Being a minority
Tuesday, May 10th, 2005 at 4:59 pm | Category: Uncategorized
I had to get a TB screening today for my mentoring Job. I drove down to 608 Jackson St. to the Fredericksburg Health Services building to get my $14.69 test. I went to the outside waiting room and waited my turn to go to the next waiting room where I would await my interview with the nurse for the TB screening.
It could have been the flourescent lighting emphasising my pail, anglo flesh, but I quickly realized that I was the minority in that second waiting room. I was literally the only white person in the whole place, there were about 80% hispanics and another 15% black, with me at %5 holding up the white minority. It was an interesting look into socio-economic life with race as an obvious factor.
What are the factors that perpetuate this distance between socio-economic classes and race? Will the inner-city poor population always be the minority racially? Is me talking about this right now actually triggering this racial stigma in each of our minds that says “I told you so” or “Of course, that doesn’t suprise me,” or just “Typical?” I wonder if our unconcious preconceptions make the problem worse, the actually tell the truth about the situation….
Malcom Gladwell has something to say about this in his new book, Blink. (which I am promoting, but have not read, what does that say about me?). I heard a speaking engagement of his and one point that he made was that our unconcious mind colors our opinions far more than actual data or fact. He thinks that if we had court procedings with out seeing or hearing the accused, disguising their voice and keeping them in a room away from the court room, then we would have a lot less wrongfully condemned people in prison.
Cultural and racial bias disturbs me, it says to me that we size people up in instant that we interactive with them, and then categorize them instantly. Some people may never have a chance to be who they really are to us. Mr. Gladwell may have more things to say about this.
As a follower of Jesus Christ, whose word and spirit transforms me from who once was to who I will be, can how we see people, how we judge them, unconciously be transformed along with our concious mind through the work of the Holy Spirit? I hope so, and I hold on to that hope.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:1
May 12th, 2005 at 7:45 pm
I do not dispute your observation that there is prejudice (or many prejudices) that divide us. I do not think that they are all based on physical(color, race) or even cultural (language, dress) differences.
Much of our prejudice amounts to class distinctions, which are as real and prevalent here as in feudal Europe or in India from antiquity to the present.
As Christians, we know that we are not supposed to judge or exclude people based on these superficial dividers, but how can we effectively change the patterns that keep people in bondage?
Besides introducing people to life-changing relationship with Christ, evidence points to literacy and education as prime factors in dissolving class barriers. This may not be true in all societies, but history gives us numerous examples of people in free societies who have overcome prejudice by developing their abilities to a recognizably superior level of accomplishment.
Idealistic? I am no more so than people who think that throwing a few more dollars of public largesse at the disenfranchised will work a miracle in the hearts of those who deny them the dignity of human worth.
May 12th, 2005 at 10:10 pm
I’m glad you got to become a minority, Ian, if only for an hour. We all have this tendancy to think that we’re right in our thinking, our way of living, and our ideals. We surround ourselves with those like us, who confirm our beliefs.
Cheryl (ok, Mom….There’s a stand up of you in my living room, so I figure I know you well enough), I agree education is a key. We seem to take education for granted here, but we don’t understand what power it has for those who are unable to change their circumstances.
I think the greatest education that we need is an education of who we are. When we begin to understand and embrace our own identities we are free to embrace others. When I see how flawed and broken I am, I can accept (and even expect), the same in others. When I see the look in the eyes of a God who is crazy about me for no reason, I can accept that He must be crazy about all people. If only we could (would?) see ourselves as we really are…
May 15th, 2005 at 12:11 am
I agree. I see that a sort of arrogance that is often undetected or so common is at the core of some of these prejudices. This arrogance creates an “us” group and a “them” group. It is built on the shaky foundation of pride that says that I must find a distinguishing difference between us and them that makes us feel better about ourselves, or for us to make some sense out of a situation while saving face. Also, this arrogance assumes that the experience of the “us” is THE experience, and we have a very difficult seeing radically different experiences as valid, or right, just as merely different (without a value judgement).
Wow, I just realized how big this sort of discussion is. The problems won’t be solved here and not in 100 volumes of the best research, testimony and expert advice… This problem has been around as long as sin… I think about people groups who commit genocide based on the mere race of another (Rawanda, Bosnia, etc.) and it shakes me up.
I saw and excellent movie this evening that told an interweaving story of lives effected in very different was from their own prejudices and the prejudices projected at them. It is called Crash. You should definitely check it out if you haven’t. That film should belong in this conversation thread.
A new self is needed. Not just a self of each individual, but a common, corporeal, tribal, community self, where a group and the individuals see, hear, speak and live new.
“and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
Colossians 3:10-11