On Riots and Racism

Context

This is a response to some Facebook discussion with friends, made a bit more general so it's mostly understandable to all.

Personal posture in approaching this topic

In Psalm 139:23 David prays, “Search me, O God and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts!  And see if there be any wicked way in me.”  Just as Jesus extends the application of the law to the nooks and crannies of the human heart in the sermon on the mount, so we should sincerely search out unseen sinful patterns in our lives.  So I’m fine with people pressing and questioning others to consider if they have some racist impulses they didn’t realize, or if the society around them does.  Usually, this is taken too far, though, and the assumption is asserted strongly that most of the country IS racist when it isn’t true.  The same David who asked God to search his heart, could also rightly declare his innocence of specific accusations being brought against him, to push another agenda (Psalm 7).  That’s what is happening in our country right now.

Second, when the African American community is hurting and grieving, as they now truly are, it is important to weep with those who weep, and to love our neighbor.  There are times love looks like Job’s friends coming and sitting with him in silence for a week.  There are other times love offers a challenging word, iron sharpening iron.  Sometimes when we are in pain, the wound is partly self-inflicted, we blame others and we lash out wrongly.  I believe that is true of the African-Amercian community right now. 

To analyze the situation as I see it is not to explain it AWAY, like I want the problem or the people to stop bothering my comfortable life.  Nor am I trying to tell people how to feel, although that’s not always a bad thing (Nehemiah 8:9-12; Philippians 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:18; Romans 12:15).  It seems inconsistent somehow to get rebuked for not showing enough compassion for black voices, and then told not to tell someone how to feel.  Well, you just told ME how to feel.  This is an example of injustices increasingly done to the supposed "privileged," to equalize things.  It's French-Revolution-dangerous.  As one riot went by a fraternity, the white guy inside gave them a thumbs up indicating he was on their side.  Five seconds later a rock smashed through his window.  You may respond, and say, "Now the shoe's on the other foot, isn't it?  Now you know how it feels to be black in America!"  See the end of this post on veneance, or just read Romans 12:17.

Anyway, I write to think through things, hopefully to improve things.  Not to white-splain away black pain.  Sheesh.  This is an attempt to love my neighbor.  Why can I not be believed in that?

Multi-culturalism

25 years ago when I was in school and just graduated, the Left was pushing multi-culturalism.  What is good and true about it - that each culture has much that should be celebrated - was used to advance a more sinister agenda: the values in any given culture are morally relative, since they evolve differently for different people.  Also that we need to equalize the value of all cultures, meaning the majority Western culture in the West has to be taken down several notches as we celebrate other cultures.  This argument basically won the day, and our current identity politics and the false narrative of the 1619 Project is built on it.  Now we say “let me speak my truth,” “don’t let me lose my black voice.”  We see ourselves more as members of an ethnic tribe, than as individuals or citizens of a nation.  For centuries the Left has emphasized the corporate aspect of society, and the Right asserts the individual, so this controversy is nothing new.  Both are needed in their proper place.  But we need to reject identifying ourselves and others primarily as members of a given tribe, or even as a slave.  God doesn’t let us do that:

“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. ¹¹ Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” (Colossians 3:9-11)

Pride in your country and culture is okay in its place, but it needs to stay subservient to Christ.

What is justice?

There is a reason lady justice is blind as she holds up the scales.  Truth doesn’t change based on who is speaking and what their skin color is.  MLK had a dream of a color blind society, but those who claim his flag today have changed the dream drastically.  Now, if you’re white, you have privilege and have to sit down and shut up.  I’m all for listening to the voice of the marginalized, and truly giving justice to the oppressed.  But that doesn’t mean silencing others, or accusing them of silencing the oppressed when they “speak their truth.”  It doesn’t mean reparations generations later, it means doing justice to each individual regardless of race, without partiality for the police or the rich, OR for the poor.  “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:15).  

Most importantly, justice doesn’t mean we should expect racism and police brutality to never happen, but we should expect it to be punished when it does.  We have changed our laws and our ways much for the better in the last 50 years regarding this, though we are far from perfect in executing it, as the Arbery case in Georgia showed.  In George Floyd’s case, justice is being served.  The system is working.  It is not endemically racist.  Are there bad cops and corrupt judges?  Yes.  An inherently racist society?  No.

Softer, Subtler Racism?

Now, there is an expanded definition of racism being argued for these days.  “Maybe you don’t attack or discriminate against black people overtly, but you are more suspicious when one walks past your house.”  This gets tricky.  I believe one can avoid racism while also having their guard up more in that situation.  Controversial, I know.  Let me explain.  

(I live out in the country, in a suburb with large-size lots, in a county with a .4% African American population.  NOT the city!  So this scenario might not make sense to some.)  

If a young woman walks up to my house, stops and just looks for 30 seconds, my threat level is around 2 out of 10.  If a young man does that, it shoots up to 7.  If it’s a young black man, it’s maybe an 8.  I freely admit this, knowing how politically incorrect it is, but it’s NOT necessarily because I’m racist.  It’s because of the historical data and statistics of who commits the most violent crimes.  Is that expectation sexist or racist, or does it just take history into account?  

I DO believe everyone (especially the police) needs to work against that expectation, and give the benefit of the doubt to folks.  Police and everyone need to judge people by their behavior, not their skin color.  This is where soft racism can be a real thing.  What happened to Ahmaud Arbery was appalling. But it’s news because it happens so rarely, not because it happens all the time.  Protests like in my town today, based on the assumption that it DOES happen all the time are not grounded in the facts.  Having your guard up when a young man walks by is NOT inherently a lesser-grade racist sin of the same kind as chasing him down to apprehend and shoot him (the system is working to do justice in that case, too).  Some seem to think that one third to half of the country looked on in silent approval of what happened to Floyd and Arbery.  At least all the Trump supporters, I’m sure!  That’s really out of touch with reality.

I can take the exhortation to heart, though, to notice and help, when people aren’t as socialized or equipped as me to operate well in society, given their background.  But that’s a family heritage problem as much as it is a racial one.  (JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy really helped me understand the “underclass” mentality, white or black.)  It puts me in mind of greater men than me, like Clarence Thomas and others who were disadvantaged societally, endured racism and poverty as a child, but took personal responsibility to overcome it and succeed.  

So I’m not going to feel guilty personally when I see a poor or homeless black man at the DMV.  That is the fake “white guilt” of the woke.  I find it toxic and unjust.  I DO though have a calling to love my neighbor, and I may be better equipped to help him after listening to this conversation.

My town and mayor

I live in a small town an hour from Detroit.  We have a history of some Ku Klux Klan activity and sympathy nearby, 50-100 years ago.  Malcolm X’s home was vandalized when he was a child as the police looked on, about 45 minutes from where I sit.  Last week there was an isolated empty threat that people were going to come and burn the town in protest.  I was in an online meeting with our mayor, and his response was interesting.  To paraphrase: “I have not observed racism in our town, and we aren’t like that.  There will always be a few idiots out there, but let’s be vigilant and good to each other.”  That is a MUCH better response than apologizing for being racist in response to pressure from mobs, when the truth of the charge is dicey at best.  We have protests planned at our courthouse this afternoon.

Conclusion

The big picture here is that two wrongs never make a right.

“Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves” (Romans 12:17-19).

We shouldn’t fight injustice against African-Americans with another injustice: throwing out wild accusations or assumptions that people are racist, when we don’t know that.  Or expanding the definition to the point that I’m guilty just for being white.  If it’s wrong to get pulled over for “driving black,” it is also wrong to be accused as one of the 'privileged' of not being concerned enough about racism.

We shouldn’t fight the injustice of suppressing minorities’ voices by curtailing free speech for all, as is happening with college campus speech codes.  Criticism of a black person’s ideas is not silencing their voice or dismissing them, out of racism.

We shouldn’t fight wealth inequity by sacrificing justice: soaking the rich to give to the poor as we do in our tax policy.  

And we certainly shouldn’t fight the injustice done to Floyd and others with the injustice of destroying homes, looting businesses, and running over policemen.

May God have mercy on our nation, to show us our sins, and to restrain the wickedness in our hearts.