Last night a group of about 16 people gathered at a small church in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul to discuss the topic of race, reconciliation, and the Church. 10 members of the group were from Northbridge and were able to share some of their own thoughts and reflections as we discussed these topics and others from the book, One Body, One Spirit. One of the main topics of conversation was ‘how do we define race?’ so that we can know when it is happening. A couple ideas came up with this question including the idea that ‘racism is prejudice against a certain group of people in society combined with having power to use that prejudice over and against others.’ Since racism is based on skill color, the discussion often centered around how certain groups will discriminate against other groups based on skill color and use their power over those groups for negative purposes. Other topics that were discussed included the notion that racism has two aspects; individual racism and systemic racism. The first idea speaks to individual acts, thoughts, and behaviors while the second speaks to organized systems, communities, and structures that are in place to oppress people based on their skin color. Finally, the idea that racism is not something that is natural, but is a social construct (something put or built into us by society) helps us understand that maintaining the status-quo is unnatural and instead, standing against both individual and systemic racism is necessary.
Now you have the opportunity to share your thoughts; what have you learned about racism, from your own studies, experiences, or from reading the book One Body, One Spirit? Feel free to share your thoughts on these topics and how you understand racism so we can all benefit and learn from each other!
Be sure to check out some of Dan’s message from the past at our NB message page to learn and interact more with this topic: http://www.menliketrees.com/northbridge (see tab #2 for three messages on racism).
