.
3. Certain people profit from racism and discrimination and do not want them to end. Have you ever thought about what people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton do for a living? They profit from victimization. Whenever someone performs a racist act, these two men (I only single them out because they are well-known examples) run to the nearest camera. They get national exposure from people hurting one another in specific ways. What if racism and discrimination ended today? You would find Jackson and Sharpton in the unemployment line tomorrow, no doubt claiming they themselves were now victims of discrimination. In the same way, the media sensationalize the news (including episodes like the recent Don Imus fiasco) because that attracts an audience. These people do not want bad things to end; on the contrary, they propagate and sensationalize them for profit.
I know a discussion of this sort is somewhat taboo, but these societal problems will not go away if we just ignore them long enough. What if we started to treat each person as if he or she had real worth as an individual, regardless of any personal characteristics? We need to combat the reigning ideology of diversity both with argument and counter-cultural action.
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2 comments:
At work one day a co-worker was complaining that Phoenix didn’t have any diversity. At that time my wife and I purposely lived in a lower income neighbor hood, and attended then and now the local church. That church had an ESL (English as 2nd Language) outreach, which began to attract not only Mexicans but also many Eastern European and African refugees from a host of countries and religions. This taught me much about the problems with the “imposition” of diversity from intellectual elitist. They have no desire to rub elbows with the truly diverse oppressed and poor of this world, who have fled their countries in fear for their lives; better to just live next door to a well-to-do foreigner with dark skin. When my co-worker voiced his complaint, I laughed.
I had the wonderful opportunity to help a Liberian refugee learn to drive, and buy a car. This was about 4 years ago and he is now a home and business-owner. He also is on the Board of Elders at our church, and his is not an isolated story. He had every excuse in the world to just fold up and quit, but he pressed own in the face of difficulties that an American couldn’t even fathom regardless of the color of their skin. Incidentally he knew that I was born and raised in Georgia, and one day not that long ago he came to my wife and expressed amazement that I didn’t hate blacks even thought I was from “The South”. Now; I wonder where he got such an idea as that. Some anti-racist trying to rid the world of prejudices I’m sure.
I'm glad you broached the subject; I agree it needs to be done. I see you've broached another one as well. Keep up the good work.
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