My Facebook feed is filled with so many varying opinions that I sometimes get whiplash reading it. However, there’s one type of post that is simply making me crazy at the moment. And that’s the New Age, self-righteous, “not me” posts that keep showing up in response to the challenges facing our non-white brothers and sisters.
A friend posted in her feed the request that in this current climate of chaos, we accept that we’re all a bit racist and use that information to see how we can bring healing to the challenges facing our country at the moment. Almost the very first response was one of her “enlightened” friends demanding that he was not racist… “at all.” And when she tried to communicate with him regarding the more subtle ways racism works, he simply pointed out ‘he knew all about racism, and he wasn’t racist.’
This is just one guy. There have been so many others on so many other sites, and it’s always the “enlightened” who say this (aside from the actual racists). I don’t necessarily engage with these people since they’re not my friends, and I do try to respect other’s pages. However, if it happens on my page though, all bets are off.
First of all, I say, “We’re all racist, period.” And those who say they aren’t are more racist than those who are willing to admit it. I also point out that Racism is baked into the cake. Racism and tribalism are part of our evolutionary progress and is part of our survival. If you tell me you’re not racist, that tells me you ARE racist, and you refuse to be honest with yourself (and don’t understand biology/evolution). These are giant generalizations, I know, but until we’re able to step into the weeds and suss out the details, and handle specifics, it’s where we have to start. When I have this conversation, I am often asked, “How do you know YOU’RE racist?” My only answer is, “Because I know that I am.” It’s being open to that that helps us makes the emotional, physical, and logical steps that help us understand the problem and bring about actual change.
And it isn’t just the “nobodies” that have to fess up. Even some of humanity’s greatest leaders have faced it. One of the most respected and beloved spiritual man who ever lived has his own bout with it, and his story gives us an idea of how it works for all of us.
This is the story of Jesus and his own racism (or at least of his biographers). The story is told in both Matthew and Mark. Matthew’s version goes like this:
Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
“Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
Matthew 15: 21-28
Mark’s version is similar:
Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
“Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Mark 7:24-30
Both gospels agree on these areas:
- Jesus was near the Mediterranean coast, having left galilee (probably because, according to Luke, he had been warned by the Pharisees that Herod was out to kill him).
- He was approached by a woman on behalf of her daughter who was being tormented by an evil spirit.
- Jesus tried to ignore her.
- She tenaciously and begged him to heal her daughter.
- His attempt to ignore her emboldened his disciples, making it comfortable asking Jesus to send her away.
- Because of her persistence he rebuffed her, using one of the strongest racial slurs in the Bible… He called her a dog.
- She responded in such a way that allow Jesus to save face by telling the woman that her great faith is what saved her.
- And finally, Jesus accedes to her request.
However, there are differences:
- Matthew calls the woman a Canaanite, whereas Mark calls her Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia.
- Mark’s version is a little softer. Jesus doesn’t come right out and call her a dog, he starts with “first let the children eat…” then he calls her a dog.
There’s a lot of exegesis around this particular story. One of my favorites comes from a book written by F.F. Bruce, The Hard Sayings of Jesus. However, let’s simply look at the story as it is told, in the context of which it was written.
Matthew calls the woman Canaanite. According to the book of Joshua, Canaan was one of the native cultures that Israel was meant to wipe off the face of the earth. While Canaanite is a catch-all phrase for many people of that area, Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience, so they would see her as one of the people that escaped Joshua’s crusades. They might also see her as a descendant of the Philistines, whom the Old Testament records as one of Israel’s most frustrating enemies. They were the bedbugs of Israel.
Mark, writing for a broader, “Roman” audience, calls her “Greek,” an enemy of both Rome and Israel (Maccabees). So the title given to the woman by both authors is meant to elicit anger from their readers, and therefore make us sympathetic toward Jesus’ response. How dare she, a “Greek” or “Canaanite”—bedbug, ask anything of Jesus. Which apparently Jesus felt too since he ignored her.
When she wouldn’t go away, Jesus rebuked her, using ‘spiritual’ language. Telling her that his healing was for the “Jews.” But he then went on to call her a dog… thereby admitting his true feelings. And the woman, who had probably suffered many attacks for her ethnicity responded the way so many respond today who have been victimized by racism. She chose a peaceful response hoping that would change Jesus’ mind toward her.
And this is the story of today’s racists.
- First of all, the racists just want peace. Life is rough on them and for the most part, they’d rather be left alone. Hey, “the man (Herod)” is trying to kill us.
- But real life, particularly that part of life we find most obnoxious and unpleasant keeps hounding us. So we try to ignore it.
- When that doesn’t work, we join our friends in wishing it would go away, rather than face it. So we use social media to show that it ‘wasn’t us,’ claiming we know what the problem is.
- And when it doesn’t go away, we lash out, but we bury it underneath spiritual rhetoric. And this is what our “enlightened” friends do, who pretend they’re not racist.” They’re lashing out against those who are disturbing their peace.
And they look to their friends (us) to justify their resistance.
However, Jesus, when confronted with his racism, rather than double-down, chose a way out. He credited the woman for her faith. And this is the most interesting part of the story. We don’t need to come right out and say it. We don’t need to say, “Hey, I’m racist.” There’s a spiritual language that can help us ‘admit’ our problem without embarrassing ourselves to those around us. Rather than tell you “I’m not racist,” I can use that “enlightenment” to talk about the problem as I now see it thanks to those who have shown me my challenges. All that matters is that I realize my challenges, and allow myself to fix it.