Racism - How Do You Help Stop it?
The answer is in the blood - not the skin.
Understanding racism helps people to change their own thoughts that precede behavior. We are each responsible for how we teach our own family and others how we should live. Racism can be stopped because:
Go, back and re-read the previous bold sentence because it may be easy to miss how important it is to solving racism. Racist are taught to be racist. No person is born a racist! God did not create any human to be a racist; He created us all equal of one human race. People are taught through parents, teachers, peers, neighbors, family members, ministers, books, media, and inter-relational experience what to think about the difference in people's skin color. In some ethnic groups, parents strongly teach their children to make judgements about a person based on the pigment color of their skin.
The blood is the living vitality of the body, not the skin. While the skin is the largest organ in the human body, the protective layer, the outer layer, the visible cover, the blood is the life giving essential element. Is it not surprising the Jesus came to redeem the blood. He bled out for each person equally. His blood covers all humans alike. In Jesus no racism exists! And it is the very blood - the spiritual and physical understanding - of the Jesus through which we will experience the washing, purification, and justice for all. The blood - particularly the blood of Jesus - is the great equalizer of humanity. One for all. All need One.
In America's early years, especially during and after slavery, white skinned parents taught their children they were better than dark skinned people. But this teaching has all but stopped in most white American families. Matter of fact, I personally do not know current peers (and I am from the south) that have ever taught their children to judge a person in any way by skin color. While I am certain racial prejudice still takes place in pockets of people throughout society, it is NOT the norm nor acceptable to most.
I am almost fifty; my parent's generation did learn to judge people by skin color; I did not, nor have I taught my children. Thankfully, to teach your child to judge someone based on skin color is viewed as something very sinful and therefore, wrong. But what is alarmingly, discouraging is MANY ethnic groups, particularly black Americans, raise up their children to determine a person's attitude, actions and thoughts based on color. Black children are largely taught to be weary, guarded, even to hate or fight, people based on skin color. If racism is to stop, Black Americans must stop perpetuating it through generational prejudice upbring, both at home and in many all Black Congregations/Churches/organizations.
Genetic diversity is not synonymous to Ethnic diversity! In plain language, our genetic make-up does not identify what is most commonly, and erroneously, called "race." Yes, the DNA does have coding to regulate the size of cells that cause a variety in skin color, but scientist are unable to separate DNA by ethnic groups (black, white, asian, latino, etc.). Matter of fact, there is a larger variety of DNA within all distinct social ethnic groups than what is varying between groupings of people.
On October 3, 2009, I wrote an article about An Easy Solution for Racism which has been the second most viewed article in the life of my blog. With so many people from all over the world seeking a solution for racism it seems some progress would be made. But in our current times, especially in America, so many people hitched their hope of change to Barack Obama to be the great peacemaker. If you recall, he was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize BEFORE he did anything negative or positive toward peacemaking! (Maybe it was given as a sign of hope for change and encouragement.)
When we give anything (advancement, promotions, privileges, programs, membership, education, credit, testing, opportunity, scholarship, admittance, acceptance, assistance) based on pseudo-race (code for skin color), we are WRONG! And moreover, doing so is a SIN that separates you from fellowship with God if left un-confessed and un-repented. It is also wrong to only think racism is a "white" person's sin. A variety of ethnic groups and individuals sin in this way, and it should not be acceptable for any human to be racist!
After two years of Obama's presidency America is much more race-conscious, and divided. It is unfortunate that he has not been a leader of unity, but one of a deeper divide as his administration attempts to broaden the have and the have-nots. Black Americans overwhelmingly (85%) voted for Barack Obama, mostly because he was a black canidate, not because they necessarily supported his policies. This is surely unfortunate, because it shows that black Americans, in larger majority than white, voted purely based on race... something whites are accused of all the time. And moreover, anyone who did not vote for Obama or who doesn't not support his governing are called racist. Ironically, that is such a racist claim... to blame people who disagree on principle policies to be skin-color-haters. The accusations are not better in 2011. To the contrary, they have only increased. And the fall-out of blaming innocent people of being racist makes people who are not very spiritually mature more likely to think of race and to consider judging people by skin color.
In the first article I addressed the truth that we are all created by God. We are all sons and daughters of Adam, and Noah. God made the human race. Every human is a member of this race regardless to skin color. Moreover, evolution has only fed hate-filled people with philosophies to deny equality of all races because they deny that humans are created by one loving, sovereign God and teach lies about races being a unique identifying factor. Truth is skin color is only skin deep. Only 10% of the top layer of skin cells is responsible for variety in skin color due to ranges of size of the pigmentation cells, not quanity.
I found this information from another author quite interesting:
If racism is to be stopped we must see into the eyes of people, beyond the skin color. We must look to the soul! And it will only be stopped one person at a time, one family at a time. What about you? What do you choose for you and your family? Consider Joshua 24:15:
Understanding racism helps people to change their own thoughts that precede behavior. We are each responsible for how we teach our own family and others how we should live. Racism can be stopped because:
Ethnicity (race) is taught; ethnicity (race) is not an inborn trait!
 |
| Believe it! YOU are beautiful! |
Go, back and re-read the previous bold sentence because it may be easy to miss how important it is to solving racism. Racist are taught to be racist. No person is born a racist! God did not create any human to be a racist; He created us all equal of one human race. People are taught through parents, teachers, peers, neighbors, family members, ministers, books, media, and inter-relational experience what to think about the difference in people's skin color. In some ethnic groups, parents strongly teach their children to make judgements about a person based on the pigment color of their skin.
The blood is the living vitality of the body, not the skin. While the skin is the largest organ in the human body, the protective layer, the outer layer, the visible cover, the blood is the life giving essential element. Is it not surprising the Jesus came to redeem the blood. He bled out for each person equally. His blood covers all humans alike. In Jesus no racism exists! And it is the very blood - the spiritual and physical understanding - of the Jesus through which we will experience the washing, purification, and justice for all. The blood - particularly the blood of Jesus - is the great equalizer of humanity. One for all. All need One.
In America's early years, especially during and after slavery, white skinned parents taught their children they were better than dark skinned people. But this teaching has all but stopped in most white American families. Matter of fact, I personally do not know current peers (and I am from the south) that have ever taught their children to judge a person in any way by skin color. While I am certain racial prejudice still takes place in pockets of people throughout society, it is NOT the norm nor acceptable to most.
I am almost fifty; my parent's generation did learn to judge people by skin color; I did not, nor have I taught my children. Thankfully, to teach your child to judge someone based on skin color is viewed as something very sinful and therefore, wrong. But what is alarmingly, discouraging is MANY ethnic groups, particularly black Americans, raise up their children to determine a person's attitude, actions and thoughts based on color. Black children are largely taught to be weary, guarded, even to hate or fight, people based on skin color. If racism is to stop, Black Americans must stop perpetuating it through generational prejudice upbring, both at home and in many all Black Congregations/Churches/organizations.
Genetic diversity is not synonymous to Ethnic diversity! In plain language, our genetic make-up does not identify what is most commonly, and erroneously, called "race." Yes, the DNA does have coding to regulate the size of cells that cause a variety in skin color, but scientist are unable to separate DNA by ethnic groups (black, white, asian, latino, etc.). Matter of fact, there is a larger variety of DNA within all distinct social ethnic groups than what is varying between groupings of people.
On October 3, 2009, I wrote an article about An Easy Solution for Racism which has been the second most viewed article in the life of my blog. With so many people from all over the world seeking a solution for racism it seems some progress would be made. But in our current times, especially in America, so many people hitched their hope of change to Barack Obama to be the great peacemaker. If you recall, he was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize BEFORE he did anything negative or positive toward peacemaking! (Maybe it was given as a sign of hope for change and encouragement.)
When we give anything (advancement, promotions, privileges, programs, membership, education, credit, testing, opportunity, scholarship, admittance, acceptance, assistance) based on pseudo-race (code for skin color), we are WRONG! And moreover, doing so is a SIN that separates you from fellowship with God if left un-confessed and un-repented. It is also wrong to only think racism is a "white" person's sin. A variety of ethnic groups and individuals sin in this way, and it should not be acceptable for any human to be racist!
After two years of Obama's presidency America is much more race-conscious, and divided. It is unfortunate that he has not been a leader of unity, but one of a deeper divide as his administration attempts to broaden the have and the have-nots. Black Americans overwhelmingly (85%) voted for Barack Obama, mostly because he was a black canidate, not because they necessarily supported his policies. This is surely unfortunate, because it shows that black Americans, in larger majority than white, voted purely based on race... something whites are accused of all the time. And moreover, anyone who did not vote for Obama or who doesn't not support his governing are called racist. Ironically, that is such a racist claim... to blame people who disagree on principle policies to be skin-color-haters. The accusations are not better in 2011. To the contrary, they have only increased. And the fall-out of blaming innocent people of being racist makes people who are not very spiritually mature more likely to think of race and to consider judging people by skin color.
In the first article I addressed the truth that we are all created by God. We are all sons and daughters of Adam, and Noah. God made the human race. Every human is a member of this race regardless to skin color. Moreover, evolution has only fed hate-filled people with philosophies to deny equality of all races because they deny that humans are created by one loving, sovereign God and teach lies about races being a unique identifying factor. Truth is skin color is only skin deep. Only 10% of the top layer of skin cells is responsible for variety in skin color due to ranges of size of the pigmentation cells, not quanity.
I found this information from another author quite interesting:
Once humans formed settlements all over the world, the relative geographic isolation of those settlements led to some degree of reproductive isolation. Then, the differences in local climate, ecology, and culture, combined with random mutation and genetic drift, led inevitably to the evolution of ethnic diversity. The single human population that migrated out of Africa eventually became many thousands of tribes, each with slightly different gene pools. Of course, reproductive isolation was never absolute; some genetic mixing of neighbors did occur. Nonetheless, ethnic diversity clearly exists and seems strongly connected to the dispersal of humans to different parts of the globe.
So how is a white-skinned Icelander related to a tan-skinned Taiwanese? Well, the ancestors of both people lived in Central Asia about 40,000 years ago. And how are the Icelander and Taiwanese person related to a black-skinned Rwandan? They all share ancestors....
It is clear that all human beings are related to each other and shared a common ancestor less than 5000 generations ago. Within that time, the genes contributing to skin color have diversified. (Dennis Chang, PhD Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 2009)I am not in agreement the all Dennis Chang, PhD wrote nor do we share the same ultimate conclusions, but his observable research is eye-opening, and mind-opening.
If racism is to be stopped we must see into the eyes of people, beyond the skin color. We must look to the soul! And it will only be stopped one person at a time, one family at a time. What about you? What do you choose for you and your family? Consider Joshua 24:15:
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served ... in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (able to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, wh
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