State of Racism Reflection

There was a huge event in Jackson, MS at St. Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral remembering the past fifty years of the depletion of racism in the United States. Perhaps it is my own liberal shelteredness, but it is amazing how much racism there is still in the United States, and abroad. From referencing stereotypes to snide jokes, we are all guilty of racism.

Even if you don't contribute to the hate, you are still guilty.


Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop if the Church, puts it in a beautiful way. If you are a white, middle-class, male, every time you set your feet down on the ground in the morning, you step foot into a society that is set up to benefit you. Unless you are working to change the system to benefit others as well, you are benefiting from the exclusion of others, and therefore are guilty.

If we benefit from the exclusion of others, then we are contributing to the racism.

At this event in Jackson, Myrlie Evers-Williams said that the next generation of young people rising up into their adulthood is the chance for the racism in the United State and abroad to cease. That is what I pray for: that we may work to abolish the system of racism, despite our lack of contribution to it.


"O God of every nation, of every race and land, redeem the whole creation with your almighty hand; where hate and fear divide us and bitter threats are hurled, in love and mercy guide us and heal our strife-torn world." (Hymnal 1982, 607)