Probably the first thing that changed was that I went to work in an office with people of different races. I actually got to know people who looked different from me. I got to know their stories. I got to a point where I could, as Dr. King said, “judge them based not upon the color of their skin but upon the content of their character.” It is much harder to be a racist when you are spending ten hour work days sitting just a few feet from people of other races. A second thing that happened was that I finally moved out of a homogenous small town and moved to a big city. While living in Austin, Texas, I was surrounded by people of many races and nationalities, especially by people of Mexican heritage, many of whom still spoke Spanish as their primary language. Also, I became good friends with seminary classmates of other races, had professors of other races, and learned more about different cultures and their history. For one of my classes, I went to worship at a predominantly African American Catholic Church as well as to Spanish speaking worship services. The experiences of my first job and then seminary in Austin put me in positions where I either had to grow in acceptance or retreat into an insulated homogeny. I’m glad that the Holy Spirit kept pulling me toward an acceptance that better reflects the Kingdom of God.
The most powerful experience for me in regard to finally getting me out of the darkness of racial prejudice into the light of celebrating diversity came when I served a ten week intensive internship as the student pastor to four small congregations in rural Oklahoma. Two of those congregations were Presbyterian congregations that had been founded at the end of the Seminole Trail of Tears from Florida to Oklahoma. All of the church members were also members of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and one of those congregations conducted their services completely in the Seminole language (a dialect of the Creek language). I spent long days during which I was the only person who was not Native American and quite often the only person that did not understand the language. My skin and hair were light and everyone else had reddish brown skin and black hair. I ate food I’d never heard of and learned of the joys and challenges of being Native American in the 21st Century. I went to powwows and ate fry bread. During that summer I read Seminole history and found out the tragic reality of what racism can do when it is institutionalized. I learned what it was like to walk into a room and have everyone turn to stare at you. It was an intensely lonely feeling sometimes, but it was invaluable.
It was during my time in seminary that I started to learn more about Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to actually read some of his writings. I checked out an anthology of his writings from the library and I was mesmerized. Like most everyone else, I was blown away by his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” especially in hearing that he wrote that letter in bits and pieces on old newspapers and toilet paper in his jail cell. The fact that he wrote that letter to other pastors, specifically white pastors who claimed to support civil rights but wouldn’t aid Dr. King when he came to their own city, convicted me and forced me to ask, “Would I actually be willing to face a policeman’s baton or a police dog for what I claim to believe?” Also, would I be willing to face my own congregation (in the 1960’s South), many of whom would disagree with me, and be willing to stand up to them for justice? That would probably be harder than facing the police. Those police couldn’t fire you and kick you and your family out of the manse. Also during that time I learned about Dietrich Bonheoffer, the German Lutheran pastor, who stood up to Hitler by speaking against the Nazi extermination of Jews (the ultimate example of institutionalized racism) and ended up being executed in a Nazi prison just days before the war in Europe came to an end.
When I look at my life, I see that I had to overcome more than twenty years of racism, both around me and within me. I don’t want my kids to have to undo twenty years of prejudice like I did. So I am raising them in a way that celebrates diversity. At first, we tried to raise our kids without a concept of race. We just never mentioned it. We never differentiated between one person or another. It was an experiment. Then we started getting questions from the kids about why people look differently. Josselyn, who is three, pointed at Denzel Washington on the TV and asked if he was made of chocolate. I have to admit that we got a pretty good laugh out of that one, mostly because our little girl is so obsessed with food that she checks out books at the library about food groups and now she thinks people are made out of food! So we had to address the issue of race with the kids. With Wyatt, who is six, I’ve started to explain that people’s skin is different shades mostly based upon which part of the world their ancestors came from. We have also
So am I still a racist? Well, I think it is kind of like being an alcoholic. It is still in there somewhere. With God’s help, I fight it. In addition to being like alcoholism, I think it is also kind of like lust. For instance, when I notice an attractive woman other than my wife, I recognize it. I reject it. I move on. I don’t beat myself up about it because I know that isn’t who I am. It is the same with racism. A condescending racist thought will come to mind. I recognize. I reject it. I move on. I don’t beat myself up about it because I know that isn’t who I am anymore because my mind and heart are continually being transformed by the same Spirit who sent Philip to the Ethiopian Eunuch, who sent Peter to the Roman Cornelius, and who strengthened Dr. King and who heard as Dr. King and the others “prayed with their feet” time and time again. So I guess I should say that I am not an active racist anymore. But I am not a perfect person; I am a sinner who has been granted forgiveness through the cross. So in gratitude for that forgiveness, I open myself to the Spirit so that I might continually be made more and more in the likeness of Christ and through that become a better citizen of the Kingdom of God. It is my prayer that, while my kids will surely have much to repent of in their lives, that they won’t have to repent of the same things I did. It is also my prayer that they might not even think of races as much as they will think of different shades of people within one human race, all of whom are created in the image of God.
See the Christ in others this week, and show them the Christ in you.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Everett
