Many years ago when I began to write the stories contained in The Phoenix Chronicles, there wasn’t the attention on police killing young men as there are today. One of those stories, “The Transformation of a Black Woman”, was about just what the title indicates. The Black woman, Toby, tells her own story as she goes from color blind to awareness of bleak racial truths. The catalyst to her transformation is the death of a family friend, who was shot by police when he was unarmed. Toby struggles with whether his death was accidental or on purpose because of his color. I won’t give the rest of the story away, but I’d like to take something from her struggle for us today as we are confronted with racial hatred.
When the claim of color blindness is touted, it is thought to be an end to all discussions of race, meaning the person saying it is not a racist. The truth is, color blindness is a cop-out. How can we pretend we don’t see color? Unless we are physically blind, we see color. Toby was proud of her color blindness, but she soon discovered that there is no one suffering from such a malady. Strip this excuse away and we can get into real talk about race. As our beloved President once said, “We talk a lot about race. There’s no shortcut. And we don’t need more talk.” He’s right. However, I believe talking is a huge step, if the talk is honest and without name-calling, guilt, shame, or accusations where we can look each other in the eye, whether it’s brown or blue, accept the whole person, and get on with loving one another for real.
If you have been wounded by racism, whether as a perpetrator or victim, seek healing. That healing begins when you acknowledge the reality of where you are and what you’ve done. Then turn to the only One Who can make you a whole new person: Jesus Christ. He died for you. Believe Him today.
I love you and I’m here for you if you need help on the journey. I live to serve.
The Great American Cop-out
