Some time ago I had a dream where my mom was going through family history in one of her favorite photo albums. (Mom loves reminiscing in real life, too). In the dream we went back to the 60’s walking along a park. While she was sharing about grand parents, great grand parents, many cousins, their faces appeared as people I was walking by in a crowd on what felt like a 4th of July weekend. Along the edge of the park were many families gathered on picnic blankets. Overall the whole scene gathered a strong sense of nostalgia and the good old days of mid 1900’s Americana.
A little into the distance a more violent scene interrupted the nostalgia between Mom and me. Several cops surrounded a Black person, beating on him next to a tree. Filled with rage and disgust, I sprinted toward the group and tackled one of the cops. During the tumble I remember looking out towards all the families on picnic blankets and none were looking our way. Instead they were looking at the arriving parade. Instead of the Independence Day pageantry I was expecting, several dozen Klansmen on horseback strolled by all the families in full KKK white-hooded garb. I woke up from the dream feeling stupid for expecting someone to back me up or at least intervene, and even more stupid for reacting so impulsively to micro-racism while so much macro-racism paraded right in front of us.
If God was using this dream to drive home one particular point it is: There’s no such thing as the good ole’ days. There’s no point in human history to time travel back to and have a better life. This is easily true for minorities and women but I’d say it’s still true even for White male Americans like me.
If I could travel back to a time, where it was a given that my stay-at-home wife would have a home-cooked meal ready for me when I got home, I’m not sure I’d go, even though I love it when women make me food. In that same timeline, I wouldn’t have to compete with minorities for a spot in the most prestigious universities or the most prestigious companies. As a White male American perhaps I could travel back to a slightly easier job market, or a slightly easier time of deciding what kind of marriage to lead. But I still wouldn’t do it. The personal sacrifice would be too great. I would miss out on so many people pursuing their full potential. Whether it’s my connection to God, or my engineering mindset that hates inefficiencies, I hate to see people wasting their potential. I’m grateful that social norms and bigoted laws dictate less and less the pursuits of people who don’t share my race or my gender. I am grateful even if for only selfish reasons: I enjoy all the contributions to art, science, technology, government, and culture that non-White non-males have made far, far more than I miss some race based access to cheap labor or simpler choices for marriage. More personally, some of my favorite bosses at work have been women or minorities. In the church realm, women have lead some of the most memorable ministry trips I’ve joined.
Even though the news this week feels completely contrary, things have never been better. It might sound offensive to say that this week, but I’m grateful that so many more people have access to media and technology to expose injustice. If we had to choose between a media that was just puppies and sunshine or a media that exposes real scandals we need to choose the one exposing scandals even when demoralizing weeks like this one happen.
Some of my spiritual minded friends are going to take this week as evidence of mounting conflict in the world and say: "Look at all the social decay and strife throughout the world; the End Times must be near; we better retreat to a bunker and wait out the worst." Other friends are going to respond to this week: "America is hurting, how can I help her heal?". I’d love to hear from those genuinely asking that question.
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