Rant Of The Day: RACISM

I don't want this blog to become a negative place, full of meaningless rants on stuff I can't change anyway, but today something really bothered me. It started last night when I read a post on my friend Jeremy's blog. It was called "Native Americans Are People Too". You can read it here. It's a pretty long post, but well worth the read.

Now it's not that I've had my head in the sand, but after reading his post last night, I noticed stuff at work today that made me sick.

I am a hairdresser.

Or at least people seem to think I am. Because they sure seem to enjoy telling me just about everything (and about 95 percent of it has nothing to do with what they want to buy). After hearing a racist comment from a customer less than ten minutes into my shift, I decided to keep track of what I heard during the day. Here's the list:

4 comments about aboriginal people
2 comments about German immigrants
3 comments about Mennonites (not counting 'cheap' comments about Mennonites made by Mennonites)
1 comment about Hutterites
1 comment about French Canadians

11 racist, stereotypical comments. One day. Eight hours. And most of those came between 12:30 and 6 o'clock. Boy, it almost looks like we hate each other or something. And to come up with comments like these would seem to suggest that we ourselves are perfect. Whatever happened to "Love your neighbor as yourself"? When I think of racism I think of problems in the deep south in the US...KKK, whites against blacks, lynchings, the kind of stuff the media likes to jump on. But we've got our own brand of hate up here, that's for sure.

The saddest part is there's no solution for it. The governments have been educating us for years...all the way through school...they create equal opportunity legislation...advertisements always have to have people from different races and cultures, etc. But what good has it done?

As a Christian maybe it's a little easier to understand. I know that without God's help, I can barely love my friends, never mind my enemies. I guess it's crazy to expect someone who isn't a Christian to love people the way God intended.

Lest I get carried away at pointing the finger, I must confess that at times I have made these comments myself. In school it was always so easy to make jokes about Aboriginals, and Mexican immigrants. I was too much of a coward to stand against it, and actually believed a lot of it. What a moron I was. If I could take it back, I would. That's the thing about words though...you can't take them back. You can apologize, ask for forgiveness, but the damage has been done. We often make a comment and then say "just kidding", or "I was just joking", but what we say is just the evidence of what we're thinking. Jesus said "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks". (Luke 6:45)

Thankfully God has softened my heart over the last few years, and helped me see people for who they are. One thing I've noticed though...when I'm tight with God, things like loving people come so easy, and when I drift from God, it's so easy to slip back into the garbage.

So that's my rant. Chose love, not hate. And don't put up with it when those around you say it. Not sure what to say? Well, today after hearing one guy complain about Aboriginals for a while, I said "so....what's wrong with you?" He said "What do you mean?" I said "well you just told me everything that's wrong with them, are you telling me you're perfect, or you just don't want to talk about it?" He turned beet red and said "yeah, I guess you're right". Maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea in every situation, but I think God expects us to do something.

I'm not sure this all came out the way I wanted it to. I was thinking about it all day, but I find it so hard to put it into words. Never been a real eloquent speaker...or a writer for that matter. I'm almost embarrassed to think that my friends and family actually read this stuff. But while what I say might not make sense, and I ramble somewhat aimlessly, God's Word always says it perfectly. So I will leave you with Luke 6:37

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged.
Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.
Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Give, and it will be given to you."