Because of my Native American great-grandmother, once while at a tourist stop the checkout lady asked my mother why she had two Native American boys with her. While prejudice against those whose skin color is not lily white has always existed in our country, today I want to talk to you about a different unrecognized type of prejudice. Truth be told, there are far more than fifty shades of white!
Many Thanksgiving gatherings this year were plagued with a unique kind of prejudice, an intraracial prejudice. A doctor informed me that he has never in all of his years of practice heard of so much family infighting as he had this year. Part of it is due to the current political climate of our nation, part of it is due to the fallout from the recent Covid pandemic, but I believe a huge part of it is that we have evolved as a nation from a Christian self-denying society to a post-Christian self-serving society. I felt deep personal pain from my own family splitting this year into different groups and excluding some from attending all together. I’m quite sure that Satan laughs with glee over his “set, serve, score” plan, a plan, which has worked thus far and is getting worse. The truth is that prejudice grows from a seed first planted from within our own races. Not getting along with each other in our own family is as old of a story as the murderous outcome of Cain and Able.
The truth is that while some racial groups point their finger toward other racial groups, condemning them for their history of extreme prejudices. Within our own races and even our own family most of us in different ways, could be guilty of the practice of “Intraracial racism.”
Julian Bond recently shared that he regrets doing a Saturday Night Live spoof in 1977 with comedian Garrett Morris in which he “script-read” sarcasm in an attempt to create humor. The piece set up a simulated talk show where Garrett interviewed Julian as he announced research showing that light-skinned blacks were smarter than dark-skinned blacks, said research being totally imaginary. While the spoof did get laughs, to this day Julian admits that he did not feel comfortable doing the skit and has never stopped feeling remorseful about having done it. The sad truth for all of us is that no matter what our color, all races are guilty of intraracial prejudice.
Ask a Mainland Chinese person about the prejudice which exists between them and the Chinese people of Taiwan. Or what about prejudice the people of Brazil vs. the people of Chili? What about the English toward the French? North and South Vietnam are familiar foes. What about the feelings, which exist between the countries of Uganda and Nigeria? I once talked to a Jamaican pastor and was surprised to learn that many Jamaicans do not like to be referred to as “African Americans”, because they are not directly from Africa. The truth is that to me, the saddest form of prejudice comes from not only from within our own race but within our own families and from the ones who once sat across the dinner table from us.
Multitudes in our nation have been miss-taught about whom God is. While we fixate on His love for us, we ignore His insistence that we love others. May He forgive our sinful condition and rescue us from our sinful ways. May He show mercy and send revival to give us another chance to understand and respond to the incredible gift of love he gave to this earth when He sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins.
Is it any wonder that Jesus taught that we must be “born again” to enter Heaven when we die? Left to our own righteousness, and to ourselves, we fall very short of having the perfect love which the Heavenly Father calls us by His power to have for one another. May God indeed send a great sweeping revival, not only to America but to the whole planet on which we live, before intraracial jealousy and prejudice completely destroy us all!
Hatred is cloaked in many forms of expression. The gospel tells us to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. The commandment doesn’t mean we have to take them cookies on a platter or attend all their familial celebrations but to treat them with the same consideration and self appreciation we give ourselves. The Golden rule. The simplest courtesy to others speaks volumes about our own character. It has been posited that we openly hate in others what we don’t like about ourselves. The racial indifferences merely mimic the display of hatred in its usual context in verbal slanderous opinionated darts flung in vain. They engender strife that fosters division and raises false suspicions so the love we should dwell in is cast aside for lonely existences wallowing in blame…misunderstandings and false self pride. A profound waste of time. Regarding racism ..when it’s the same ole evil that lurks in the hearts of our human condition to avoid if we are to be saints and obedient to our Lord.We are all the same in God’s eyes.