White Christians and the Racial Divide-Pt 2 (Empathy through Cruciformity)
Nine years ago, Percy, Dave-O, and I were walking to the neighborhood party store to put minutes on Percy’s phone. The night before, Percy and his family barely escaped a grease-fire in their home from the downstairs neighbor’s apartment, which silently engulfed the whole house, forcing Percy’s entire family to jump out of a second-story window into a snowbank. As we approached the corner store, a GRPD cruiser came alongside the three of us, and the officer, a gray-haired gruff white man in a dark blue uniform, inquired as to where we were going. Percy answered, “to the store to put some minutes on my phone.” But then in all seriousness, the Police officer pointed at me and sarcastically asked them, “Is this your Fiend?” (for those who aren’t familiar with the street vernacular, a “Fiend” is a derogatory word for a drug addict) Both Percy and Dave-O immediately defended me, “No! He’s our Pastor!” I was in shock. Did a Grand Rapids Police officer stereotype me as a drug addict? I had to ask Percy and Dave-O what the officer said again to make sure I heard it right. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. Even though he never met Percy and Dave-O before, the police officer profiled both of them as neighborhood drug dealers. After all, in his mind, why else would two young black men walking down to the corner store in their hoodies hang out with a middle-aged bald white man that was 20 years older than them? What’s more, the officer profiled me as the stereotypical crack addict that drug dealers in our neighborhood make their money.
I was Livid. Furious. Angry. How could the officer think this about me? I felt a deep sense of dehumanization like I was being viewed as “white trash” in his eyes. At that moment, I also realized this dehumanized feeling was what Dave-O and Percy felt living as black men in a white man’s world. Every time a store employee followed them in a mall while shopping, every time a police officer pulled them over for no reason, every time employees and landlords rejected their job applications or housing applications (some of which had to do with the color of their skin), Dave-O and Percy felt degraded. Yet, they were expected to bridle their deep-seated frustrations or else risk even more stereotypical profiling and passive-aggressive repercussions from the majority white culture.
Although I was their pastor, at that moment, it was Dave-O and Percy, who ministered to me by showing me empathy. They listened and allowed me to vent my angry emotions. Both of them put aside their deep-seated frustrations, even though minutes ago, the police officer had racially profiled them as the stereotypical drug dealers to help me process what had just happened. What’s more, Percy just lost every possession that he owned, and yet his focus was on how he could help carry this burden I was experiencing. I saw empathy and love in action. And likewise, that small, brief shared experience opened my eyes and helped me become much more empathetic to their struggles dealing with racism in America.
Which leads me to the first of three things that White Christians can do to help bridge the racial divide. We need to show empathy; empathy towards ethnic minorities in our personal day-to-day interactions; empathy towards black and brown folks when real acts of violence and injustice take place towards people of color that turns into the next viral sensation; empathy when a black brother or sister in Christ shares with us a story how they experienced racially profiling. Our first response should not and cannot be suspicion, antagonism, and fact-checking as if racism magically disappeared as a relic of the Jim Crow past. (see the endnote below) Instead, our first response as Christians should involve active listening and compassion towards our hurting brother or sister in Christ. Active listening with empathy takes a considerable amount of effort, patience, and humility to hear what is and isn’t being said in conversations about race and racism. For instance, when a black friend opens up and shares that their white boss overlooked them for a job promotion due to the color of their skin, whites should not view the situation as if blacks are “playing the victim card.” Instead, it is giving our friend the benefit of the doubt with their narrative because that’s part of what it means to love according to the Bible (I Cor. 13:7 “believes all things”).
However, empathy doesn’t come easy. It takes a Crucifomed attitude and posture as we live out our faith in Christ. With the Spirit’s enablement, the cross shapes our lives as an “ongoing pattern of living in Christ and of dying with him that produces a Christ-like person” (Michael Gorman). In the context of race relations, it means dying to ourselves and our presumptive attitudes about race and racism because our union in Christ produces a sacrificial love for our ethnic minority brothers and sisters in Christ. It means dying to our natural defensiveness when a sister brings up “white privilege” in the conversation, that we don’t automatically assume that she succumbed to the perils of Cultural Marxism nor that she is downplaying the hard work that contributed to the white person’s success. It also means humbly accepting the premise that many of the politically-motivated primary sources that previously informed us about race and racism, although they may contain some truth, are also full of flaws when held to the light of scripture. Too many folks blindly accept progressive unorthodox social theories and tools from secular universities such as Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. Blindly accept the naive conservative arguments from PragerU and the Jordan Peterson types that deny any systemic racism or structural injustices within our nation, (while they belittle anyone who critiques their ideas as a socialist or post-modern).
Instead, a Cruciformed life is rooted in the ancient Christ hymn that Paul quotes in Phil. 2:5-11.
“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”
Imagine if we approached our relationships with our black brothers and sisters in Christ with this example of Jesus. Jesus gave up the power and rights that he had with being God and become a servant. What’s more, out of a self-giving, self-emptying love, Jesus humbled himself and offered himself as an atoning sacrifice for sinners through his death on the cross. What if we put others ahead of ourselves rather than resorting to our self-protecting tendencies when minority Christians plead for social justice in regards to overcriminalization and mass incarceration in our criminal justice system? What if we took a back seat and made sure that black voices are at the forefront in debates about race and racism, especially when some issues specifically pertain to black folks? My good friend Ivory Smith made this observation when people argued whether the black-face “Coon Caricature” was right or wrong. “Once again, black people are being argued over by collective groups of whites as if we are non-existent and voiceless while they decide what is or is not acceptable to/for us.” What if the first impulse among us white Christians moved us to learn spiritual growth, evangelism, discipleship, preaching, social justice, and missions from Godly black Christians? This includes attending ministry conferences-I highly recommend Legacy Discipleship Conference https://legacydisciple.org, where whites are the minority, and the majority of speakers and workshop presenters are non-white or reading books written by ethnic minority Christian authors? What if we actually held self-aggrandizing national political leaders accountable by calling them out when their words or actions negatively affect our non-white brothers and sisters even if we voted for that same leader in the last election? Could it be that the often-frosty race-relations might begin to unthaw because it would be apparent that something was different? Maybe it would be the first step towards whites and blacks no longer passing judgment on one another (Rom. 14:13), but rather showing love to one another (I John 4:11-12), striving to be patient, bearing with one another in love (Eph. 4:2), carrying each other’s burdens (Gal. 6:2), serving one another in love (Gal. 5:13), in humility, considering others more significant than ourselves (Phil. 2:3), and striving to be kind and compassionate (empathetic) to one another (Eph. 4:32). So with a cross-shaped (Cruciformity) mindset, may we begin to show empathy through our thinking, feeling, and acting.
By the way, here is a group of pastors that I believe is living out Empathy with Cruciformity when it comes to addressing the racial divide. https://www.facebook.com/charles.ware1/videos/10156978923244860/
1 We also need to be aware that since everyone possesses the sin nature and if one’s story doesn’t line up with obvious facts such as with the Jussie Smollett racism hoax, we are to embrace truth rather than lies. That is why active listening is so important.
I agree with a lot of what you said. The last paragraph asks a lot of “what if’s” and “Imagine if”. Personally, I think in the last 10 years there has been a tremendous collaboration between black and white leaders together. The way you write it assumes it isn’t happening. You are a shining example of what can be done. In the book “Switch” the writers say the way to produce change is not to concentrate on the negative aspects of an issue, but to focus on who is doing it right. I think the church, especially some branches of the Evangelical Church, has been working hard to do it right for quite some time. I think pointing out who nationally is doing great work would be helpful because they can show how mutual love works. (ie: Tony Evans and Joe Stowell back in the ’90s, Charles Ware in the GARBC, Mile McPherson in San Diego, etc….) I think your points are great, I think in some sense the white folks like me do need to take a back seat once in a while, but even that we must be careful because it smells a little patronizing. What I wish is that black and white people can be friends who can tell each other the truth. That the white man would ask the black man his opinion (albeit first), but the black man would then want to hear the white man’s opinion. One thing is for sure, this article got me thinking!
Part of the reason I wrote as I did was because of my intended audience of social media folks that appear to put the authority of their politics over and above the authority of Scripture when it comes to talking about racism. However, check out the video that I added, which demonstrates how a group from Springfield OH that is living out the last paragraph and it is an atmosphere where both blacks and whites are sharing and asking the hard questions and growing together with Empathy through Cruciformity. Thanks for the feedback!