THE HUMAN RACE

The Episcopal Church has a requirement that all in a position of leadership, lay or clergy, attend an anti-racism workshop. To be honest, over the years of my ministry it has been very difficult for me to convince the leadership in the parishes I have served to attend these workshops. I have been given a multitude of reasons why attendance was a “no”: took too long (a full day and a half) and they were just too busy on the one hand to “I’m not a racist and don’t need to go”, on the other.

The truth is that the workshops are too long, in my humble estimation. I’ve taken them. The other truth is is that most of us do not consider ourselves racists and get angry when anyone might intimate that we are, especially by requiring that we attend an anti-racist workshop to help us overcome our racist mentality.

Thus, I found it quite interesting, fascinating and completely honest when one of my parishioners, in completing the registration form to attend the latest workshop, responded to the question: “Race/Ethnicity with “Human”. To read her mind, which I probably should not do but will anyway, her obvious point, at least to me, is that being asked to declare our race just might be the basis of the whole problem.

What we all have in common is that each and every one of us belongs to the human race. When we begin to name what we do not have in common – color of skin, country of origin, sexual orientation: the list is long – trouble starts. Then we begin comparing those differences as if they really make a difference. It’s as if saying a car painted blue is better than that same car painted yellow.

Yes, we are different. No two people are exactly alike. Those differences are what make this world what it is. But those differences do not make one person better than another person, one country better than another country, one skin color better than another skin color. What they do is help make us better. Because we are different one from another, have different experiences one from another, we can learn one from another, which is what we should be doing anyway, which is probably why God made us different one from another in the first place.

What we need to do, must do, is appreciate those differences and be thankful for them. What we must not do and which, unfortunately seems to be easy to do, is categorize and judge people who look alike to actually be alike when they are not. My brother Fran looks very much like me, handsome guy that he is. But even though we have very much in common, very much alike in many ways, we are still different.

We all belong to the human race. What we need do is treat one another as fellow human beings, treat them as we wish to be treated. If we did, then we would not need these anti-racism workshops to remind us that that is what we should be doing all the time.