There is no room for tolerance when it comes to racism

Proverbs 3:27-30 “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, “Come back tomorrow and I’ll give it to you”—when you already have it with you. Do not plot harm against your neighbor, who lives trustfully near you. Do not accuse anyone for no reason when they have done you no harm.”

I am a person who has long preached tolerance and acceptance. Tolerance – for differing points of views. Acceptance – for people who come with a differing set of beliefs than I do. Understanding – that people’s actions most often stem from the unique pressures driving their daily lives. It is a belief system that has aligned well with my Christian viewpoint until this week.

This week I have found myself sickened by the news of a young black man out for a jog, accosted and subsequently killed by two people making the broadest of assumptions – a black man running equates to a criminal running. I was appalled by the fact it took two months and a released video to precipitate an arrest. Today I have a vastly different message.

There is no room for tolerance, acceptance or understanding when it comes to racism. Racism is not a viewpoint; it is a cancer. This cancer will continue to take lives if we do not eradicate every diseased cell.

Over the last fifty plus years of my life, the civil rights movement has been waging a powerful war against racism. It seemed they had made huge strides in leveling the playing field for a community of people that had previously been disenfranchised and disempowered. But like many hard-won remissions, those rewards have proven to only be temporary. As with any other type of cancer, leaving a single, tiny cell ensures regrowth. The last few years have proven that despite previous aggressive treatment this country is out of remission.

I am ashamed to admit that lulled by the movement’s successes, I moved from advocacy to complacency. I allowed myself to believe that institutionalized racism was behind us. I bought into the idea that the playing field had been leveled. I let myself believe that the racism of my grandparents’ generation was all but gone as each subsequent generation awoke further to racism’s inequities. I imagined that my grandchildren’s children would only know of institutionalized racism through a history lesson.

I allowed this complacency to bleed over into the smallest of choices. Choices to opt for silence over confrontation and harmony over conflict. A decision to let a slanted comment slide by. A choice to let a poor joke go unchecked. A call to delete an off-color email or a choice to scroll by an inappropriate meme.  I told myself that these types of comments/actions were the anomalies now. They had no power in a world where most Americans believed in equality, in fairness, in right. I was wrong.

Leaving a single, tiny cell ensures regrowth.

As John Pavlovitz so eloquently said in his recent blog posting - https://johnpavlovitz.com/

“You oppose the inhumanity, or you abide it. You condemn the violence, or you are complicit in it. You declare yourself a fierce and vocal adversary of bigotry—or you become its silent ally.”

There is no room for tolerance or understanding when it comes to racism. I was culpable. I was complicit. NO MORE.