We all have been experiencing a world torn by a pandemic, and working our way through living amidst it, and conversing on its effects and our way forward. Amidst all of this, racism has raised its ugly head again, breaking open unhealed wounds and trauma. As we all know, the past couple of months have given rise to so much justified rage and protests - both peaceful and violent. As we process this ancient deep rooted evil, we are scared, we are hurting, our lives are disrupted, we are tried, but we are also educating ourselves, we all feel the urgency to do something. And we should. It’s no easy feat, and we have a long road ahead of us.
Arun and I come from India, as most of you know. Racism was and continues to be prevalent very much there as well in the form of caste system and whiteness. We grew up in protected environments and didn’t feel the wrath of it in our childhood years. We moved to Austin, Texas in our early twenties, and then two years later to Connecticut where we experienced our first brush with racism. We moved on with grace and strength only to later find ourselves thick skinned to it. We would often encourage each other by telling ourselves that God didn’t move us across nations and oceans so we could cohort with other Indians and live in our Indian bubble. We were very intentional about this, and in process, we met very loving non-Indian friends who embraced us and became family to us.
Our narratives of racism and segregation weren’t as difficult until a few years ago. I was co-leading an event and in this event, kids were paired and each pair was asked to sit on a blanket. Our then 9 year old, was the only colored child present. She was paired with another 9 year old. Our paired friend refused to sit on the same blanket as my 9 year old. Inspite of many requests from the adults around, our paired friend said she would rather sit on the grass than the blanket my 9 year old was sitting on. I watched my 9 year old sit with her head bowed the whole 90 mins. Those were the longest 90 mins of my life. That was the moment my heart ripped. While driving home later that night, I asked my 9 year old how she felt, and all she had the strength to mutter was, “it’s ok mom”.
We are brown. So what does it mean to be black? Or white? Or wheat? What does it mean to be racially equal? What will it take to be racially equal?
Looking at the scriptures to process this, the event of Pentecost stands out as a stark reminder of a new cultural politic - a new social imagination that is to be lived out. The Spirit descended on the disciples and enabled them to speak a language they did not know - languages of other people - languages of other cultures - what a wonderfully, unique cultural intimacy we see here… We see the Spirit leading the disciples to enter into other cultures with humility - a liminal space where race, culture, and theology intersect.
I am reminded of Rev. Leslie Newbigin’s quote -
“We need the witness of Christians of other cultures to correct our culturally conditioned understanding of Scripture.”
In our world today, we come face to face both personally and systemically with racial injustice meted out to the marginal races and people of color, by whiteness. Don’t these injustices seem to be an incomplete narrative of what began on Pentecost?
Salvation is never individual. It is restoration of the community as a whole. It is about facing divisions and restoring people in their relationships with others and God.
So to begin this conversation, let’s retrace our own experiences.
- What was your first or most significant personal brush with racism? And how did it feel?
- As we saw earlier, the event of Pentecost stands out as a new theological reality that the Spirit breathes into the disciples. It’s the same Spirit that then enacts this out in the life of Peter by taking him into Cornelius’ household. The final verse of Acts 10 stands out - “Then they invited him to stay for several days”. This simple gesture symbolizes a trajectory - the potential to reorder the world. Cornelius and his household are drawn into the new christian community and at the same time they inturn invite Peter to participate in their own community. We thus see the Spirit drawing the disciples into other cultures to imagine an intersection of race, culture, and theology. When encountering another’s culture, has anything in particular had an impact on you or influenced you? If yes, what?
- In the aftermath of the turmoil which has brought into light the inherent systemic injustice that people of color face on a day to day basis in a system that by design was built to continue to enrich the cause of whiteness, what in your opinion are the injustices that the marginal races experience on a personal or familial or in a communal context due to a system that has been built to enable whiteness to thrive?
- The God of the Bible is a God of justice. We believe God’s justice is not retributive as our human minds tend to think. It is restorative. God is never neutral. God stands by the oppressed and the marginalized. With that said, God’s restorative justice, heals and restores not only the oppressed and the offended but also the oppressor and the offender. We sit in the dark, watching for God. In the midst of turmoil, chaos and despair, it asks - What is God doing? And what would God have us to do? Given that we as Christians who believe in a God of such justice, in what ways can we be conduits for that restorative justice?
In conclusion, we have a long road ahead and hard work to do. But with the spirit’s help as James Cone would say -
“We must have the theological imagination that the cross can redeem the lynching tree.”