Warning: a white girl is writing about race. Please don’t let that keep you from reading!
As I see what is happening in America, I can’t help feeling sick to my stomach. So much pain and division. I think back to my childhood, where I grew up in predominately white neighborhoods and schools. Knowing that has kept me out of discussions, because I have not experienced what others have. But I look at how I was raised. My parents didn’t discriminate and make nasty comments. My teachers didn’t either. I really can’t remember hearing spewed hatred, but sadly, not everyone can say that.
If you are going to be around my sweet girls as they grow, will you do me a favor? Will you speak love around them? Kids pick up on everything, and I want them to keep seeing others as the same as them. Their elementary school is much more diverse than mine were, and I love that. Right now they see people, not color. They see a playmate, not hate. They love, because they know all lives matter. We are doing our best to raise them to be a blessing to others as children today are the next generation. I know I want to make it better for them.
My girls will soon enough learn how hateful people can be, but I would rather it not be from someone they look up to. Someone they take cues from. If you keep a comment from coming out, you won’t spread your opinions to them. And you may just learn from their young hearts.
The best advice I have been given lately is to listen. For way too long I have assumed racism was getting better, that it was slowly going away. I am truly sorry for that, because my assumption has made me part of the problem. I will never truly understand what people are still going through, but I don’t want to ignore it. I need to hear and digest stories and not pretend it isn’t happening.
If you have an experience you are willing to share, please leave it in the comment section. I want to acknowledge your grief and be able to tell you you are loved. Your life matters. I would love to be able to start a dialogue, but please remember to keep it respectful.
Let’s make the world better by coming together and showing love.
Linking with Holley Gerth and Coffee for Your Heart.
strainme 
Indeed. Speak love, live respectfully, be Jesus with skin on.
That looks like a whole lot of the fruit of the Spirit goin’ on. Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control …
I love what you’re modeling for your kids, Sarah.
Hugs …
Yes, the Fruit of Spirit and treating people with respect. Kids do this so much better than we do!
Excellent, Sarahgirl!
Thank you for coming by Diane!
i agree with your description of children. They do see a play mate and not skin color. I can truly say that I have never seen anything but a person either. Ever. I had many foreign close friends in school that made my life all the richer. My sister has dated several foreign men and black men and I have never looked down upon mixed race marriages. If anything I think they, while being more difficult can be an amazing testimony. But after my sister became serious with a man I was shocked at how many people on both sides that you meet in the outer world were still against this. It is hard to believe that in all races their are still people where hatred runs deep for others.Have you ever watched John Piper’s Blood Line’s trailer? Its very good. You should. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs_unRFvS5o. Check it out!!! In Heaven all this will fade away as every tribe, nation, and tongue will be one as the bride of Christ. Talk about a culturally diverse place and a mixed marriage! 🙂
I agree, it is so hard for me to believe those feelings exist today. Thank you for the link-I loved it!
WOW! Sarah, I so agree with you…having grown up in Florida, in the 50s and 60s I want to say that the John Piper Bloodlines video is the best investment of 18 minutes…here’s the link again, just like Somer listed it in the comment above mine…I had not seen it until I saw Somer’s link, but I totally agree with everything John Piper says…it was my experience too 🙂 http://youtu.be/fs_unRFvS5o
I watched it and am amazed! I loved his honesty!
Sarah,
Filling our hearts with love and respect causes it to overflow to our words. And that can be the most powerful example children can see!
Knowing kids look up to us is one of the most powerful forces. Hopefully thinking of that will resonate with us in all aspects of our lives!
So where to start? I LOVE your post. My son at 12 still ignores describing someone’s skin color when he’s telling me about them. He however passes easily as white other than he tans like crazy. I’m technically seen as a minority but my father is mostly white. I grew up in a pretty diverse environment until I moved to a very Southern state (I’m from Texas and moved back in high school). Everyone in my school was white or black, no other minority groups. There was one guy who was Cuban, one guy who was South American, and me. My mother is Native American, Spanish, and Mexican so I was seen as exotic and it was a culture shock for me. When we moved up to high school, we actually voted for Black AND White homecoming queens. This was hands down the craziest thing ever for me and I remember going home and telling my dad he had moved us to the Twilight Zone. Everyone was nice to me, they mostly called me Pocahontas because they simply weren’t sure what to make of me but I was lucky in that regard and they were never quite sure what to make of me.
Two homecoming queens?? That is crazy! The things people think of.
Thank you so much for telling me your story. You sound lovely, and I love hearing that your son doesn’t see skin color either. There is hope for the next generation. 🙂
One of the most hurtful periods of my life is when I worked at an inner city school and some of the other people who worked there decided I was racist–because I taught ESL (English as a Second Language), maybe? Or because there were politics going on that I was young and unaware of. They left a hurtful letter about ‘those ESL teachers that are racist against Hispanics and who don’t even live in our community’ lying around on a coffee table in the teacher’s lounge. I was shocked and dismayed. I actually lived in the community I taught in, and I’m married to a Cuban. I was heartbroken that anyone would call me racist. Shoot, we even spoke Spanish at home so our girls would grow up bilingual! In retrospect, I think the ones who wrote the letter were just feeling threatened for some reason, and they reacted out of their feelings of insecurity. I should have spent more time getting to know them. Listening to their concerns. Trying to figure out what make them tick (and assume).
Ouch. People can be so hurtful for no reason! I think you are right-when someone lashes out, we should try to find out why. But I would have been heartbroken too. I am so glad you can look back and see it differently now. Thank you for sharing that Anita!