Friday Fruit (11/29/13)

Photo credit:  Candy Chang

On Fridays, BTSF offers links to other discussions about race & Christianity. It's an opportunity for you to read about racial justice & Christianity from other perspectives, and for me to give props to the shoulders on which I stand...


Weekly Round Up:

• Thinking Outside the Middle Class Box

• Christianity Is Not the White Man's Religion (pt 2)

• Crossing Borders in the Church: On Embracing Undocumented Immigrants

• What a Verdict Taught Me About My Role as a Worship Leader

• 9 Basic Steps For Transitioning To A Multi-ethnic Church

• 'Before I Die' Art Instalment by Candy Chang

These are some of BTSF's links of interest this week. What are yours?

Feel free to contribute your own links in the comments section, or submit items you feel should be included during the week. Self-promotion is encouraged.

Creation Myths: Thanksgiving

There are two sides to history, and it is the winning side whose story is remembered. Such is the case with Thanksgiving.

The Black Commentator suggests that "the Thanksgiving story is an absolution of the pilgrims, whose brutal quest for absolute power in the New World is made to seem both religiously motivated and eminently human. Most importantly, the pilgrims are depicted as victims – of harsh weather and their own naïve yet wholesome visions of a new beginning."

There is much debate regarding the very first Thanksgiving. Indeed, there were many ‘days of thanksgiving’ proclaimed after settlers first landed, or survived harsh winters, or experienced plentiful harvests. The earliest Thanksgiving was not celebrated by British immigrants, but rather by Spanish conqueror Pedro Menéndez de Avilé, in Saint Augustine, Florida on September 8, 1565.

Over the subsequent century, many other Thanksgivings took place as new invaders and immigrants arrived. One of which, one was held under truly despicable auspices. Thousands of Indians had been killed or sold into slavery during the Pequot War (which began after the British-led nighttime massacre of  Mystic village). Heartened by their 'victory' and the death of thousands of men, women, and children, Connecticut Puritans declared October 12, 1637 a holy day of thanksgiving.

William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony gave the following account:

“Those that scraped the fire were slaine with the sword; some hewed to peeces, others rune throw with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatchte, and very few escapted...It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fyer, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stincke and sente there of... [The pilgrims] gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to inclose their enemise in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enimie.”

The TRUE origin
 of Thanksgiving

The most famous Thanksgiving meal was indeed held by British immigrants in partnership with (and thanks to charity from) members of the Wampanoag Nation in 1621. However, that alliance was only forged subsequent to the enslavement and mass death of the Patuxet Indians, an occurrence which necessitated more acquiescent relationships with the British immigrants in the region thereafter.

However, it was over 150 years later that the familiar story of the 1621 Mayflower Thanksgiving was actually established, in large part due to Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879). Her enchantment with the pilgrim narrative compelled her to campaign aggressively for the adoption of the national holiday. Her bucolic editorials and petitions shaped the modern conception of Thanksgiving, which became a national holiday in 1863.

This year on Thanksgiving, take time to learn the stories that aren't being told in school. Become familiar with the National Day of Mourning and the Indigenous Peoples Alcatraz Sunrise Gathering, which commemorate the true history of Thanksgiving and honor the many voices that have been silenced.

Wamsutta (Frank B.) James

Read the suppressed speech of Wamsutta (Frank B.) James, which was supposed to be delivered in Plymouth in 1970 as part of a celebration of the pilgrim landing. The event's public relations personnel edited his speech because they didn't approve of the history he told in it, but Wamsutta refused to deliver the revised version. Read the words he would have said that day.

The fact that such a sordid history is associated with the day we set aside to ‘thank God’ for his providence should give us pause. In reality, the United States celebrates Thanksgiving because the majority of its population benefits from the fruits of genocide and slavery. Let us indeed set aside time to count our blessings, but let us also be honest with ourselves about the legacy from which those blessings are derived.


See Also: Adam Ericksen's great article discussing similar issues on Sojourners

Friday Fruit (11/25/13)

On Fridays, BTSF offers links to other discussions about race & Christianity. It's an opportunity for you to read about racial justice & Christianity from other perspectives, and for me to give props to the shoulders on which I stand...


Weekly Round Up:

• Five Books that Reframe the Thanksgiving Narrative

• Black Men at UCLA: The Devastating Effects of Proposition 209

• NYC Graffiti Haven 5Pointz Gets Whitewashed Overnight

• White Men, Black Female Bodies, and Renisha McBride

• The Real “Race-Themed” Issue Behind “The Best Man Holiday”

• “Catch An Illegal Immigrant” Game Planned For University Of Texas
• Thanks for sending it, Carolyn!

• 20 Things The Working Poor Do Every Day

These are some of BTSF's links of interest this week. What are yours?

Feel free to contribute your own links in the comments section, or submit items you feel should be included during the week. Self-promotion is encouraged.

Why Being “Colorblind” Is Impossible

Please welcome back Ryan Hansen, a graduate student in clinical psychology. Here, he demonstrates why being colorblind just isn't possible:

What do you know about the individual in this picture?

Objectively, you know nothing other than the fact that someone posed for the picture. But take a second to notice what is going on in your head as you look at this picture. The picture is essentially a blank slate, and if you slow down and pay attention you will probably notice that your mind is frantically working to project meaning on onto it. Our brains are built to categorize information and make assumptions, and one of the primary ways that we do this is with social information relies heavily on the use of stereotypes.

Stereotypes, in and of themselves, are not necessarily bad. Living in large groups, it is virtually impossible to treat each individual that you meet as the entirely unique individual that they actually are. You have to find differences in appearance and behavior that allow you to make inferences and assumptions. 

That is not always a bad thing: it keeps you from approaching a kindergartener for help with your calculus or asking someone’s great grandmother for help moving your furniture. It is such a useful ability that it seems to be fundamentally baked into the way that we perceive other people. 

Take a second to take conscious control of this process. First, notice the individual’s age. What inferences does your brain naturally want to make based upon this information? What traits do you assume this individual has? Your brain is activating its age-related stereotypes, and it is probably trying to get you to assume that this individual will be patient, caring, and wise. You might find yourself wanting to assume that this individual wakes up early, or does not use Facebook regularly.

Now take a second, and focus on the individual’s gender. Notice how your perceptions shift. Your brain may try to get you to assume that this individual is nurturing, empathic, and warm. You might find yourself making the assumption that she knows how to cook, and that she may not know how to change the oil in her car.

Finally, take a look at the picture and focus on the individual’s race. You might feel yourself assuming that she is conscientious, emotionally reserved, and intelligent. You might assume that she knows Tai-Chi, and that she may not be the best driver.

Notice that all of this is what you are projecting onto the photograph based upon your stereotypes. You have never met the individual in this photograph, and you have little to no empirical data to support any of the assumptions listed above. Rather, you are basing these assumptions on either a limited set of personal experiences, or on the biased portrayal of social categories in the media you consume. Furthermore, most of the time these assumptions are made without your realizing that you have done so.

A famous study highlights the fact that stereotypes constantly, automatically, and unintentionally influence our thinking in social interactions. In it, participants were asked to do a simple word completion task. You can do it right now- try filling in the blanks: Ri_e, s_y. They found that when the experimenter administering the task was Asian, significantly more individuals gave the answers “rice” and “shy”. When the experimenter was not Asian, significantly more individuals gave neutral answers such as “ride” or “say”. 

The important thing to note is that the people in this study were not consciously paying attention to the experimenter’s race, and they were wholly unaware that they were letting it influence their results. Rather, the simple act of seeing an Asian individual automatically caused these stereotypes to be activated in their minds, and it made stereotypical words slightly more accessible when the participants were searching through their memory banks. If you ask the individuals who participated in this study, they would probably say that the experimenter’s race had no impact on them whatsoever. They probably thought they were “colorblind” throughout the entire procedure.

In this example, the stereotypes were rather harmless, and the impact of these stereotypes was trivial. But it is easy to see how the impact of negative stereotypes across millions of people and billions of interactions could be a lot more problematic. Assuming that you are “color/gender/age blind” because you don’t use vulgar words or actively discriminate when making hiring decisions does not mean that the negative stereotypes that abound in our society have stopped influencing your thinking or behavior. 

These stereotypes are the default basis for the judgments and decisions that we make. We need to consciously see things like gender, race, and age. Noticing our reactions and assumptions, and then correcting for them, will actually help us see individuals as the unique children of God that they actually are.

Friday Fruit (11/15/13)

Photo credit: Naima Lowe

On Fridays, BTSF offers links to other discussions about race & Christianity. It's an opportunity for you to read about racial justice & Christianity from other perspectives, and for me to give props to the shoulders on which I stand...


Weekly Round Up:

• The Lack of Black Bruins at UCLA

• New Series! Beyond Multiethnic

• Artist Creates Book of Thirty-Nine Questions for White People

• Subverting the Myth

• The white racist guide to black pathologies

• Serving Life for This?
• Thanks for the submission, Jimmy!

These are some of BTSF's links of interest this week. What are yours?

Feel free to contribute your own links in the comments section, or submit items you feel should be included during the week. Self-promotion is encouraged.

Cultural Exchange in the Multicultural Church

Please welcome guest blogger, John Farmer who is on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Guilford College. He, his wife, and daughter live in Greensboro, NC. You can follow him here.

What is the line between cultural exchange and cultural appropriation? I’ve felt that tension many times when trying to explain my love for Mexican or Thai food. Am I truly appreciating those cultures? Am I borrowing from those cultures ethically? Or am I appropriating their cultures for my own enjoyment in a white context?

A few weeks ago, I shared an article for Friday Fruit that brought up these good questions in my mind and heart, most of which I don't have answers to. But it also didn't address one particular complexity, simply because it was written from a secular perspective: how should cultural exchange happen in the Church?

The Church is, by the good will and intentionality of God, multicultural. For the thousands of years between the call of Abram and the birth of Jesus, the narrative of Yahweh seemed to be monocultural – taking place in a specifically Jewish context. But we can’t miss the moments where Gentiles were critical participants in God’s movement. 

It all begins with God’spromise to Abram, Israel’s patriarch: “…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” We must think of Rahab and Ruth, two non-Israelite women who would eventually show up in the genealogy of Jesus. We can’t overlook the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian from the days of Elijah and Elisha, respectively. Jesus used these two examples in his hometown to show God’s heart for those outside the Israel community, and was promptly driven to a cliff so they could throw him off it.

Jesus began to undo the misguided thinking that had arisen in Israel that God’s heart was solely for them, teaching in John 10: “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” However much Jesus’ contemporaries missed the not-so-subtleties in these teachings, Pentecost made this reality boldly apparent: God cannot be contained within one cultural reality – God is multicultural. And so the Church, the Body of Christ, is multicultural.

We have struggled mightily to live into that vision in American churches. So on Sunday mornings, and throughout the week as well, most of us go off into our ethnically divided faith communities. We are the body of Christ, and yet all the eyes, the noses, the hands, and the feet worship separately with those who look just like them.

Our primary goal as Christians is to move towards Jesus, to become joined together with him, the Head of the Body. Our goal is to be joined together in his vision for the world, his mission to reconcile all people and all things to himself. That means we are mandated as Christians to move towards reconciliation, one with another – one flock, one Shepherd. 

Cultural exchange is a way we move towards knowing our brothers and sisters. And cultural exchange is a way that we move towards knowing our God, whose image can only be represented by a mosaic of many different cultures.

Cultural appropriation has shown up in churches because of selfishness. I’ve experienced way too many dramatic representations of kung fu movies, hip hop culture, and other cultural goods in the mostly white churches or ministries I have been a part of over the years. I have participated in them. I have acted them. Because we like to be entertained. 

But Jesus has called us not to self-entertainment at the cost of our neighbors but to laying down ourselves for the good of our neighbors. If we are ever to know how to do that well to those outside the Christian community, we had better learn how to do it with our brothers and sisters who share faith in Christ.

To love our brothers and sisters means to build trust in humility. It means to show an interest in the things they enjoy as part of their culture, allowing others to share as much as the trust we have built warrants. And it means being willing to share our own cultural goods in the context of that trusting community.

We must do this because of the vision of Revelation 7, where the multitude from nation, tribe, and language does not merely tolerate each other or get along. They do not merely say, “Those people do those things, and we will do these things.” They share their cultural diversity, saying one thing in many languages: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Friday Fruit (11/08/13)

On Fridays, BTSF offers links to other discussions about race & Christianity. It's an opportunity for you to read about racial justice & Christianity from other perspectives, and for me to give props to the shoulders on which I stand...


Weekly Round Up:

• Ideas to Transition Towards Multi-Ethnic Worship

• An Apology from Dr. Thom Rainer on behalf of LifeWay Christian Resources
• We've previously discussed what makes for a meaningful apology. I think this one does a pretty good job. What are your thoughts?

• SNL, Black Girls Rock and Why Black Women Must Define Themselves
• See also: Why I'm Not Here for #WhiteGirlsRock

• Making Ourselves the Strangers

• Tanning Salon Is Super Thankful Native Americans 'Brought Sexy Color'
• Thanks for the heads up, Carolyn!

These are some of BTSF's links of interest this week. What are yours?

Feel free to contribute your own links in the comments section, or submit items you feel should be included during the week. Self-promotion is encouraged.

War on Drugs

Fighting drug abuse and crime ought to be a good thing. But sometimes good intentions cause serious harm.

Through the 1960's and 1970's drugs evolved with production technology and availability. The social stigma of drug use ebbed and flowed with social movements. Some drugs became a symbol of anti-establishment, social rebellion, gaining popularity predominantly among the young, white, American middle class.

For years, those that could afford to do so turned to powdered cocaine use. But when crack cocaine was developed in 1984, it was sold at much lower price and became available in urban and low-income areas. In cities that were already segregated across racial/economic lines, this meant that a disparity in drug choice began to emerge.

When the political momentum led to a legislative crackdown on drug use, the sentencing differences for these drugs were stark. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 mandated that possession of 5,000 grams of powdered cocaine carried the same sentence as possession of only 50 grams of crack, a 1:100 disparity.

Mandatory sentencing itself restricted judicial discretion on the bench, and tended to prioritize crimes of possession over, those of trafficking or dealing (Listen to This American Life episode, 'Sentencing'). On top of legalized sentencing disparities, profound racial differences in arrest rates and convictions has lead to decades of extra accumulated prison time for people of color.

Though black folk represent only 13% of drug users (paralleling national racial demographics), they account for 35% of drug arrests, 55% of convictions, and 74% of those sent to prison on drug possession charges. Indeed, even though 72% of drug users are white, black men are 13 times more likely to be sent to prison for a drug offence than white men (see post: New Jim Crow).

Click to enlarge

In 1995, the U.S. Sentencing Commission released a report delineating the racial disparities in sentencing that resulted from 'War on Drugs' laws, and suggested a equalization of the discrepancy. But for the first time in history, Congress chose to go against the commission's recommendations. Fifteen years later, Congress finally passed the Fair Sentencing Act, but while it reduced some of the disparity, penalties still remain almost 20x greater for crack than for powder cocaine.

In the meantime, millions of individuals have been convicted under biased laws over the years. The prison systems have swelled and profited, while lives are destroyed:

"Convicted felons need to find a place to sleep, but can’t get access to public housing because of their felony conviction. If their families live in public housing, the families can get evicted from their homes for housing a felon. They need to find a job, but employers can legally discriminate against them. They need to eat, but felons can be denied food stamps for the rest of their lives."

With no job, no house, no food, and no allies it's no wonder that there is a 70% recidivism rate.

Bring back memories?

I grew up on the legacy of the 'Just Say No' campaign that was in grade schools everywhere. It seemed like a good thing, but in reality reducing complex social issues of race, poverty, healthcare, and unemployment to a catch phrase solves nothing. In fact, these good intentions can often make matters worse by pathologizing and criminalizing the very folks you think you are helping.

This is all not-so-ancient history. I'd love to hear commentary from folks that were reading the headlines as these policies were being made. Leave your thoughts in the comments section.