The ideal America has been described as a married couple, preferably male and female, with two children, a three-bedroom house, a dog and a white picket fence.
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This description has also been called "The American Dream." In the dream, the family was white and the neighborhood was white as a sign of peace and tranquility. The dream did not take the idea of other people into account, people who do not look white and who do not share the same historical foundation of equality.
The movie "Crash" is the great analogy of how we as a human race deal with life, people and our own experiences. Physical characteristics and racial differences may be interpreted as two distinguishing traits that separate us. I think it's what keeps us apart. That leaves several abstract questions that the film illustrates. What are the origins of personal prejudice? Do individual experiences fuel pervading stereotypes? Is it easier to perpetuate existing stereotypes because "things will never change"? Can people battle internal struggles within their own ethnic group? What prohibits us from overcoming these prejudices? The writers of "Crash" managed to extend my viewing experience beyond the 90-minute film, thus forcing me to analyze my own prejudices and racial stereotypes toward others.
I thought racism occurred as a result of a person's upbringing. If your parents were racist, there is a good chance that you will be a racist. At first glance, Matt Dillon's character exhibits characteristics typical of this theory. Dillon exhibited a close bond with his father, and later, we discover the roots of his racism. I naively assumed that Dillon was absorbing external cues from his father regarding his attitudes toward black people.
Actually, his father was not racist toward black people. It was Dillon, who, in combination with his father's negative experiences and his own as a member of the LAPD, formed his own perceptions toward blacks.
Racism is the bane of American existence. Racism is the nightmare that will not go away, due to the fact that black people are still in the United States. "How does it feel to be a problem?" is the famous question W.E.B. Du Bois posed to blacks in his "The Souls of Black Folk(1)" in 1903, referring to the contemporary American black experience - segregation and exploitation.
Du Bois considered it the major task for the 20th century to find a solution to the racial problem. But here we are now, some 100 years later, witnessing that the racial problem not only remains unsolved, but has intensified and been exacerbated. Therefore, racism is the American problem.
Sibling rivalries in the house of God? Worse than that. The church sees color. Sad, but true. Church buildings are meeting places for God's people but are referred to as white churches and black churches, even if not spoken. Why is there such a label on what is supposed to be God's family? What I have heard over the years in the black church seems to suggest if there are no hard feelings, there certainly is no love lost. I've even heard messages that were for the black person only.
This is not the message God had in mind. The awful truth is this attitude and behavior more than likely is in the white church, too. It defaces Christianity.
Until we see each other as children made in the image and likeness of almighty God, we will never move beyond our history. In order to move forward we must face the truth of our past.
SOURCE: BG Daily News
The Rev. Lee Turner is pastor of Center Baptist Church in South Union.
