Cover Story
by Emily Kurtz
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Christians can foster
racism through ignorance
Letha McCleod, right received a welcome in Uganda unlike anything
she has ever experienced in the United States. -Letha McCleod, photo
As the only black student in an all-white kindergarten class in San Jose, Calif., McCleod's teacher never allowed her to nap with the other children in her class, she said. The white children slept on the carpet by a warm fire. She slept on the cold linoleum in the back of the classroom.
"When it came time to finger paint, [my teacher] would never let me finger paint," she said. "He didn't want my black hands in the paint."
When the students lined up for cookies in the afternoon, McCleod had to stand in the back of the line. "If we ran out [of cookies], I didn't get any, and I would sit in the sandbox and cry," she said.
One day, 5-year-old McCleod asked her teacher the question she had been wondering all year: "What's wrong with you?
"I'm so glad looking back on it that I asked him because I didn't take on who he was making me," she said. "I didn't take on that I was a minority. I was not a 'nigger' like that man tried to make me feel."
Because of her mother's teaching, McCleod said that she "knew better than anyone else that God had made us and to treat others as we wanted to be treated."
Although she said her experiences in kindergarten are extreme, McCleod has experienced racism in the United States throughout her life.
At job interviews, employers have asked her, "How does it feel to be black?" Interviewers have also said things such as, "Well, you people don't seem to excel in this area."
"The worst kind [of racism] is the subtle stuff," McCleod said. "There are subtleties at Multnomah, unfortunately. Not [in] everyone--but some.
"When I first applied for admittance to Multnomah and was called on the phone by a representative of the school, I was told, 'We're not charismatic here.' When I asked why they felt the need to mention that to me, they changed the subject," she said.
Other examples of the subtle racism that McCleod has experienced at Multnomah have included people trying harder than normal to befriend her, talking to her louder when explaining things or talking "very slowly as if they must in order for me to comprehend what is being said," McCleod said.
"It should be understood that much of the subtlety of racism that occurs here at Multnomah is based on ignorance and a lack of exposure and a buy-in to the stereotypical views of blacks, Asians and Hispanics," McCleod said. "Yet, ignorance is not bliss for the Christian."
In spite of the lack of understanding, McCleod said, "I love Multnomah, and I am grateful to God for it as an institution because it has changed my life."
This summer, on a missions trip to Uganda, when McCleod stepped off of the plane and onto the Ugandan tarmac, she felt as though she had come home. "When I walked into the customs area, they said to me, 'Welcome home, sister,'" McCleod said.
"I'm a black woman, born and raised in the United States," she said, "and no one has ever welcomed me, not like that, anywhere in my life." McCleod said she believes that such a welcome should be occurring within the body of Christ both inside and outside the church.
"Christ has worked in my life and kept me from being bitter and angry at white [people] because He opened my eyes and showed me the fine line between raging against the very thing you hate and how easy it is to become exactly what you're raging against," McCleod said.
One day, after hearing from a friend about discrimination he had experienced while he attended Multnomah, McCleod became enraged. "I marched down to the administrative offices to give them a piece of my mind," she said.
"On the way there God spoke to me and said, 'Be careful that you are not becoming the very thing you hate.'" She then stopped and calmed down with a friend, went back to the man who had told her of his discrimination and explained to him what she had realized. Together they prayed for Multnomah, the person involved in the discrimination and themselves. They asked God to show them what they might learn from their experience, she said.
"What keeps me from being angry and bitter is the Lord Jesus Christ," McCleod said. "He has taught me to look at situations of racism as an opportunity to educate those who are ignorant [Christians] and need to have their eyes open and repent in this area of their life. Further, He has taught me not to exchange hate for hate but to love in spite of hate. In this, I find His freedom and His peace, and I find that I can genuinely begin praying for people who struggle in the area of racism."
McCleod suggests three keys to stop racism within a Christian's heart. First, she believes Christians must ask God to reveal to them any racist thoughts or actions they might have. "We need the Holy Spirit to bring us conviction," McCleod said. "Not just with racism but as Christians as we live and breath in this world. We have to admit that we need help in certain areas."
Second, she believes people need to be willing to be accountable for their sins. Countless Christians, McCleod said, create excuses for their behavior around those of other races. An example of this is the Christian who says, "Well, I grew up in Montana," or "I grew up in Idaho. We don't have many, if any, black people there."
People use such excuses, McCleod said, as reasons for avoiding interaction with people who are different from themselves. "When they use those as excuses, [they] don't recognize that, because they are Christians, Christ does not allow us to excuse away things that are wrong," she said.
Third, she believes Christians need to ask forgiveness and repent. McCleod said to begin by praying: "Lord, I think I have a problem. When I see them, this is how I see them, or this is how I think. This is not how you see them. Show me how you want me to be in this area of my life.
"When people are willing, they're going to see not only a different America but also a different world," she said. "The answer to racism in this country is the cross because it's the cure for the disease that we have."
According to McCleod, Christians should ask themselves, "Lord, why don't I have any friends of color? How come every time I get on the Max and someone gets on who looks different from me, I'm clutching my purse?" As Christians ask questions like these, they become closer to being the kind of person that Christ desires of them.
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