World Affairs

Does Racism Matter?

by Andre Lee
04/14/19
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As of late, I have been receiving a lot of raised eyebrows from friends, acquaintances, and even a few family members. Why? Well, in recent days, there has been a certain upsurge of a movement in the African-American community called “Getting Woke.” In simple terms, it basically means becoming pro-black after coming into an awareness of the social struggle and oppression of African-Americans. So, why are people giving me a hard time about this? Because due to the fact that I am an African-American male, this means that I should naturally be onboard with this movement…but much to their dismay, I’m not. Not only am I not onboard, I have no interest in it. I’m uninterested because I don’t walk around identifying with my race. To this, they would reply: “Who cares if you don’t, other people do. The police, your boss, your coworkers all treat you like you’re black, and that’s what you should be worried about.” But, I’m not worried, because to me it’s irrelevant. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the black-struggle is irrelevant, I’m saying that sitting around concerning yourself with what sector or category of people you belong to is irrelevant. 

While at work, a coworker of mine showed me a video of a debate between a member of the Black Lives Matter community, and a member of the LGBTQ community. This would now be the second time this week I was shown a video of an argument between these two groups (another from a close friend of mine). But both arguments centered on the same idea: both groups of people were defending the legitimacy of their groups struggle. To me, watching these two groups argue about which struggle was more legit than the other, or which one had just as much right to exist as the other one, was like watching a group of diabetics arguing over which donut has the best flavor. Yes, on a micro-scale, glazed might be better jelly-filled. But in the bigger picture…you all have diabetes.

Understanding what the Bible teaches about Christianity and humanity, I couldn’t logically side with any one particular group. Because the Bible teaches that we self-destruct and are ultimately separated from God because we’re human….not because we’re black, not because we’re gay…but because we’re human!  For us as Christians, our biggest goal in life is not to have earthly success (not that it’s not important, it’s just not supposed to be our guiding force and drive), our biggest goal is to not be separated from God, and the sloppiness of our own choices does that. Yes, the Bible does teach that homosexuality is a sin, but so is lying, cheating, fornication, unfaithfulness, the lack of decision making, so and so forth… only, none of those sins have entire movements launched against them like homosexuality does. Leading us to look like a bunch of bullies for standing against it. While we stand against homosexuality, most people who are in those anti-gay rallies have a problem with lying, manipulating, looking out for themselves, the list goes on, and that is what will drive the wedge between them and God and lead them to self-destruction in their own lives. So why would I take a full blown stand against someone else’s sin, when according to scriptures, I’m only being graded by my own? Due to this, I don’t see race and I’m not fighting for the black struggle; because if I did, it would be like someone holding a gun to my head, and I’m worrying about how to fight the flu instead of how to take a gun from an attacker. Belonging to a group is to stand against someone else’s sin… but I know for a fact the things I hurt the most about in my life are because of my own, and they are what has the potential to lead me from God. We all admit to being imperfect, but for some reason deliberately spend more time evaluating others. Why, if you admit you do wrong? Why does your wrong not count as much? What about the destruction I’VE caused? What about the people I’VE hurt? In the end, in your relationship with God, he hurts the most because of your wrong…