Racism and me – a statement
In an attempt to grapple with current movements such as Black Lives Matter, Social Justice, and others that emphasize race, I make the following statements, which are always open to amendment. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
PRELIMINARY
• I do understand that injustice occurs in our society as in all cultures,
• I realize that I am responsible for any of my conscious or unconscious biased attitudes or actions learned from my family or racial group,
• I do apologize for historic injustices,
• I do want to encourage the re-dress of injustices and work to provide equal opportunity to all,
• AND I do think that the justice system and police need to be carefully reformed but not abolished so that there is much more emphasis on conciliation, community involvement, therapy, de-escalation, listening and counseling and less violent take-downs, confrontation, use of force and much less incarceration.
BUT I REJECT NEO-MARXISM and all movements and philosophies that are contrary to the biblical record of man’s universal depravity, need for gospel salvation, and reconciliation under Christ into groups that recognize that in Him there is no race or sex, but all are one in Him.
AS A COROLLARY TO THAT, I affirm that:
• I am not defined by my racial group/tribe/ethnicity as a white Anglo-Saxon but by my Creator as a unique individual created in His image and endowed with God-given personality, gifts, abilities and potentialities.
• I am privileged because I am a Canadian citizen and grew up in a two-parent family in a relatively peaceful suburb. BUT it must be understood that my situation as a white male is in spite of my father’s war experience, loss of businesses in Montreal during the depression, push-out as an Anglo in a French culture, my small stature as a teen, shyness in high school, and my mother’s emotional fragility, etc. [Note: all humans, regardless of race, have limiting factors and grow up in a fallen, broken world against which they must navigate.]
• I am privileged, most by being an unworthy recipient of God’s grace in Christ Jesus and thus having been adopted into God’s family, the world-wide, eternal Christian family/kingdom in which there is no race nor sex.
• I am not personally responsible for the sins of my race, sex, father, or ancestors. (As explained by Ezekiel concerning the proverb in Israel that complains about apparent inherited guilt: “The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. As surely as I live, declares the sovereign LORD, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel for every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son—both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.…Suppose there is a righteous man who does what is just and right…he does not oppress anyone…He will not die for his father’s sin: he will surely live…Yet you ask, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father? Since the son has done what is just and right the soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father” (See the whole of Ezekiel 18 for the context and argument.) (See also Jeremiah 31:29)
• I do not believe in equality of income, position, power, or resources because each individual has differing life goals, abilities, and desires. Human thriving does not depend on equality but is usually the result of the application of character.
• I do believe in striving for equality of opportunity.
• I am not a victim except of my own sinful nature, laziness, and passivity. I am responsible, under God, to face my circumstances, overcome them, work hard to develop my abilities, position, and family so that I may improve my situation. I have to accept the reality that I live in a broken, fallen world full of sinful men in which oppression, greed, and injustice often prevail.
• I do not accept any non-biblical theory that history is simply the story of class struggles, either oppressor and oppressed, or bourgeoisie and proletariat or any other proposed theory that creates a class of victims and a class of those guilty by virtue of race or position in society. While oppression is a fact of life throughout history and in many parts of the world today, the free and democratic societies of the west have done the most to provide opportunity to all. I am not saying that there is not much change that needs to happen to provide greater universal opportunity.
• THUS, I do not accept the charge that I am automatically racist because I am a white male, and as a result am automatically guilty as a part of some supposed monolithic white male patriarchy. Eric E Wright, July 4, 2020
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(Further articles, books, and stories at: http://www.countrywindow.ca Facebook: Eric E Wright Twitter: @EricEWright1 LinkedIn: Eric Wright ––)
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