What have I gotten myself into? God has really laid it on my heart lately to start writing a little about racism. Our next president could very possible be black, and with everything else going on in the world, I suppose now is as good a time as ever. Before I get started let me go ahead and say, when I say “Black” I mean anyone with dark skin. When (if) I say hispanic, again, it is strictly skin color. In no way do I mean anything rude, nor am I implying what part of our world someone is from. I don’t know what the “politically correct” way of saying things are these days, nor do I know that they are necessarily “correct”.
When I was in elementary school, our “community” was dominantly white. In third grade, my neighborhood actually had a meeting because the “foreigners” moved into our neighborhood. These “foreigners” had moved in a week prior and had already started a close friendship with me, which is why me, Omar and my other best friend Matt became the outcasts of the neighborhood. To this day, that entire family cares for me, calls me, and loves me. And Vice-Versa.
That was probably when I realized there was a problem. Problem is, a lot of my mother’s friends had taught me some, ok, just about EVERY racist joke in the book, and I viewed them as that. Jokes, but I have now realized, that is not all they are. I don’t feel any hate towards black people, but I can say, I know all of the stereotypes, and learning those at an early age, scared the crap out of me. When my friend, Omar, first wanted to be my friend, I was skeptical. I was nervous. And at the age of ten, I had no clue what we would have in common, I mean. I’M WHITE! (Sadly, that is really how i viewed the situation)
The “N” word wasn’t common in my house, but I’m not going to say it was uncommon either. I remember I never liked it, because there wasn’t something right about it, but, nonetheless, it was a word that was tossed around quite a bit in my household.
I have been susceptible to racism, and I am not proud of it. There was a short time, I will confess, while I was around 12 years old., that I was deathly afraid of black people. (Except for Omar, because I knew him.) I would like to say, that is around when my mom had her friends over, and they were teaching me about, whites, blacks, the rapture, and drugs. (In one really drawn out conversation)
In high school the black population grew more and more each year, and I became close friends with all of them. Throughout the years, God had a way of kicking me in the butt, to show me that we are all equal. I would say that from my first day of middle school, all the way to my last day of high school, completely changed me and my views of racism. I went from being a misled kid, to an experience young man, who saw the struggles and the hate directed at our black community. It hurts me to this day to think about.
Looking back, I almost want to hang my head in shame. There are times when I don’t even want to explain it, because I feel like talking about it only digs a deep hole. God has always had a way of throwing me in the mix to teach me, because I never learn from people saying. Do I believe that we are actually different races? NO! As a matter of fact I can say that there is only one race I see. That is the human race. We have ALL been created in the image of God. We ALL have the love of God in us, and it is ALL of our jobs to spread that love to EVERYONE. Even our enemies. Just as He Loved us.
I have heard arguments from a boat load of people. “Well, I got robbed at gunpoint, and the guy was black” or, “My cousin got raped, and that guy was hispanic, that is why I don’t like _________” That doesn’t matter. Let me explain why.
I have been held at gun point four different times. I have been stabbed, my sisters both raped or molested, I have been jumped, and I was beat up by cops. I have been hospitalized by people who didn’t like me. And I have been falsely accused of a crime I DID NOT commit. And the majority of people who did that stuff to me? You guessed it. White.
Of coarse, racism can go both ways, and I have seen it. But, people. It has to stop. To make this world livable for our children, grandchildren and so on. The buck stops here. It has to end. I want our children to not be raised seeing color, or ethnicity, but The Human Race. People of God. Servants of one cause. To see the light of Love shine through each and everyone of us.
We are all children of the same wonderful, beautiful, amazing God. It hurts him to see us hate each other. It should hurt us to be doing the hating. What makes it right? What is important enough to not follow God’s one commandment to us. Love eachother as he loved us. 
I don’t know if I have gotten my point across, but let me just spell it out. I am in no way a racist. But Racism has affected me. Racism has greatly made me the person I am today. And racism is still a major issue. I think I will write more on this, because it can go A LOT deeper than this, but for now, I want to know.
Any comments? What have you had to do to overcome struggles with racism? Has your community risen against a certain race? How did that make you feel, or shape the way you thought? Were you raised learning that a certain race was inferior? How did you over come it? Did you? Can we pray for you to?
Question and comment below. Criticize me too. I want some good Conversation.
Racism. What is it to me? I am not entirely sure. But I do have some crazy thoughts on it, and different views on it. I am going to be writing about it either tomorrow or Monday during the day. Depending. But, I can promise that this is not something you want to miss. It should be some really good conversation, and I think that everyone will have some good input! I will also talk about what I think the Bible says about it, and what I feel in my heart about it.
