Race is Richness

Acknowledgement of Race

Going to a small private Christian university in the middle of the good old bible belt of East Tennessee is an experience to say the least for not only a person of color but a female person of color. The school is historically very conservative and traditional. From my perspective, I honor and understand the school’s history and historical values. However, there have been too many instances to count where the current campus culture, directly effected by the school’s history, impacts my daily life as a student.

I grew up in a white, middle-class evangelical christian household with three brothers and a mom and dad. It was the typical suburban family except my father worked in the church making our family very involved in the Church. For the record, I wouldn’t change a single thing about my childhood. I’m thankful for my amazing family and the way I was raised. That being said, there are things that I did not realize until later in my life after I moved away. I always knew I was different but I didn’t really understand what that meant in its entirety. If I could change one thing about my life before moving out, it would be the way I, myself and others close to me, acknowledged my race.

It was a humorous oxymoron of a situation this past February at my Univeristy. With fairly new efforts of improving racial diversity in our student body, a few faculty and staff helped plan the chapels to recognize Black History Month. This of course, was initially a positive step in the right direction. The faculty member in charge of planning it wanted to take an educational and applicable approach to the topic in order to get creative partly and also to engage the majority white student body. The messages were built around the idea of educating all students to better engage with the world in a multicultural vocational context of ministry. The speaker made points of better engaging with diversity on campus and life with all races which was good and important. The goal of the administration was still to promote inclusivity and create a better campus environment for people of color. However, I remember after chapel that day there was an uneasy cloud that hung over me and some of the other students of color. I’m not black, but that specific chapel service was directed for people of color period. It just so happens that a lot of the people I have most in common are the other people of color. I wish there was a way to accurately describe the mutual understanding we have with each other being on a predominately white campus. I remember walking out of chapel thinking, here we go. The rest of the day I received cautious looks, carefully worded engagements, and nervous side glances which none of I blame them for. The people that care a lot were nervous and the people that didn’t care whatsoever, pretended like nothing happened. It got me thinking about how fine of a line there is between caring so much that is prevents normal human interaction with a white person and person of color and complete disregard for another person’s race. They want to be woke and understand without crossing a boundary. Sometimes, I will literally watch a person physically overthink a social situation on campus because they are so weary of this and it breaks my heart both for them and myself. Everyone wants to be treated like a normal human being regardless of their race. That’s not race specific, it’s human life specific. And now after two full years of attending a school where 99% of my classes, I am the only person of color, I have come to realize the significance of race in a [Christian] campus community that applies to neighborhoods, church families, and life as a human being.

The act of not being racist is not enough to be a diverse community of people that promotes inclusivity. To not be racist is to simply be a human with good and common sense, but to be a person that lives and acts in a way that also acknowledges another person’s race is a primary goal of a multicultural community. It’s not enough to simply invite someone to sit at your table. You can be as welcoming and nice as you want, but if you don’t scoot to make room for them at your table your niceness doesn’t matter because that person is still standing.

The process of discovering who I was as a person was difficult because I had no idea how much culture significantly makes up a person. I would cringe every time someone in high school would call me a “basic white girl” because what even is that. I’m not white. It didn’t make sense. It left me confused and frustrated. It resulted in a period of time where I disregarded not only the color of my skin, but also my heritage and culture. I was raised the way I was raised and cannot change that, but it did not mean my race, heritage and culture then becomes of less value or less significance. This was difficult to finally understand but came with time and experiences that included people who helped me process my thoughts and emotions.

Race is a key identifying factor in one’s culture a majority of the time. This is why it is significant to recognize and acknowledge race. I was a South Korean girl growing up in a white home where my culture or race was not recognized or acknowledged in a consistent manner to help me better understand who I was. An important discovery that I have made is that race does not define my value as human in any way but it adds to my richness as a person. To simply be identified [in a context that isn’t appropriate] as “asian-american” is dehumanizing because that is not my identity in its entirety. However, the fact that I am an asian american woman adds to the person that I am and is a major component of my personhood.

Race should never be overlooked. I have learned that myself and my other friends who are people of color should never apologize for being a different skin tone than white. Sometimes when I’m walking around on my campus I feel like being a person of color is a sin because of the way so many traditional evangelical Christians both historically and presently here in the Bible Belt have preached, communicated, or treated myself and other people of color through micro-aggressions, and both indirect and direct racism.

If we choose to ignore race, we choose to remain fueling the fire of ignorance that promotes and sustains a white superiority complex that has been consistently used to oppress people both racially and socioeconomically since the beginning of America. History’s racism is not your personal fault, but the way we as a community choose to be apathetic to the damage that has been done is everyone’s responsibility if we are truly serious about being an inclusive and diverse body of people. We as a predominately white evangelical Christian community can no longer simply say or preach from a pulpit, “Your race doesn’t matter because it does not define you. After all, we all are made in the perfect image of God.” It doesn’t matter if you think God didn’t originally intend race to exist in the way that it does or exist at all, it exists. The more we ignore that, the more we become part of the problem.

If I could say one thing to my white friends I would tell you this. Recognize and acknowledge our differences. Read the room. It doesn’t take much. We aren’t asking you to do anything dramatic. Treat us like humans. Hear this, a predominately white community that is trying to build an accepting, diverse and multicultural community of people cannot sit back and say, “well, all we can do is water and tend to the garden that is diversity.” Growing diversity is not equivalent to growing a garden but to a certain extent, it is the process of building a house. You have the tools, support, and resources to make it happen that we don’t have in the way that yall do. For as long as you have the mindset to sit back and do a few things here and there when you’re supposed to, it will consistently just be enough to be okay. A house won’t build itself. It takes proactivity, planning, preparation, consistency, dedication and so many other things. It might be difficult, but it is not impossible. Take a stance and help speak in places that our voices can’t reach.

If I could say one thing to my friends who are people of color I would tell you this. Race is richness. You should never apologize or be ashamed for something that adds a value that no one can ever take away from you. It adds to the strength to your individuality. Be kind to yourself. The color of your skin is beautiful, that’s so facts. Your skin does not define your value, culture or personhood, but it is valid and contributes to your individuality. Your individuality makes you strong. Every day is an opportunity to take the humble step in the right direction, moving forward to be as great as we can knowing the first shall be last and the last shall be first. It gets tiring explaining things and answering questions from our friends especially when we don’t always know the answer or what to say. Sometimes conversations can be complicated, but be open to having them. The more understanding there is, the better we are all able to move forward. The fight for freedom and unity may not be over for any of us, but we can start with ourselves. Loving the uniqueness, the differences, and the richness.