While no one in their right mind would believe that racism, either overt or covert, is actually over, it still serves as a shock even to me when pronouncements of such bizarre backward thinking can actually make it to the national news stage.
Of course right now I am speaking of an article that is circulating through Facebook concerning a little church in Kentucky which held a vote to effectively ban interracial marriages and any participation in the church of interracial couples.
Now I am not naive to think that there are not whole communities out there that might not have issues with having "outsiders" joining their ranks. What I do find amazing is the sometimes obliviousness of the people involved.
Here is what the former pastor who pushed for the vote said:
“I am not racist. I will tell you that. I am not prejudiced against any race of people, have never in my lifetime spoke evil” about a race, Thompson said earlier this week in a brief interview. “That’s what this is being portrayed as, but it is not.”
Huh. Not a racist - just we don't want anybody not white to be married here. You'll notice he does not mention then what the ban's purpose was then. But speaking of racism not existing...
Let's go over to Herman Cain, until recently the darling of the Republican Tea Party:
“I don't believe racism in this country today holds anybody back in a big way,” Cain said on CNN’s "State of the Union."
He did go on to admit there were SOME elements of racism. But now with the facing of sexual harassment, he finds that the racism is actually the work of the left-wing media.
Which would be fine if the media did not smell blood on sexual scandals no matter what the race (reference Bill Clinton, Clarence Thomas, Mark Sanford, Anthony Wiener, Larry Craig, Eliot Spitzer). The media doesn't care if the person is white, black, straight, gay, or with a prostitute. As long as there is sex outside of marriage involved...whoa boy - it's a story. Especially when that story can bring down the man (or I suppose a woman as well).
Please excuse my Cain rant. But there is a reason I bring that up.
But let's refer back to the scandal of the ban on marrying interracial couples. The National Baptist Free Will spokespeople have been quick to say that this is not the official policy of the church and that they are working to reverse this. But the fact still remains that this specific belief that a congregation can vote who can marry who is a very disturbing notion. Could they vote which god to worship or whether to move Christmas to January? While I certainly understand a church's right (or desire at least) to not believe in certain types of marriages on religious grounds, the theological basis for banning interracial marriages escape me. Was that the 11th Commandment that I missed?
The point here I make with both the church in Kentucky and Herman Cain's position on racism (not a big deal except when he thinks it is attacking him) is that so many of us want to believe that racism IS no longer as big a deal. Granted there are far fewer lynchings and most racism is much less overt in many places (though not all). But instances of benevolent racism and color-blind denial seem much more on the rise. It is not that issues between races have disappeared, more they have morphed into something much more nebulous, much less tangible, and in a way much more frightening. The more we believe that the treatment of people is no longer affected by skin color, sex, orientation, or other means, the more complacent we become. And the more shocked we become when overt racism does occur, for we believe somehow that this is some weird anomaly of an action.
And it is not that I want to say that you should not be outraged by these types of racist actions. But I do believe that there is much more this should remind us of than just one isolated instance. There is still a lot of work and time that must happen before racial relations are in any way believably equal and without prejudice.
As for that church I only hope that they can find it in their heart to actually read that book that they preach about.
• More on the original story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/small-church-in-rural-kentucky-looks-to-reverse-ban-interracial-couples-after-uproar/2011/12/02/gIQAykLIMO_story.html
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