Equal In The Eyes of God
A reflection on past and present civil rights
Recent news has caused those of my race and heritage, as well as others, to just about completely forget the pandemic state that we are living in today due to COVID-19. This lapse in memory is due to the unrest that has been stirred up by the senseless killing of yet another black person—George Floyd—at the hands of the police! When will this ever end! When will God’s creation stop seeing each other as a skin tone, rather than the creation that was made in His image and likeness—in all shades and colors!
Photo by Maria Oswalt/Unsplash
I don’t anger easily, but in this case, I can say that I have gotten quite irritated, but even more so saddened. Saddened that something our great country pretends has been conquered by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s, has once again reared its ugly head in a big way!—that something is RACISM. I don’t even like saying the word, but I know that it is very real. And it partially thrives because our society doesn’t want to say the word or acknowledge its existence.
As a member of the black community, I’ve experienced racism on varying levels, throughout my life. As a young child, just a few years into the integration of Prince George’s County schools, I had a white schoolyard friend to tell me “you’re my best friend, but you can’t come to my house, because my dad won’t let you.” Although, only seven or eight years old, I knew what she meant, and didn’t really have to worry about it, because I had a loving family to go home to. Fast forward about 15 years, to the late 1980’s, and I had a white work friend to tell me almost the same thing, as I gave her a ride home to her parents’ house. Another 30 years later (2018—just two years ago!) I witnessed an angry motorist driving through a local grocery parking lot, in a mostly African American community, blowing his horn and shouting “n****r” over and over again, all because he was too impatient to allow another motorist to finish backing into her parking space. Needless to say what her race was. And now, many racially-motivated negative experiences later, my country is again reminding me that the “majority” don’t see people of my race, my heritage as equally-worthy human beings.
I do recognize that we—black people—sometimes get comfortable with our “better than before” lives, and don’t always call-out the subtle (and sometimes overt) racism that we see and experience. Instead, we push those experiences to the backs of our minds or only share them with our close circle, and let them build up, until something like the death of George Floyd causes all those mounting feelings to erupt. They erupt into passionate protests, outcries and activism, usually to only fade away again when we get enough media attention to lull us back into complacency.
I hope that the events surrounding this latest tragedy will ignite a flame that cannot be quenched! Events such as the three states who saw fit to honor the fallen George Floyd with remarkable memorial services. The united band of multiple cultures, who have organized peaceful protests in all 50 of the United States, as well as in other countries around the world. The renaming of a prominent section of our nation’s capital to Black Lives Matter Plaza. I pray that all of these events will ignite an eternal flame under this melting pot of a nation—a flame that will cause the melding of all hearts and minds, to the end that all will recognize that we are not just “One nation, under God,” but that we are one people, created by God!
“For there is no respect of persons with God”
Romans 2:11 (KJV)
If the events of the past few weeks have you angry, on edge, unsettled, or just down right TIRED, check out “Finding Peace In Protest.” This article will update at 8:15 am.