A White People's Brief Introduction to Systemic Racism Part 2

So all of this is really a vicious cycle, and here's how the order of operations flows:

1. Overtly racist white people create...

2. Overtly racist systems and structures--everything from banking to voting to running for office to owning real estate to education to religious institutions were defined by fixed racial boundaries for a couple hundred years which creates THE MACHINE which...

3. Severely hinders the full flourishing of a fixed set of people made in God's image for many generations that ripples down for generation after generation. 

(I heard about a race workshop at a school where they played a game of monopoly where the white teachers weren't allowed to play until a full hour into the game.  They all lost, many of them quit in extreme frustration and exasperation.) 

4. This machine also produces more racist people.  History is littered with white people who point to the minorities struggling under the oppressive weight of the machine and declare, "Look! They're not flourishing! Must be something wrong with them!"

5. And this machine becomes the moving walkway that does not require active participation in order to perpetuate it's highly predictable results. 

America is, in many ways, a wonderfully unique place with a wonderfully unique history. And in other ways, America is just like every other empire. Every empire has a body count--ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, the British Empire, China, Russia, all of them.  The American empire is no different.  What's unique about us is the loftiness of our aspirations and then the extent that we have to bend and ignore history to pretend like we've lived up to those aspirations.

And ultimately no empire is the fullness of what Jesus talked about: the kingdom of God. In fact, every empire, by virtue of being an empire, will at points come in conflict with the perfect kingdom of God taught by Jesus and ushered in by Jesus.

One of the greatest challenges for many of us Jesus-following white folks will be the question of allegiance: when the kingdom of the United States of America comes in conflict with the Kingdom of God, which one will we choose?  When the road forks and we are required to be prophetic towards a nation and neighbors that we love, will we have the courage to do so?

Will we be willing to be so committed to the Kingdom of God that we would even lobby for policies that might not benefit us white folks? Would we be willing to make changes to the machine so that it was a more just and equitable and kingdom-of-God-like democratic capitalism?

The machine has a ton of freight and momentum behind it at this point. There are some who understandably believe the American democratic/capitalistic experiment to be a lost cause, unredeemable. But I think of all the broken systems (and they all are broken) this is the best one with the most potential.

But my oh my how far short we've fallen of that magnificent potential.