Hidden Racism

There has been a huge uproar about the comments by some shock jock in the last 2 weeks. The uproar is justified, and there have been some excellent posts on it, such as here. But, I personally found this one and this one more interesting, since they were reacting, not to the event, but the cause of the event. I especially like this quote, from the first site:

Dalits (“Untouchables”) in India are required by Hindu law to be given one name, and it must be derogatory: Ugly, Stupid, Dung. Imagine the transformation when they discover that in Jesus, God came as a dalit (itself an extraordinary shock of rightly, if unexpectedly naming, God), and that he has the power to rename them: Chosen. Holy. Beloved.

Wow! But, that wasn’t where I was heading with this post, because at around the same time that the high profile misnaming was going on, a far less visible racism was uncovered. Apparently a book of skits for youth groups was published with an Asian-American character portrayed in a stereotypical way. This was pointed out to the publisher, who responded in a very significant and transformational way. The full story, from the publisher himself, is here.

we at youth specialties really screwed up. big time. i’m ashamed and embarrassed and horrified (and fairly angry, also), and i personally beg the forgiveness of our asian american christian brothers and sisters. i write as an individual christ-follower with responsibility for the systems in our organization which allowed for this offense; and i write as a spokesperson for youth specialties, apologizing on behalf of the whole organization.

You owe it to yourself to read the whole thing. This is an example of the body of Christ working together. One side speaking the truth in love; the other side humbly accepting the correction and repenting.

I pray God that I will respond with as much contriteness and humility whenever someone approaches me about a blind spot in my life!