When Obama won the presidency,
eight years ago, I wept. I’m sure some of you who watched the Chicago
celebration also wept. My reasons, though, were very personal. I saw his
victory as a ray of light for my own family.
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| Election night, Chicago, 2008 |
My daughter, Mariya, is an
Afghani. Her birth family moved to the United States when Russia invaded
Afghanistan. She is Caucasian, like most Afghanis, though often mistaken for an
Arab, which shouldn’t matter, but does. Her daughter, my granddaughter, Dela,
is Afghani-African-American. My daughter-in-law Gillian, is Shona, from
Zimbabwe. Her two children, my grandchildren, are African-Americans. I am a dual American-Canadian citizen.
Anyway, when Barack Obama won, I
wept because I thought I saw a ray of light when it comes to race-relations. I
dared to believe that we were making progress. I believed, hoped, prayed that
my grandchildren could live the American dream, that they could be safe on
American roads if stopped by the police, that they would be treated as humans
in school, not as black kids in need of special discipline, as is too often the
case.
That was then . . . by now:
- Donald Trump became the Republican candidate for president. Donald Trump has been sued by the US Justice Department for systematic discrimination against Blacks who wanted to rent his apartments. When Blacks applied, they were told the apartments were no longer available; when whites applied for the same apartment hours later, they were available again.
- Donald Trump, who once said of his casinos, “Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”
- Trump, denounced Mexican immigrants as, quote, “criminals, drug dealers, rapists,” who has demanded that no more Muslims be allowed to enter the USA, who for months refused to distance himself from racist white supremacists.
- Trump, who insists that rather than take down walls, he wants to build them.
- Trump, who brags about sexually assaulting women, but denies that he ever did it when nine (and counting) women come forward to say that he assaulted them.
- Trump who says “an eye for an eye” is his favorite Bible verse (check out Exodus 21:22-25). Jesus, however, said, “You have heard it said ‘eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to them the other cheek also” (Matthew 5:38-39).
Well, ganging up on Donald Trump is almost too easy. So
easy, in fact, that we don’t pay attention to similar issues and large walls closer
to home.
In Canada, for example. One day,
last week the paper included a front-page story about a Black man who called
911 because he was robbed on Spadina St., in Toronto. Within minutes there were
ten police there—frisking his private parts, going through his luggage, forcing
him to raise his hands, scaring him half to death—even though he was the one
who called 911. Here in Canada we still struggle with residential schools and
their aftermath, missing and murdered indigenous women, high populations of
First Nations and Blacks in our prisons, carding, unequal treatment of persons
of color in our schools.
On the other hand, there is this
lovely video.
Biologically, we are one. But
with respect to race, we all struggle with our personal prejudice, fears,
misconceptions, and sometimes the violence of others. I do too.
But listen. When the Christian
church was founded, its first leaders insisted on a huge, fundamental change in
how people in their era treated other people—people on the fringes. The Apostle
Paul put it this way, more or less: In Christ Jesus you are all children of God
through faith . . . There is no longer Jew or Greek or Black or Arab; there is
no longer slave or free or immigrant or First Nations, there is no longer male
or female or transgendered or gay, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. In another
place, speaking of how both Jews and gentiles are welcome in the church—and so
presumably anyone is welcome, Paul added, “he has broken down the dividing
wall, that is, the hostility between us."
Eight years ago, it was Obama who
was our ray of light. Today, as Christians, we need to remember that our
religious DNA demands of us that we tear down those walls—sexism, racism,
homophobia, xenophobia—it all has to go! Not just for my grandkids, but for
Christ’s sake.
