America still has a distance to go on race relations. On Saturday January 10, the Associated Press quoted York University psychology professor Kerry Kawakami, saying “It’s important to remind people that just because a black man has been elected as president doesn’t mean racism is no longer a problem or issue in the States.” The article went on to say that we are even more reluctant to confront racist acts.
Here’s the scene: Researchers in Toronto recruited 120 non-black York University students for what purported to be a psychology study.
A participant was directed to a room where two actors posing as fellow participants — one black, one white — waited. The black person said he needed to retrieve a cell phone and left, gently bumping the white person’s leg on the way out. The white actor then did one of three things: Nothing. Said, “I hate when black people do that.” Or used the N-word.
Then a researcher entered and said the “psychology study” was starting and that the student should pick one of the two others as a partner for the testing. Half the participants just read about that scene, and half actually experienced it. Those asked to predict their reaction to either comment said they’d be highly upset and wouldn’t choose the white actor as their partner. Yet students who actually experienced the event didn’t seem bothered by it — and nearly two-thirds chose the white actor as a partner, the researchers report Friday in the Journal of Science.
I believe “fear” is at the heart of racism, and fear perpetuates our desire to be distant from people who aren’t like us. But love is a tremendously powerful force. My Auntie Mae Mae owned a neighborhood grocery store and treated everyone who walked through the door like he or she was the most important person in the world. The Apostle John wrote, “Perfect love casts our fear” (John 4:18). I saw that truth demonstrated every afternoon at Allen Food Market. Many of the people who came into the store looked strange, smelled bad, and acted weird, but Auntie Mae Mae looked past all of that to see the intrinsic value of each person. She pushed aside any fears, and she showed love to them every time.

Fear comes in two forms, appropriate fear (that keeps us safe from real danger) and neurotic fear (which is often our inherited misconceptions). Our choice in every encounter is always either to fear or to love the unknown person and either response is outgrowth of our social conditioning. Our perception of a person’s desirability and undesirability is often an outgrowth of our own reenactment of past information received or occurrences experienced, which shaped our definition of danger. Love is the anecdote for fear and manifest in four significant ways: attention, acceptance, affection, and allowing the other person to be who they are regardless to their meeting our criteria or not. Jesus succinctly put this love into words according to Matthew 22: 39 when he reminded the Pharisees to ”… Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The question remains that what if my neighbor doesn’t look like I think they should look, or smell like I think they should smell, or act like I think they should act, or has a different life orientation than me? And what if I have yet to love my self making it impossible to love my neighbor in an appropriate fashion? There are three simple steps that will help you move forward in the manner of Jesus. First, admit that you are afraid of people different from you. Second, feel the vulnerability that comes with the thought of allowing the stranger access to your space in the world. Third, act as though the fear cannot keep you from loving the other person.

What would happen if a person of another race bumped into you accidently? What would you do? Here’s the real question: Are you a racist?

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