RACE AND THE WOMEN'S RETERAT

I know immediately that this kind of blog that I am fixin to write may really push some buttons. That is not my desire - to make others angry or defensive. But this is a topic that I long for the church to discuss more and more. The topic of race relations.

The women of my church went on a retreat this weekend. I noticed how the black women and the white women never sat together unless there were no more seats left and so they had to sit beside each other. They never seemed to choose to sit together. I wondered why? I think we are so comfortable in our comfort zones that we often don't even think about stepping out of them and doing stuff to consciously cross over the line. The black and white cultures are different on the surface, but underneath then they are the same kind of people. It takes a little bit of work to get past the initial cultural differences to where you can see the similarities, and if we don't try then it won't happen on its own. I long for people to make a more conscious choice to improve race relations and to understand the other race.

I am taking a foster parenting class. This past Tuesday night then one of the teachers said this,"I remember the day that I realized: I am black - that means I am different - and that difference is not good." And she went around and asked all the other class members who were black if they had had a day like that too; each one said yes. And her point was that it is a hard thing to be black in this country even still, and we who are not black need to see and understand that (if we are going to foster black kids). I share that because I think that was a great way to express that.