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Church Leaders Forum 2014

Gain a bird’s-eye view of Canada’s changing landscape and learn how to re-frame the Gospel for today’s reality. Featuring Bruxy Cavey, Teaching Pastor, The Meeting House and Dr. Don Moore, National Church Ambassador, World Vision Canada.

Speakers:

to find out more visit: www.shiftingstats.ca 1 800 268 5863 ext. 3648

2 | CONVERGE BRUXY CAVEY . January - February DR.2014 DON MOORE

Presented by World Vision in partnership with local church ministerials

Issue 16 // January - February 2014

Reflect

Tribe, tongue, and nation Traces

5 7

Views

Moving on The pain of being different.

Interracial couples Why do people get so weird about them?

Friendship after the storm How one woman gains a second family.

Discovering my own voice I used to hate my culture. Now I embrace it.

Q&A: Marrying into a new culture? We asked multiethnic couples what it’s like.

Angles

Aboriginal oppression Racism in Comedy is Atheism an ethnicity? A talk about perspectives Reads

land and its people Last Word

Master chef

10 13 14 17 22 24 26 28 30 46 48

What’s inside The ethnicity issue Playing our race cards: celebrating diversity.

Feature reading Younger & Darker:

What will the future face of the North American church look like?

I’m White, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m white. How does one overcome a nagging feeling of guilt?

Admit it. We’re still racist

Exploring and debunking the myth that we live in a postracist society.

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Andy Wang, Brett McCracken, Cassie Clay-Smith, Chelsea Batten, Flyn Ritchie, Jacob Kownacki, Jenn Co, Joe Chinyavong, Julia Cheung, Kyle Stiemsma, Lauren Bentley, Michelle Sudduth, Nicki Lamont, Paul Arnold, Ruth Anaya, Sabine Momice, Thalia Antonio

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Intro intro

agents of

Equality But it was precisely the way in which Mandela’s humanity was so relatable that roused so many individuals to bring change. He was one person who caused other one persons to do something. Talking about ethnicity and race is hard. Because what if I don’t say something exactly right, and I offend someone? What if I realize I have prejudices? Even worse, what if I have to change? Our motivation for this issue isn’t one of guilt, which as Lauren Bentley writes in “I’m sorry I’m white,” is entirely unhelpful. Our hope is to not only continue the conversation around ethnicity, race, and racism — rather than, as Chelsea Batten writes, pretend like it doesn’t exist — but it’s to invite the Holy Spirit to change something in us. To move past those old, familiar prejudices so we can be used to help realize the “now-but-notyet” kingdom of God. So be encouraged by Joe Chinyavong’s offer of forgiveness to those who oppress, and by Jenn Co’s acceptance of her ethnic background. And let’s, as Julia Cheung writes, think outside our traditional church boxes and start doing something differently. Each of us is only singular in scope. We have varying levels of influences. Yet like Mandela, we are all so very human at the end of it all. Which is exactly why we need to ask God to work through us, so we can be agents of equality in this world.

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” — Nelson Mandela Freedom-fighter. Prisoner. Moral compass.

Flickr photo (cc) by chicagopublicmedia

Nelson Mandela symbolizes the fight against racial injustice, not only in his home country of South Africa, but across the globe. After being in prison for 27 years for his anti-apartheid activism, Mandela’s message of forgiveness and reconciliation astounded the world. He said this after his release in 1990: “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.” Mandela eventually negotiated for the end of apartheid and was elected the first black president in South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994. To say Mandela’s life is an inspiration seems so very cliché. But I struggle to find any other word to describe his legacy. I am inspired by his courage and hope amidst so much evil. Yet Mandela was just a man. This, as current South African President Jacob Zuma said, is why people across the world adopted his cause as their cause. “We saw in him what we seek in ourselves, and in him, we saw so much of ourselves,” said Zuma. When I think about human rights, about race and equality and justice, my reflex is to comfort myself with the conclusion that I’m only one person. I can’t single-handedly change a system of oppression, so what’s the point? I might as well just allow the status quo to reign on.

Leanne Janzen editor

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4 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

Reflect

“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, from all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb....” Revelation 7:9

Tribe, Tongue,

And Nation By Brett McCracken

Photo by las - initially, Flickr (cc)

Brett McCracken is a Los Angeles-based journalist and author of Gray Matters: Navigating the Space Between Legalism & Liberty, as well as Hipster Christianity. Follow him on Twitter @brettmccracken or at stillsearching. wordpress.com

grew up in the suburbs of the American heartland in the WASP-iest (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) of WASP-y neighbourhoods. I knew I was in the majority, but I didn’t think much about race. The public schools I attended in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Shawnee, Kansas were surprisingly diverse. My closest friends had last names like Lai and Kim and Choi, which seemed as normal as anything. I remember watching the 1995 O.J. Simpson verdict live in my Grade 7 math class. When O.J. was found not guilty, almost everyone in the class cheered. I was silent. It was the first time I remember feeling anger and confusion about race issues. As (relatively) diverse as my public schools were, the evangelical churches I attended were extremely homogenous. Aside from my Sunday school friends Javier and Marisol, and the Filipina wife of a deacon who brought amazing food to potlucks, the Baptist church of my youth was blindingly white. Some of the churches I’ve gone to since have been a bit more diverse, but none of

them has ever contained an ethnic diversity that came close to reflecting the community outside their doors. As Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, “The most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” That has certainly been my experience. Of all places, shouldn’t churches be sites where the diversity of human culture and ethnicity is manifested and celebrated? The power of the Christian gospel, after all, is that it offers grace unconditionally to all people, no matter where they come from, what they look like, or how they talk. In God’s family there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female. We are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28). Why don’t our churches reflect this? Some of the most powerful experiences I’ve had as a Christian have come while I’ve worshipped God in churches and settings far outside my comfort zone. Last November I attended a service at Iglesia de la Puerta Abierta, an evangelical congregation in Buenos Aires. As I stood singing familiar hymns in Spanish, I was brought to tears by the breadth and diversity of God’s people, and by my feeling of connection with these brothers and sisters who I’d likely not see again this side of eternity. Similar cross-cultural experiences in churches in Japan, France, Northern Ireland, Chicago’s Uptown neighbourhood, or even at churches in my own city have shown me powerful glimpses of the “every tribe and tongue and nation” vision of Revelation 7:9. So why is it so hard to bring more of that vision — of unity in diversity before God — into the here and now? The default answer is that we are fallen. Since the biblical story of Babel, divergent languages and cultures have frustrated our attempts at connection. But by the grace of God and through the work of the Spirit, we can work to repair the divides in our communities and in our hearts, pursuing shalom even as injustices persist. I long for the day when all that separates us from one another — fear, prejudice, jealousy, geography, language, socio-economics, or Trayvon Martin verdicts — will give way to a unity unseen in human history since the Garden of Eden. That “great multitude” will be jaw-dropping and breathtaking. But it’s not just a thing to pine after and daydream about. It’s a future we can and must practice now. convergemagazine.com

Abbotsford, BC | Canada

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6 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

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Mosaic vs melting Pot

Traces // World

Canadian Multicultural Mosaic Multiculturalism became an official policy of the Canadian government in 1971. It was the first country to ever do such a thing. It means that many diverse racial and ethnic minorities coexist together, contributing to Canadian culture. In celebrating diversity, multiculturalism encourages mutual understanding and a sense of respect between Canadians. Newcomers don’t need to renounce their citizenship of their country of origin. If their original country allows it, they’re able to be citizens of both countries.

mission n. a members of a religious organization sent to propagate their faith abroad. b a field of missionary activity. c a missionary post or organization. d a place of worship attached to a mission. e a body of people established to do missionary, evangelical, or humanitarian work in their own country, esp. among the poor or disadvantaged. f (in pl.)

Criticisms: Breeds a general lack of national identity in Canada, a fear that Canadian history will be lost, and that ethnic communities will become insular and won’t interact with the rest of society.

organized missionary activities (world missions) (Oxford Canadian Dictionary, Second Edition)

American Assimilated Melting Pot

Photo by Ajleon, Flickr // Illustrations by Carmen Bright

Short and long term international missions: sharing the gospel through words and actions to people in other cultures or settings.

Youth With a Mission (YWAM), Samaritan’s Purse teams missions trips, Kaleo Missions, school, church, or denomination-sponsored missionaries.

Relief and development projects: by responding to basic human needs in the name of Christ, God’s love and gospel is shared.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), International Justice Mission (IJM), Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), World Relief, and local relief organizations such as food banks and shelters.

In order to become a citizen of the United States, you must swear your loyalty to its constitution and give up allegiance to any other country.

HOPE International, Opportunity International, Kiva, World Vision.

Criticisms: Less tolerance for other cultures, ethnic traditions and culture can be more easily lost, beliefs and values of the dominant culture are forced upon minorities.

Microfinancing: nonprofits, responding to Jesus’ call to serve the poor, provide small loans to the world’s poorest individuals as a sustainable means to break the cycle of poverty. Local missions: sharing the gospel through words and actions to people in your own community.

Seeing Christ in everyone you meet, seeking justice in your relationships and community, sharing hope with the people around you.

Assimilation in the United States means once you’ve become a citizen, you’ve made a commitment to adopt the customs and attitudes of America.

This common allegiance creates unity and a sense of pride and unity within America’s citizens.

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A Christian University in Hamilton, Ontario At Redeemer, community extends to more than friendships with students â&#x20AC;&#x201D; my professors have been incredibly supportive, creating a Christian community where Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve grown in so many ways, inside and outside the classroom. - Julie P. Social Work major, Dorchester, Ontario ReAd mORe at

8 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

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Traces // Numbers

1.United States of America 46 million migrants 14.5% of total pop.

2. Russian Federation 11 million migrants 7.7% of total pop.

3. Germany 10 million migrants 12.4% of total pop.

4. Saudi Arabia 9 million migrants 30% of total pop.

Pull Factors: Deep fried everything. And Disney World.

Pull Factors: Rich history and lots of wide open spaces (17,075,400 square km to be exact).

Pull Factors: Beer (Germany is the second largest beer consumer in the world. Can’t beat them Irish.)

Pull Factors: Gas prices. Saudis only pay $0.13 per litre!

Push Factors: It’s so cold. Like cold enough for polar bears.

Push Factors: Bread museums. Enough said.

Push Factors: Snooki and the entire cast of Jersey Shore.

Push Factors: So. Hot. (Record high of 52 C.)

You're going where? top 10

Countries with the largest numbers of international migrants in 2013 Pull Factors are conditions that attract people. Push Factors are conditions that repel people.

5. United Arab Emirates 8 million migrants 96% of total pop.

6. United Kingdom 8 million migrants 12.5% of total pop.

Pull Factors: Some of the coolest water parks ever (they make their own thunderstorms and you can swim with dolphins).

Pull Factors: Platform 9 ¾. How else are you going to get to Hogwarts?

Push Factors: Water rarely falls from the skies (Dubai gets less than six inches of rain per year).

Push Factors: Driving on the left side of the road…seriously, it’s confusing.

Illustration by Cassie Clay - Smith

7. France 7 million migrants 10.6% of total pop.

8. Canada 7 million migrants 19.9% of total pop.

9. Australia 6 million migrants 25.8% of total pop.

10. Spain 6 million migrants 12.8% of total pop.

Pull Factors: Art. Wine. Food. Architecture…they even have the Mona Lisa.

Pull Factors: Poutine. French fries smothered in gravy and cheese curds. Genius.

Pull Factors: Ratoncito Perez. Think of the tooth fairy, but a mouse who steals your teeth and leaves gifts.

Push Factors: The customer is always WRONG.

Push Factors: Kindness. Because saying sorry gets old after awhile.

Pull Factors: Endless summer, surrounded by beaches. And let’s face it, what’s cuter than a koala bear? Push Factors: They call it home of the deadly. Snakes, sharks, jelly fish that can kill you in minutes.

Push Factors: Time is relative and everyone is late to everything. The “morning” is considered to last till 2 p.m. convergemagazine.com

Views //

first-person

My Move to

Forgive Dealing with Being different By Joe Chinyavong

We were made to move.

My parents immigrated to the Canadian prairies in 1978 with the promise and hopes of the great North American Dream. They were from a little place called Laos, where the average temperature is 25 C (77 F) all year round; in the prairies, it fluctuates from -35 C (-31 F) to 30 C (86 F), depending on the season. They left the comforts of home — their families, careers, language, life belongings and culture — to experience a new-found freedom from the political oppression that was taking over the country at the time, a culture overrun by a state of fear. The church family who sponsored my parents in their move to Canada said my parents were fearful, like timid mice when they first arrived. The move over initially brought shock and confusion. Life was difficult. I remember hearing about my parents’ first experience of a Canadian snowfall. At first, both of them bolted outside without proper winter attire from the home they were boarding at, just to see, feel, and taste the white snow. They later bundled up, and played like children for hours in the fluff. They knew how to enjoy those little moments in life that bring a smile from ear to ear. I was born in the ’80s in Edmonton, Canada, and I experienced some level of adversity growing up. I felt like I was at a disadvantage because of my skin colour. I never saw children who looked like me on TV, in books, or in movies. And there weren’t any G.I. Joes who looked like me, either. I recall the kids at school poking fun at me because my parents were ESL (English as a Second Language), how they pointed 10 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

Young Joe with parents Boun & Kesone.

I felt like I was a Caucasian during the day, and an Asian by night.

out how my skin tone was different from the standard white. There were very few other visible minorities in the school: First Nations, Chinese, and Lebanese. Colouring self-portraits in school was always a nerve-racking task. When I would use the peach/skin coloured crayon, kids would say I needed to use the yellow crayon because that was supposed to be for me. This was very confusing to me as a kid; when I looked at my own skin, I didn’t see yellow. Kevin, a Chinese kid, was one of my best friends back then. He was the closest person who could understand my ethnic culture. We would have similar types of lunches that strayed away from the standard bologna sandwiches. At a very young age I felt and carried shame. I remember wanting so badly to “be white and eat at McDonald’s,” like all the other Caucasian kids. I wanted it to the point where my mom would cleverly say to me, “If you wash your face and bathe more you will become more white.” Every now and then my parents would treat me to McDonald’s — and that was when I felt very special, because I felt like I fit in. I wonder if my parents felt like their culture was disappearing when their young son came home from school upset about the food we ate and the way we looked. I look back and believe they just wanted life to be easier for us. So I felt like I was a western Caucasian boy who followed the cultural norms during the day, and an Asian by night.

I also befriended the First Nations boy and we would play together sometimes at recess and after school. My teacher was consistently angry with him because he was always the “bad” kid. It probably had a lot to do with his race and less with who he was as a young boy. Once my Grade 3 teacher got so mad at him during class, he grabbed him by the shirt, dragged his back against the wall, and yelled at him in front of the whole classroom. It was pretty traumatizing for a kid to witness. Later on in my teenage years I also experienced a harsh form of hate. It was Canada Day, and after the fireworks were over, I split off from my group of friends to head home. A few young white drunken fools approached me for the sake of belittling me, trying to coax me into a fight. One of the smart fellas proceeded to call me a “F&#!ing chink,” while the other guy was mimicking what was supposed to be Chinese language. I thought, “Of all the days, Canada Day is when we are to celebrate our country’s great diversity.” Needless to say, I moved on and walked away. Unlike Bruce Lee, I couldn’t take on three dudes. So how do we overcome such ridiculous, ignorant behaviour? I’ve come to learn that the people who believe they are entitled to oppress others are often the ones who are the most hurt and need the most help. During the last decade I’ve noticed people who envy my skin tone; some even go to tanning beds to get that sweet light chocolate brown tone. I am Canadian and proud of my ethnic heritage. I will remember my roots and be thankful for what I have been given. So I’ve been able to forgive those who have offended me. I’ve moved on. Because life is too short to let anger, hate, and injustice consume you. We all need grace at some point in our lives. The shame I felt as a child, somewhere along the journey, turned into fear. We should never deny ourselves opportunities to move beyond that fear. Identify what that fear is all about, get to the root of it, and move past it. Because real change is root change. The more I align myself to become who I am as a child of God, the more alive I am. We were made to move. Now get moving.

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Views // dating

ou can talk all you like about “what’s inside is what counts.” We still have assumptions about what physical attributes indicate those inner qualities. Sometimes I think the dating process is nothing but testing those assumptions for accuracy. (For instance, it took me a long time to realize that any guy can wear a leather jacket and smoke Pall Malls, but it doesn’t necessarily make him a cosmopolitan rebel.) Race is one of those visual indicators we use to guess at inner qualities: whether it’s calling Latin Americans passionate, or characterizing Asians as shy. So I asked some people about some of the assumptions out there about interracial relationships. Here’s what I got.

Interracial Relationships

Why do people get so weird about them? By Chelsea Batten

I just found that people always thought it was weird to see an Asian guy with a white girl. Usually, they expect it to be the other way around.

(half-Japanese, half-white) they always say, “Oooohhhh, he must be goooood looking!” Never rude. Most reactions are positive, like, “Oh, you’ll have beautiful kids.” My family suffers from several genetic conditions that are more common to Jews due to decades of living in a small gene pool. Since my wife’s ancestry is so divergent from mine, there was basically no chance of our daughter inheriting them, which is great. Go hybrid vigour!

upbringing in [New York's] Catskills, asked me if I had turned into a “Jap” after my honeymoon. I said, “I had sex with my husband, if that’s what you’re asking. But no, that doesn’t turn me into a Japanese person.” We were walking to my car, when some of the neighbourhood kids were shouting things like, “Hey! You like that black ass!” at us. I admit to being pretty used to my white male privilege, and it really made

me uncomfortable to get shouted at like that on the street. The thing that gets me is that [my wife] is so used to this nonsense that she doesn’t even remember it. I dated someone from South America and while our relationship wasn’t hard, my relationship with his family was strained. They spoke very little English, which he seemed embarrassed by. He also never spoke in Spanish in front of me. I never could convince him that the cultural differences were nothing to be embarrassed about and that it was something to be proud of.

would marry a white man...to the point where she sounds like she is still surprised that she married my pasty-white dad. My dad had only dated black women at the church they met in — I guess he was expecting to marry a black woman. Anyway, my parents just love each other, and they find it entertaining when people comment or act strange about their being together. The main thing my parents have in common is their [faith]. They remind me that I may be surprised [by] who I end up with.

My dad told me to never date/marry a Chinese boy. He’s the one who married a Chinese woman! So what does that say?

Illustrations by Andy Wang

You would think that interracial couples are “colour blind,” but my parents both make prejudiced comments about other racial groups, including their own.

There’s a lot of ties when you marry into an Eastern culture — you marry the whole family. You have to decide whether you want your in-laws to move in with you when they retire.

A lot of my AfricanAmerican friends refuse to date black men. When I ask them why, their answer is, “I don’t do black culture.” Indians do the same — “I don’t want to marry an Indian; you know how they think.”

When Japanese nationals hear my husband is a Hapa

My grandpa, who had issues with many races from his

My mom always talks about how she never thought she

I sometimes I feel like some of our white, liberal acquaintances invite us to things so that they can fulfill their quota of having a black friend.

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Views // Global

The Friendship after a storm How i gained a second family By Ruth Anaya

may I have your attention, please?” I was I heard the pilot’s muffled voice as he addressed the intensely passengers through the public address system. alert, Having left home in Vancouver over 18 hours ago, I was increasingly excited to be landing in Guatemala City in about one hour. This was the fifth year in a row that I was teaching anthroanxious. pology courses to a small group of Canadian university stuHere I was, dents living and studying in Antigua, Guatemala. I thrive on adventure, and by this time had grown fond of the country. a woman Most of all, I love students. I felt privileged to be teaching alone in a abroad. dangerous “We’re unable to land in Guatemala, due to a severe storm stretched across the city.” My musings ended. The pilot said city at they were assessing the amount of fuel they had, and were night. seeking permission to land somewhere in a neighbouring country. Lightning lit up the darkness and flashed on the metallic wing. Before long we were informed that we would be heading to Cancun, Mexico. My hopes were up that I might actually get an airline freebie. But, (of course) it didn’t happen. We all remained on the plane, and at about midnight we departed for Guatemala City. I saw the glowing lava of a volcano and recognized our approach was only minutes away. We landed in a near-empty airport — few tourists, and fewer awaiting their arrival. Ruth Anaya is a professor at Trinity I didn’t see my friend who was supposed to pick me up, and Western University, feared the storm had prevented him from reaching the airport. where she teaches I was intensely alert, increasingly anxious. Here I was, a woman in the School of the alone in a dangerous city at night, unable to speak fluent SpanArts, Media and Culture and the ish. It was a sobering realization. Although I had travelled the School of Business. world extensively, I didn’t feel prepared for this. Her expertise I knew no one in this mega city. I had neither a phone nor a and research is single phone number. in cross-cultural communication, While waiting and praying for my friend to arrive, a young global leadership, woman approached me, asking if I was one of the ladies from and international Los Angeles she was expecting. I wasn’t. Together we waited — community she for her guests, and I for my host. development.

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Photos courtesy of Ruth Anaya

“Ladies and gentleman,

Trinity Western University's travel program introduces students to the vibrancy and diversity of Latin Culture.

Neither arrived. By now it was 1 a.m. Sensing my trepidation, Marili, the young woman, said she wouldn’t leave me there, and if necessary I could even go home with her. As security was locking up, she asked if I wanted a ride to a hotel. We approached her company van. I noted she worked for a funeral company. Was I foolish to be going — to where, I didn’t know — with a complete stranger?! The driver drove to a few hotels, but none would take any guests as they were without services. Much of the city was without power. Flickering light from tin cans placed in the middle of roadways forewarned drivers of fallen trees, tangled powerlines or huge billboards. It had been one of the biggest storms the city had ever experienced, and I was in the middle of it. So Marili took me home, fed me, and left me with all that was hers in her bedroom. In the morning I was welcomed into the Lopez family — Marili’s father declared that I now belonged. The 10 years that followed proved the truth of that sentiment. Guatemala has become my new home, and her family my family. This was especially important to me, as my work in Guatemala meant that for eight years of my children’s childhood, I was never home for Mother’s Day, nor for my birthday. But now I have another endearing family to cherish and to remind me that I am loved. (The friend who was supposed to pick me

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up that night actually got his dates wrong; he thought I was flying in the following day. So I guess I have him to thank for all of this!) My annual trips to Guatemala now leave me with fewer days with the family, but our loyalty and joy is as profound as the miracle of the night our friendship was born. Through the Lopez family, I came to love, and in small measure, understand Guatemalans. My life has been enriched by the generosity of heart and the vibrancy of faith of Guatemalan believers. More personally, the embrace of my Guatemalan family and their boundless, selfless love challenges me to reach out to strangers and to trust God in all my global adventures. Through that frightful experience of that stormy night, I learned that our own vulnerabilities can become our finest attributes and can lead us to some of our most cherished relationships.

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Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Life! TheTis island - BriTish ColumBia - Canada

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16 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

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Views // Self

Discovering My Own

Voice

from hating my culture to embracing it By Jenn Co

“I hate Chinese people!

I can’t stand being in the same room, sharing the same airspace as them. I. Gotta. Get. Out. Of. Here.” Thoughts like these plagued me for years. In my teens I was diagnosed with high blood pressure because of the underlying rage boiling inside of me.

How many

Flickr photo (cc) by Bastien Vaucher

For a while I didn’t know where my of us anger stemmed from. Perhaps it was the know the lack of boundaries I experienced growing extent of up whenever my uncle would barge into our side of the family compound, whiskour selfing away some kitchen utensil without prejudice ever asking permission, slamming the door on the way out. Or perhaps I craved a against father’s affection, but got none — because our own he was either absent, or full of rage when ethnicity? he was present. (I’m not too sure which one was worse.) I grew up with a hatred so intense, it resulted in suicidal tendencies. Before I turned 17, I tried to end my life three times. We’re aware of the evils of racism. But how many of us know the extent of our self-prejudice against our own ethnicity? For me, being born Chinese was tantamount to suffocation, oppression, and imprisonment. I never had a chance to explore childhood. The amount of responsibility I carried as a 13-yearold ﬁrst born amounted to me planning weekly grocery trips and aligning family ﬁnances in order to feed my siblings, while Mom and Dad were abroad on their annual business trip. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let’s back up a bit. I was born in the Philippines. Both sets of great-grandparents settled there after escaping wars in China in the early 1900s. As with all immigrants, starting a new life in a foreign country

wasn’t easy. They started businesses and integrated into the community; three generations later, my four siblings and I came into this world. The drive to survive and succeed runs through my veins. It’s part of my make-up, my ethnic inheritance. So where did all this animosity originate from? I realized how deep-seated my racial prejudice was when I started talking with my mom about her growing up years. My grandmother wanted it to be ingrained into my mom’s mind that Chinese people were superior above all races. Mom wasn’t allowed to socialize with non-Chinese people, even though her daily interactions constituted being around Filipino helpers and drivers. “It was odd. [Filipinos] were with us more than our parents and relatives,” my mom said. “I had to behave accordingly when the adults were around. But when they weren’t, I’d sneak into the maids’ room to chat with them and eat their food. We weren’t even allowed to eat their food because it was poor people’s food. I couldn’t bring up my concerns with my parents. You never question the older generation.” And even though ﬁlial piety was hammered into Mom’s psyche to the point she married her ﬁrst husband (my father), Mom said she rebelled in her own way. Many of her true friends were Filipino, Mom said, despite being punished for these friendships. Coming home, my mom said she would be greeted by her seething mother lashing out a tirade of verbal invectives, topped off with the expected beltwhipping by the time she reached the top of the stairs. convergemagazine.com

| 17

Views // Self

A decade’s worth of counselling later, I am finally beginning to be comfortable with who I am.

memories provoked my own set of emotions. I knew she struggled with her identity growing up, but this explained an aspect of my own tension. Communication was non-existent in my family — at least the healthy kind. No one voiced their true feelings. Everyone hid behind the mask of propriety and expectation. You did what you were told. You weren’t allowed to think for yourself. “It hurt to get smacked so often, but I knew deep inside Filipinos were people too. I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t allow me to befriend them. They would force other Chinese kids to be my friends, but it was all so fake. I saw my mom and our relatives as hypocrites. They would say one thing in front of people, but stab them behind their backs,” she said. My mom told me this internal agitation almost caused her to jump off a rooftop during a church weekend retreat. “I felt betrayed by my parents. I believed and trusted in them. But they told me all these lies. It was that traumatic.” Mom said she didn’t want anything to do with Chinese people. Aside from thinking they were hollow shells, only obeying their elders out of fear, she began distancing herself from some of the cultural norms. “I never heard your dad say he loved me until I served him the divorce papers,” she said. “Chinese men never expressed such things. So I told myself ... I would show my love,” she said. “I would leave no doubt in my kids’ minds I loved them. I called them honey and darling, which your grandmother hated. She thought it useless and pitiful. But I didn’t care. I didn’t want my children to suffer an identity crisis.” Listening to my mother’s painful

In the past few years, I’ve started to become aware of the beauty of what it is to be Chinese: the spirit of excellence I carry, the tenacity to ﬂourish anywhere. Funnily enough, I create and host a national radio broadcast produced by Mainstream Broadcasting Radio called “Silk Road,” which is all about Chinese culture and travel. I also ﬁnd myself attending a predominantly Chinese church and am surrounded by such amazing people. I’m coming to understand that although there’s still more healing in store for me, I’m already walking in a freedom that generations past have never experienced. The issues I’ve wrestled with my entire life run parallel in many ways to my mom’s. I’m realizing how many of our core struggles point to God’s desire to redeem the inheritance of our heritage. God purposely made me Chinese. I now count it my joy to discover why.

Jenn (right) with her two siblings, Jon (left), Jeremy (middle), and their grandma and grandpa

Blind obedience above everything. Ironically, Mom’s intentionality about showing affection back-ﬁred. Instead of feeling heard and valued with the hugs, cards, and one-on-one dates, I felt smothered and repressed. I moved to Canada with my mom and my three siblings in 1996. About a year after moving, it was clear I needed to work through some of my pain and anger. A decade’s worth of counselling later, I am finally beginning to be comfortable with who I am. You could say I am finally starting to find my voice.

18 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

Jenn's mom in her teen years

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| 19

Views // Q&A

Explain your culture.

mingle & mix: multi-ethnic couples By Jenn Co

The joys and challenges when people of different backgrounds get together.

N: Samoan culture is very community-family

oriented. Everyone lives together, takes care of each other. We love hosting people. If you come visit my family, we’ll make sure you’re fed before you leave.

Celebrities who have multiethnic backgrounds

T: Everything was ripped away from us First

Nations through the residential school system. My grandparents and parents were given Anglicized names and weren’t allowed to speak their own language, only English. They couldn’t talk to their siblings or see their families during the school year. Everyone was given a number. That number was on their clothes, their bed. For most of my life, I was embarrassed of who I was. I felt I was dealt the wrong cards when God created me.

Tiger Woods He comes from African-American, Thai, Chinese, Native American and Dutch ancestry. In fact, he’s come up with his own word for his ethnicity: "Cablinasian." (That is, Caucasian, Black, American Indian, and Asian.)

What have you learned from being in a cross-cultural marriage? N: We went through pre-marital counselling

because of our different backgrounds. Crossculture marriage is not easy, especially in the area of communication. When I get upset, I shut down. I don’t talk. But she wants every detail out of me.

T: Maybe it was also because English was Niu’s

second language so he found it hard to express himself. When he’d say, “Leave me alone. I need time to process,” I pressed him to talk, which drove him crazy.

N: We got some great advice during our pre-

Rashida Jones and Kidada Jones Their dad (musician Quincy Jones) is mainly of AfricanAmerican ancestry with some European heritage. Their mom, actress Peggy Lipton, is of Russian-Jewish and Latvian-Jewish descent.

marital counselling. “Niu, Tina will never be a Samoan wife and vice versa. Take the best part of the Samoan and Native culture and make something of your own.”

How do you expose your kids to both cultures? T: We wanted to instill an entrepreneurial spirit

Mariah Carey Her dad is African-Cuban and African-American, and her mom’s genes are Irish.

in Joshua. He started a business called “Chahoo Buffalo,” creating beaded jewelry and key chains. Samoans yell “Chahoo” when dancing or celebrating. “Buffalo” is for the First Nation part of him.

Niu Savea 33, Samoan School custodian and motivational speaker.

Tina Savea 34, Saulteaux First Nation from Keeseekoose First Nation, Saskatchewan Homeschooling mother, on call First Nation teacher assistant and motivational speaker.

Kids: Joshua, 8 // Hope, 5 // Benjamin, 3

20 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

When we ﬁrst moved to Victoria, we put Joshua in tribal school on the reserve for a year and a half before finally homeschooling him. Even though it’s not necessarily our own tribe, we wanted him to learn about the coastal culture. I’m learning about First Nations along with my children. It’s new to me too. We take them to powwows and rallies.

Barack Obama His mom is a white Kansan; his dad is a black Kenyan.

N: Tina and I met doing missionary work, so it’s

Bruno Mars (aka Peter Hernandez) His mom is from the Philippines; his dad is of Puerto Rican, HungarianJewish, and Ukranian-Jewish descent.

part of our foundation. We’ve always wanted to bring our family to Samoa — not just to visit, but to invest in our people. There’s still a lot of rebuilding for villages hit by the tsunami four years ago.

Live the Theatre!

What kinds of conflicts arose in your families because of cultural differences? Jenn: When we got engaged, Jin’s

Jin Choi 31, Korean Founder of Internet startup MoneyGeek

Jennifer Choi 33, Canadian ESL tutor Jin was born in Korea. When he was five, his family moved to the United States. When he was eight, they moved back to Korea, only to move to Ireland when he was 12. Jin stayed there until, when he was 18, he moved to Canada, where he has lived for the last 13 years. Jenn has lived in Canada her whole life.

Why did you go to Korea after your wedding? Jin: We thought my mom wouldn’t

make the Canadian wedding because of cancer. But she did.

Jenn: We went to Korea for relatives

who couldn’t attend the wedding, but the trip had some snags — the main issue being control over time. Jin’s parents created our itinerary before we arrived, dictating what we did when. We were at their mercy.

Jin: I also didn’t like them wanting to pay for everything. I’m a responsible adult. To me, they were treating me like a child.

Jenn: In Korea, children are paid

for through university until they get married. They grow up later in life.

parents wanted to meet mine halfway between Korea and Kelowna. They picked Hawaii. My dad said no. He felt this wedding was between Jin and I. Dad also declined [going to] the reception hosted by Jin’s parents in Korea, which concerned Jin’s folks because they felt it important he be there. During our Canadian wedding, Jin suggested my dad bow out of respect to his dad. [My dad] refused and was quite upset. He said he only bows before God.

Jin: In Korea, bowing is the same

as waving one’s hand. It’s a gesture, nothing more. My dad would’ve bowed back.

Live Your Story rosebudschoolofthearts.com 1.403.677.2350

Jenn: My mom came to Korea and

embraced the culture. She even went to the Korean baths and got naked. She did great!

Jin: Jenn’s mom is more easy-going

than my mother. My mom scheduled everything. She likes to plan things for others.

How did your family respond to your marrying outside of your own ethnicity? Jenn: My sister married a Chilean-

Canadian. So perhaps it prepped my family for our own union.

Jin: My parents gave up on me mar-

rying a Korean. They would have preferred that. But my younger brother is very Korean. He attends a Korean church, speaks the language, is dating and hangs out with Koreans. So hopefully my parents will get a Korean grandchild.

Jenn: I actually enjoy being married

to someone ethnically different. I like having different cultures, traditions, food, clothes. I’ve gained a Korean side. It makes life more interesting, richer. You have a deeper history.

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| 21

Views // Q&A

Norah Jones Her dad is the Indian sitar legend Ravi Shankar. Her mom is Caucasian.

Moses Waswa 32, Ugandan Development Relations Officer for Watoto Canada

Kate Mukasa 32, South African International Co-ordinator for Living Hope, Watoto

Steve Jobs His biological dad is Syrian; his biological mom is of German heritage. His adoptive parents are Armenian-Americans

Kids: Elijah, 4 // Sophia, 1

How did you meet? K: I worked with his sister for Watoto Children’s

Choir. She tried setting us up, but I wasn’t interested because the tribe they’re from — Baganda — men are short and I’m tall. One day I showed up at the office and there was Moses, in all his 6-3 glory. He was so good looking. So when he said hi, I got ﬂustered and walked out.

M: We eventually hit it off and became really good friends.

So how did people react when you told them you were getting married? M: When I told my family I was going to marry Kate, a Mzungu [white girl], my uncles thought she was going to ruin my life because one of my cousins married a Mzungu, and that’s what happened.

K: As a South African, our nation’s history

isn’t great with inter-ethnic relationships. My family’s liberal-minded, but we grew up in a racist environment. No one expected me to fall for a black Ugandan. I experienced more racial aversion from the Ugandan women. Some of them told Moses, “You shouldn’t marry her. She’s trouble.” People said he was marrying me to escape and make money in Canada. This angers me. Moses is one of the most incredible men I know. It pisses me off they would make assumptions. We met in August 2008, started dating in December, got engaged in April, realized we were pregnant in May, and got married in June. We were also ﬁred from our jobs. We had to move to Canada.

Alexis Bledel Her dad is Argentinean; her mom is Hispanic.

What have you learned marrying someone of a different culture? M: Ugandans are expressive with their body

K: His mother and sisters were supportive of our relationship.

language but not with words. For the first two years of marriage, I worked hard to communicate verbally.

M: My mom knew the moment I found someone

K: The main issues weren’t cultural but

I loved; it didn’t matter whether she was black or white.

Keanu Reeves His Hawaiian father has English, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Scottish and Chinese ancestry. His mother is of English heritage.

personality differences. As long as you’re both open-minded, things can work.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson His mother’s ethnic background is Samoan, and his dad is a black Nova Scotian.

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| 23

Angles | Nation

The aftermath of oppression The ongoing plight of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples in Canada

By Leanne Janzen

s European settlers moved into what is now known as Canada, the colonization of indigenous people led to the dispossession of their land, furthering their subjugation to the colonizers. Canada’s first prime minister, John A. MacDonald, even sanctioned the starving of Aboriginal peoples in order to make way for more Europeans to move in. Starting in the 1840s, the Canadian government, through its policy of “aggressive assimilation,” apprehended Aboriginal children 24 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

CLOCKWISE: A young First Nations man dancing (Western Canada). The One Spot family of the Sarcee people: grandmother, greatgrandmother and their grandchildren, at Teepee Village, Victoria Park during the Calgary Stampede. Kyaiyi-stamik (Bear Bull), a member of the Blackfoot Nation, Alberta, 1926.

from their families and put them into residential schools: churchrun facilities that taught English, Christianity, and Canadian culture with the goal of having native language and traditions substantially dwindle within a few generations. The conditions of these schools were often in disrepair, and there are countless stories of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Many were ashamed of their culture and where they came from. The last residential school closed as late as 1996. (Jacobs tells me she was one of the lucky ones; because her parents had lost their Indian status, her and her 11 siblings were never sent to residential schools.) Then there’s also what’s known as the “Sixties Scoop”: when government social workers removed a massive amount of Aboriginal children from their families and put them into the child welfare system. In 1970, about a third of the children in foster care were First Nations, Inuit, or Métis. And the injustice isn’t just a thing of the past.

Photos by Gar Lunney / National Film Board of Canada, Edward S. Curtis. Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada

harlene Jacobs’ shoulders shake as she covers her face in her hands. Her plain gold wedding band clinks against her glasses as she moves to collect herself. “After how many years, the pain still surfaces,” she says, her round brown eyes glistening as she sits across the table from me. Upon moving his family from one small community in northern B.C. to another, Jacobs says the prejudice her step-dad experienced as a result of being First Nations got to be too much for him; as a result, he eventually took his own life. “He drank, you know, and couldn’t take it no more,” Jacobs says. “He just checked out.” And it wasn’t just her father who was socially ostracized. Throughout her life, Jacobs says she has had to deal with feeling alienated on account of her skin colour: “It’s just cruel, like little remarks and stuff like that,” Jacobs says. “My sister Christine was ashamed of being Indian I think at one time. Because it was so cruel, the racism.” Canada — a country that prides itself on its multiculturalism — has a history steeped in oppression towards First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. It’s not only lived out in the day to day, as Jacobs’ story illustrates, but it has been at the helm of public policy virtually since Canada’s inception. But I don’t remember hearing about any of it until university. Sure, growing up we learned about hunters and gatherers and buffalo and the fur trade. I recall sitting in a teepee once, huddled around a fire. I also remember when my classmate Erik found an arrowhead in his backyard, how my Grade 5 teacher told us matter-of-factly that many of our houses were built on historical Aboriginal land. And I never really questioned why houses were built on top of ancient arrowheads, because it seemed as though it didn’t really matter; we only talked about Aboriginal peoples in the past tense. Like they had somehow disappeared. Except (also in Grade 5) when one of my friends told me she thought all “natives” were a bunch of lazy alcoholic whiners who got a free ride from the government. I remember knowing in my gut there was something wrong about what she said. But I didn’t know any non-white people at the time who could tell me otherwise.

Indeed, the statistics are staggering: according to a 2013 report co-written by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Save the Children Canada, about half of all status First Nations children live in poverty. And for those First Nations children who live on reserves, the poverty rate is three times higher than non-indigenous children. The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness also says that in 2013, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples are overrepresented in homeless populations in most communities in Canada. And although Aboriginal people make up about four per cent of Canada’s population, they consist of approximately 23.2 per cent of the prison population. These numbers feed the stereotype; they create this distance between “us” and “them,” without really understanding the why behind it all. “You go down to skid row and you see all the drunken Indians there,” Jacobs says as she points her chin towards the restaurant window. “But they’re there for a reason. Something happened in their life.” “Nobody ends up on skid row for nothing.”

’m overwhelmed. I have been since I started learning about Canada’s dark history in university, since I started talking with people who don’t look white like me. These feelings of being overwhelmed most often translate into guilt, which later morph into helplessness, leading — more often than not — to paralysis. But how do I move past it? How do we, as a Christian community, move past ignorance and non-action? Terry LeBlanc, as the director of the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies, is well versed in trying to shift the paradigms present in mainstream Christianity. He tells me about a friend of his, who was trying to bring reconciliation between a church group and a First Nations group. The church, years before, had encroached upon First Nations land and built not only worship facilities but other buildings on it. When the church asked what they could do to restore the relationship with First Nations peoples in the future, LeBlanc’s friend told them that once the buildings have been decommissioned from religious purposes, they could simply return the land to First Nations peoples. LeBlanc says this caused quite the stir in the church. “If it’s a now-but-not-yet experience of the fullness of Christ, why would we be so

Interested in learning more? Here are a few resources to get you started:

READ: Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life James Daschuk, University of Regina Press Truth and Reconciliation Commission www.trc.ca “The truth telling and reconciliation process as part of an overall holistic and comprehensive response to the Indian Residential School legacy is a sincere indication and acknowledgement of the injustices and harms experienced by Aboriginal people and the need for continued healing.” First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada www.fncaringsociety.com Is a nonprofit organization that provides resources to support First Nations communities to empower children, youth and families. It also lists many ways for nonAboriginal peoples to get involved.

doggone concerned about a chunk of land like that?” LeBlanc says. “If you look carefully you’ll find that Christians are deeply entrenched in the same kinds of enterprises as people who are not Christian. As if somehow this is all there is.” So LeBlanc says churches need to reexamine their theologies, and to actually live out what they say they believe. That, as members of the kingdom of heaven, works need to accompany our faith, and material possessions, such as land, should be held loosely. He also encourages Christians to support some of the movements that are taking place in the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities — such as advocating for education equality, or looking into the history of the land beyond the superficial. On the one hand, I’m grateful for these ways in which I can use my privilege. On the other, it means I can no longer plead ignorance. I won’t ever fully understand what Jacobs means when she talks about her ancestors fighting and dying for their land. I can’t undo the fact that my suburban home where I grew up was probably built on appropriated territory. And I won’t ever really comprehend what it feels like to be an outsider, everyday fighting against assumptions and stereotypes. I can’t. Not completely. But I can start to do something about it. convergemagazine.com

| 25

Angles | Culture

have any jokes that are necessarily racist,” says Christian comedian Daniel Woodrow. “If you talk about it tastefully and you talk about it right, it can be done.” Woodrow says Michael Richards, the comedian who played Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld, is an example of racial comedy gone wrong.

It's not RACISt It's COMEDY

When standup crosses the line By Nicki Lamont

“You’ve heard the old saying: Once you go black, you’re a single mother.” This is a racist statement, right? By any social standards, to say this would be completely unacceptable, but when it’s said to a room filled with thousands of people from all different ethnicities, it’s met with near-deafening laughter. Why? Because when Skippy Simon says it onstage, it’s comedy, not racism. Somewhere amongst the black jokes and fake Asian accents, comedians have managed to turn the stage into a safe place for prejudice.

Blatant ethnic discrimination in everyday society may be diminishing, but it seems that the use of racially charged humour has been on the rise. With nearly every mainstream comedian — from Louis C.K. to Canadian standup Gerry Dee — perpetuating ethnic stereotypes in their sets seemingly without consequence, the question must be asked: is it still considered racist if we’re calling it comedy? “I talk about race in my set, but I don’t

26 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

During that now-infamous 2006 set at West Hollywood’s The Laugh Factory, the Seinfeld actor was interrupted by an audience member who heckled his already racially motivated dialogue. Richards then singled out the heckler and barraged him with a series of racial slurs, going as far as calling him the n-word while suggesting he would have been a slave 50 years ago. “He was trying to be funny, but he crossed that line. I genuinely don’t think he has those views, but he started using derogatory language out of anger and ended up nearly ending his career,” says Woodrow. The shocking part about standup isn’t when the audience gets offended. It’s how infrequently they actually are offended. Race in comedy isn’t exactly a recent development: humour looking to make a satire of racial stereotypes has been a reoccurring theme in comedy clubs since the stages were first built. For years, comedians like Richard Pryor and Kevin Hart seem to have been casually using the n-word in the forefront of their acts in an attempt to re-claim the word. But it’s debatable as to whether doing so is helping diminish the power of racist words, or simply adding fuel to the fire. “You can say more on stage than you could say to someone just walking by on the street. There is a little bit more grace,” says Woodrow. “But people do still get offended.

Flickr photo (cc) by CleftClips

It’s not shocking that the audience gets offended. It’s shocking is how infrequently it happens.

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There are a lot of race and sexual issues in the world, and you have to respect that. It stops becoming funny when you start breaking social standards. Comedians who aren’t aware of that are the ones who insult their crowds.” Woodrow’s outlook is anything but biased. As a halfblack, half-white 26-year-old comedian who was raised by two white parents in a prominently Christian home, his background greatly influences his view on racial humour. “I make white jokes and I don’t find them racist because white people have never been a minority,” says Woodrow. “White jokes are far more accepted than black jokes because white people have never been the victim; they’ve never had a history of hardships. Poking at someone’s white guilt is far more acceptable than picking on a minority, because there’s no real grounds for white people to be offended. That’s why people find it funny.” And judging by the growing popularity of targeting white people as the punchline in humour, he might be right. The 2008 book Stuff White People Like contains 224 pages of stereotypical white person behaviour and interests. Although the book, born from the popular blog of the same name, generated acute controversy with its debut, it still managed to stay on the New York Times best sellers list for six weeks. “You can talk about any race you want and make it either racist or not racist; the only difference is your intention,”

Comedians take those dark subjects like race and sexual issues and talk about them in a way that takes away their power. says Patrick Stewart, a comedy writing and performance student at Humber College in Toronto. “Racism is rooted in hate, but proper comedy is done with good heart and good will. Comedians take those dark subjects like race and sexual issues and talk about them in a way that takes away their power,” says Stewart. Comedians seem to have the mentality that anyone is fair game as long as you keep the game fair. Racial humour has become a cornerstone in the comedy world, and the industry has developed its own heedful understanding of the difference between an acceptable punch line and a racial slur. But a comedian doesn’t have a set without an audience to laugh along. Although comedians have the power to bring voice to racism in popular culture, the audience has the bigger responsibility to call racism for what it is.

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| 27

Angles | Religion

atheism:

a new ethnicity By Paul Arnold

Paul Arnold is a recent graduate of Regent College and is currently living in rural Uganda and working at a community development project with his wife. They are blogging about their time here: paulandkrista. wordpress.com

theists are a hard group to pin down. They are defined not by what they believe, but by what they don’t believe — namely, God. Because of this, atheism is by definition a negative belief, not a positive one. Holding a negative belief can at times be problematic. It would be like if somebody asked you where you lived and you listed all the places where you don’t live. It’s not wrong, but it’s not very constructive either. Even Sam Harris, a renowned atheist, captures some of the contradictions inherent in the word “atheism.” In his book Letter to a Christian Nation, he says, “In fact, ‘atheism’ is a term that should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a ‘non-astrologer’ or a ‘non-alchemist.’ We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs.” This is why many atheists prefer to identify themselves in more positive terms like

28 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

Everyone holds positive beliefs, values, and practices. Even atheists.

Flickr photo (cc) by Procyin

Unpacking the secular worldview

materialist, naturalist, rationalist, freethinker, humanist, or secularist rather than negative terms like atheist or agnostic that are unavoidably linked to religion. A 2012 Pew Forum study used the term “nones” to identify individuals who did not express any religious affiliation. Interestingly though, despite what “nones” seems to imply, it does not actually preclude a belief in God: “Most of the ‘nones’ [polled in the study] say they believe in God, and most describe themselves as religious, spiritual or both.” This goes to show that no one is actually a “nones” in every day life. Everyone holds positive beliefs, values, and practices that govern their choices on a daily basis. Even atheists. For this reason, some people argue that atheism should be considered an ethnicity. In the National Post, Jackson Doughart recently argued that a person raised in a secular household would assuredly absorb many of the beliefs, values, and practices of their atheist parents. According to Doughart, ethnicity depends primarily on the group into which an individual is born. And as it appears in Canada, atheism is increasingly becoming a cultural “group.” It might seem odd to consider atheism an ethnicity, but when you look at the definition of ethnicity it’s not completely illogical. Ethnicity, at its core, is a set of values and practices passed down from generation to generation. Ethnicity is not unlike culture, which is also concerned with values and practices, but it is also not the same as culture. Where ethnicity is backward looking and concerned with tradition, culture is forward looking and concerned with future. In other words, ethnicity is culture’s tradition. So, if we accept that atheists or secularists or humanists are a group who hold positive beliefs that are part of a cultural tradition, then it isn’t a stretch to think of atheism as an ethnicity. We also tend to define ethnicity along racial lines, but this

doesn’t have to be the case. Consider Judaism, whose “ethnicity” now contains numerous different races, or the Balkan states of Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia who are racially similar but ethnically diverse because of their religious traditions. Or think of Canada. Canada consists of an eclectic mix of races and cultures that make it very difficult to point at someone or some community and say, “You are Canadian!” (Not that Canadians would point — that would be rude.) But just because it’s difficult to articulate what it means to be Canadian doesn’t mean there is nothing that is distinctly Canadian. Canada has a cultural tradition and that tradition could — and perhaps should — be thought of in ethnic terms. The same is true for atheism. Just because it is difficult to articulate what an atheist believes, doesn’t mean they don’t believe anything. We all, whether we like it or not, inherit beliefs from those who came before us. It’s likely that atheists will surely scoff at any attempt to categorize their community based on inheritance. Atheism does, after all, come from a pedigree that attacks any inherited belief or tradition. No belief or tradition, religious or otherwise, is safe from the probes and scalpels of the iconoclastic atheist who believes that the laboratory is the only place to discover truth. But herein lies one of the major problems with atheism: it assumes beliefs should not involve any dimension of uncertainty. Which is unlike religious belief, that faith is built on trust, not proof. Most of our inherited beliefs, values, and practices cannot be proven as fact. No matter how hard the atheist or secularist or humanist may try, they will not be able to reject everything that can’t be measured or constructed with the scientific method. Some things, like ethnicity and cultural traditions, are beyond the reach of science. And ironically, this means that atheism is also beyond the reach of science, because many — I dare say most — of its inherited beliefs, values, and practices cannot be proven as fact. It’s like being Canadian, really. “Canadianness” may be difficult to identify, measure, and articulate. But we know it exists. Somewhere. Even if we can’t prove it.

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Angles | Society

Changing the

Conversation Two friends discuss racism and privilege By Kyle Stiemsma and Sabine Monice

“I am a black female.” “I am a white male.” Neither of us would typically use these words to define ourselves. “I am forced to think about my race more than I want to.” “I usually don’t think about my race, and I’ve never been a victim of oppression.” We’re both trying to change the race conversation.

Kyle: What’s the first thing that stands out to you in a conversation about race?

Sabine: I agree. Our friendship has never ignored racial

will never understand the hardships of the other. While I get that, why do we have to spend so much time bringing up the past? As a black person, I know it was not you who personally took part in some of the injustices that have happened historically. I don’t need you to remind me of those things. Why do you feel as though you have to apologize for that?

differences. In fact, we openly acknowledge the presence of privilege in both of our lives. But I think what has been helpful for our friendship is that we never “pull the race card” and let that be an excuse for anything — hatred, success, failure…. I think that is where we can take the conversation. Instead of bringing up the past and making victims and instead of apologizing, what if we started every conversation conveying choice rather than control? We can’t change the past. But we do however, have a choice in how to direct the conversation.

Kyle: Sometimes people talk as if they themselves suffered

Kyle: I feel like it’s far more productive to talk about privilege

Sabine: I always see that it is one side saying how they

the injustices of the past, and this makes me feel like I have to apologize for something I played no part in and for something they never faced. I love our friendship because race has hardly ever come up between us, but when it has, it has allowed us to take a few steps in each other’s shoes. We’re not “colour blind.” I know you have different experiences than me, and I know I encounter all sorts of privilege that is foreign to you. 30 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

rather than point out things that are racist. Racism exists. But for the average person, what we’re dealing with most of the time is unbalanced privilege rather than seething hatred.

Sabine: Right. Another part of the race conversation that

concerns me is that we never really come up with a solution. It always ends with, “And this is where we’re at.” What will it take to move us to action in our daily lives?

Kyle: Do you think there is an end

or a final solution? Should we seek diverse friendships? Aim to have diverse neighbours? Engage in more affirmative action?

Sabine: Let’s think of the term

affirmative action and remove it from the professional/academic world. It is no longer a policy forced upon us by legislations; it is now a personal charge. It essentially means that we should be respectful of other cultures and always welcome diversity. This is great, but it doesn’t translate well between personal ethics and institutional ethics and often stirs all sorts of controversy. It makes it seem mandatory to treat others with respect. I believe God wanted it to be in our nature to love Him, just as it should be part of our nature to love our neighbour regardless of colour. Affirmative action can make it seem so forced. And while mutual respect and equal opportunity should be

Kyle: So I suppose the Christian

message speaks directly into the conversation. If we loved individuals for no merit of their own, as God loves us, then this conversation would not only change, but disappear.

Sabine: So love is the answer? How

…your dreams

Kyle: Ha! Well?

…your heart

cliché…

Sabine: Well, when we enter into

conversations about race, we’re always looking at ourselves and what we bring to the table. It’s either one side is making excuses for past behaviour or the other side is overplaying victimization. Both are very selfcentred and highly defensive.

Kyle: So we need to change the focus?

Sabine: Exactly. I just feel like we

get into these conversations because

It’s either one side is making excuses for past behaviour or the other side is overplaying victimization. something everyone does without thinking, demanding it won’t make everyone do it. How can we expect companies, who are made of people, to do what feels fake to individuals? We crave authenticity; a lack of it will drive people away.

Kyle: While I’m all for equaling out

privilege in the public square, I don’t want it to be phoney and artificial. While it may do some good, it doesn’t do good enough.

Sabine: “The poor will always be

among us.” This verse really bothers me, but it’s true. And it in no way means we stop trying to help. How can we apply the same sentiments to this conversation? People will always be different colours. The white man and the black women will always be among us. The kind and the jerks, the ugly and the beautiful will always be among us.

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we want to justify ourselves. It’s very selfish.

Kyle: So the key to changing the

conversation is putting down our defences and seeking other-centred compassion for individual people rather than self-justification?

Sabine: I mean, this is all subjective.

These wounds run so deep for many people. And I in NO WAY speak for everyone. This is just my opinion and experience with the race conversation. I just think those who approach these conversations, if they take less of a self-justification tone, the other side might be more willing to listen. And understand that if they come to a conversation where someone is defensive, getting defensive back won’t help anyone.

Kyle: So basically, this is a

conversation best had between friends rather than rivals or opponents.

Sabine: Exactly. I think everyone has a lot to offer and we all have much to learn.

Is your journey taking you where you need to go? Why wait?

be change.

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32 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

Yo u n g e r &

Dark er

The Future Face of the North American Church? By J u l i a Ch eu n g

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a church in America isn’t growing younger or darker, then it's not growing,” John Chandler Cleveland says to me over the din of clinking wine glasses and restaurant chatter. He and his wife China are en route between preaching engagements in Canada and their home in Southern California. I’m their ride to the airport and we are catching a pre-flight bite. Cleveland looks about the same age as President Obama and even resembles him a bit, in build and in facial structure. The Clevelands have been in town preaching and attending a conference where their oldest daughter, Christena, was the keynote speaker. After dropping them off, my brain latches onto Cleveland’s church growth idea with octopus-like tenacity: I am both young (or so I like to think) and dark. But is it really true? Does church growth in North America necessitate a younger and darker pew demographic? DJ Chuang, a church strategy consultant and leading expert on Asian-American churches, thinks so. “In the U.S. it’s projected that by 2043 there will be no majority racial/ethnic group, so a multicultural society is definitely in the near future,” Chuang says.

ast summer, Rachel Held Evans wrote “Why Millennials are Leaving the Church” on the CNN Belief Blog. The piece went viral and sparked intense debate that rattled both Christendom and Internetdom. The controversy doesn’t dwell on whether or not millennials are leaving the church (statistics show they are doing so in droves). Rather, debate revolves around how to keep and attract the younger generations.

If you show real pain or anger, you are suddenly an angry black woman and they shut you down.

But when Bryan Calvin looks at numbers, he finds the black church in America is not showing the same kind of decline. Calvin is an African-American political scientist from Texas. In comparing surveys from 2007 and 2012, he finds church attendance for millennials in historically black protestant churches has been stable, even though church attendance for the millennial age group as a whole has dropped. Calvin wonders if black millennials feel safe in their church communities where they can rest from cultural onslaughts and feel at home. In black churches, they don’t have to “code-switch” (change their linguistic jargon) to fit in within larger mainstream white culture. Christena Cleveland, John Chandler and China's daughter, is a social psychologist who specializes in racial reconciliation. Her book Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart came out in November 2013. “Code-switching has such negative connotations,” says Cleveland. “It almost feels like you’re being duplicitous.” She says she sometimes feels the need to guard herself more in predominantly white contexts. “Codeswitching can be like a survival mechanism,” she says. “It’s tiring. It’s tiring to put on a mask.” Cleveland says even when she’s surrounded by the most progressive and enlightened white groups, she feels as though she needs to communicate in a certain way. “If you show real pain or anger, you are suddenly an angry black woman and they shut you down. They want reconciliation but only the nice hopeful parts,” says Cleveland. “So it’s different from speaking to a multi-ethnic group or a group of colour. That’s when I don’t feel like I have to code-switch. I have a lot in common with a lot of ethnic groups — we all know what it’s like to be ‘other.’”

34 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

Code-switching is something 25-year-old Aaron Robinson is very familiar with, though not linguistically. Robinson is a master at the cultural code-switch. He is one-quarter First Nations, but he looks as white as they come. Robinson spent the first decade of his life in Prince George, Canada among First Nations Peoples and Anglo-Canadians. When he moved to Vancouver at age 10, he found himself one of only five white faces in a dominantly Asian and South-Asian environment. Social and racial segregation abounded. “I was one of the few to have friends in every ethnic group,” Robinson says. “I hung out mainly with the whites but I think I had this grace that enabled me to be friends with everyone.” But even though he felt different, it was in a good way. “All the teachers knew [the white kids’] names. We somehow stood apart from everyone else.” This contrasts sharply with the social isolation I felt as a child in Calgary. I’m a Chinese-Canadian who entered Kindergarten knowing only scraps of English. My mother tongue alienated me from society at large. So while Robinson and I both grew up as outsiders, his different was a good different, and mine was, well — good in that it shaped my character? The teachers always knew my name, although they also butchered the Chinese pronunciation (it’s “Chui,” like “chew”). I was usually one of three Asian kids in a class of 30. My foreign-sounding name never failed to garner playground insults that plagued me around the schoolgrounds like thirsty mosquitos. Cleveland’s exposure to teasing and alienation occurred in another context: within the church. A blog post that she wrote last summer, “Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in the Church” sparked just as much Internet polemic as you might imagine. Cleveland grew up in a generally ethnically diverse context. “The only time I really experienced [white] homogeneity

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was at church functions when I went to Awana, to Missionettes, and Sunday school in predominantly white churches before the third grade,” she says. “In Missionettes I was one of maybe two black girls and I remember feeling explicitly otherized there where I would make comments about food that I ate or customs in my family and people would be like, ‘That’s weird or gross.’ During slumber parties, the girls thought it was really weird that I wore a cap on my head,” says Cleveland. Robinson, Cleveland, and I all survived the perils of feeling like outcasts through childhood. However we emerged, shockingly, as mature adult Christians. This, as Rachel Held Evans reminds us, is a small victory. And it’s a victory that Duane Litfin feels passionately about. Litfin was the president of Wheaton College from 1993-2010 and spent almost two decades observing the evolution of millennial Christianity. When I ask him whether a church needs to become “younger and darker” in order to grow, he says, “Given the changing demographics of [North] America, there will be little [church] growth if it’s happening only among the shrinking white population.” Cleveland answers the same question with academic rigour: “I haven’t found any actual data that says your church isn’t physically growing if it’s not brown. I will say though that all mega churches are multi-ethnic. There’s a lot of evidence showing that the worldwide church is brown. And the church of the global south — Christians from Latin America, Africa, Asia — [are] moving to North America. As of now, the fastest growing demographic group is the Hispanic church.” Sunny Bhangle has experienced the pitfalls of ethnic sameness first-hand. She’s a Punjabi-Canadian who converted from Sikhism to Christianity when she was 20. For four years, she attended a Hispanic church. “I loved that church,” Bhangle says. “Everyone was so close and caring. They really nurtured me as a new Christian. But in the end I had to leave, even though it broke my heart. I felt that the sameness started to stifle my Christian growth”. Why is sameness, or homogeneity, stifling? Cleveland says that when we fail to interact with people who are different, we tend not to empathize, understand, or address our inaccurate perceptions of them. “For unity in the body of Christ, I would definitely say homogeneity is bad,” Cleveland concludes. “That said, the body of Christ is broken. At this point, the broader American church just isn’t very good at loving well across cultural differences and making people of colour feel like they matter.” This reaffirms Bryan Calvin’s suspicion that homogenous, ethnically-specific churches serve as safe havens for people of colour. The end goal, however, should be a better-integrated, ethnically diverse Church. “Given the rapidly changing demographics in North America, if you are a church that is only attracting white people, you are a dinosaur,” says Christena Cleveland. “The diverse kingdom of God is at hand. We need to look up and see it.”

for unity in the body of christ, homogeneity is bad.

36 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

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Navigating through the mountain of guilt By Lauren Bentley Illustrations by Thalia Antonia

38 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

or some, it was the first time they heard about Japanese Internment. For others, it was sitting in a class on civil war history and slavery in the Southern U.S. For many Canadians right now, at the conclusion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s cross-Canada tour, it’s realizing the true and devastating legacy of residential schools on Aboriginal peoples. For Marlae, it was visiting sites of the tragic Rwandan genocide, and hearing for the first time about the West’s involvement in the atrocities. For Paul, it was doing ministry work with migrant Mexican farm workers in the rural Northwest. For me, it was reading A Passage to India and being American during the dubious wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s the moment when it hits you: white people. They have been the root of a lot of injustice over the centuries. And I’m one of them.

here’s a name for that “uh-oh” reaction: white guilt. Sometimes, I have a serious case of it. Colonialism. Slavery. Genocide. How do I deal with these realities beyond discomfort, guilt, and shame? Sarah Maddison in her 2011 book, Beyond White Guilt, writes about IndigenousWhite relations in Australia. She describes white guilt in this way: “Group, or national, identity is a crucial component in understandings of collective guilt. Our emotional responses to our national past ... do not stem from our personal participation in past events but rather from our shared membership in the category of the offenders.” Even if every person of privilege in a society is not white, white people are most commonly associated as the “in-group” in the West. That gives us a place of privilege and power in the post-colonized world. Despite

the fact that Statistics Canada has estimated that almost half the Canadian population will be foreign born or have a foreign born parent by 2031, whiteness still carries a social meaning even as our percentage of the population shrinks. The actual term “white guilt” is tinged with negative connotations, akin to how one could be accused of having a “bleeding heart” (a sort of compassion without discernment). The number one definition on the slightly disreputable but often perceptive Urban Dictionary describes white guilt as “a belief, often subconscious, among white liberals that being white is, in and of itself, a great transgression against the rest of the world for which one must spend their life making atonement.” (The phrase doesn’t even merit an entry in Webster’s online edition.) To me, that’s a pretty accurate indictment. I get it. Earlier this year I read a novel that featured the prejudice against Chinese railroad workers during the settling of the Northwest, and I had to stop myself from apologizing to every Chinese person I saw. I feel it when I go to another country and see English, a language of power that for so long represented colonial domination, more prominent than the local tongue. Or when I hear education and health statistics for minority children. I want to act. But I don’t always know how, feeling paralyzed by a fear of being insensitive, or too politically correct, or….

Many of us are aware of this reality. Thoughtful conversations with friends reveal a desire to understand what it means to be white, and whether or not we bear a responsibility for the “sins of our fathers.” We tweet about #firstworldproblems, the hashtag of a mindful, globally-influenced generation, and for a few years there we were having a good laugh at ourselves with Stuff White People Like (Having black friends! Ethnic food! Sweaters!). This angst is in no way comparable to the injustices perpetrated by my collective ancestors. But the questions are still there. Is it even OK to talk about whiteness? Is it OK that there are only two black people in my church (and as far as I can tell, no Hispanics, Indians, or Aboriginals) — and is it OK that I’ve even noticed? How do we love our neighbour — all of our neighbours — when we carry so much cultural baggage?

grew up genuinely confused about race. Why was everyone always talking about it? Everybody knows we’re all equal. (Red and yellow, black and white, we are precious in His sight!) But as I got older, certain things became uncomfortably obvious. Because of my accentless speech, I don’t have to worry about being judged as unintelligent. No one ever questions if something other than my own merits convergemagazine.com

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got me into college. I’m not concerned that I won’t get a call back for a job because of how I look. And, if we’re being honest here, I know I’ve committed random acts of racism. Despite being raised in an era of multiculturalism, there’s still a thought here, a quick judgment there. It makes the guilt all too real because, well, it’s actually something I am guilty of.

here are two usual, and usually unhelpful, responses to the privilege that inspires white guilt: over-reacting and underreacting. Over-reacting is when your feelings of guilt or shame become your sole motivator of action (basically, if I had actually gone up to a Chinese person and declared my apologies). Though there is a Donald Miller-esque romanticism to randomly apologizing to strangers, if my motivation is just to make myself feel better instead of seeking healing or understanding, there’s no benefit. Symptoms of over-reaction could be “helping” underprivileged people in order to assuage feelings of shame. It leads to desperate or hasty “solutions” that have more to do with absolving ourselves than truly bringing justice to a situation. Governments are classic offenders. Sarah Maddison describes decades of ineffective government policies in Australia: by trying to quickly solve the problem, they have just brought more pain. And the Vancouver Sun recently uncovered a report that showed British Columbia spent $66 million over the span of 12 years on a program to reform foster care for Aboriginal children. The result? “Not one child benefitted.”

Wanting to repair damage done is natural. But if we try to do so thoughtlessly, we can actually do more harm than good.

40 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

Wanting to repair damage done is natural. But if we try to do so thoughtlessly, we can actually do more harm than good. My friend Paul, the one working with migrant Mexican farm workers (a 6-foot-plus American of Norwegian descent, for the record), recently pointed out why: “Racially and culturally mixed groups tend to run on white rules. When minority voices are included, this tends to communicate, ‘We want to hear what you want to say, but stay in control.’ Power and decision-making, even the whole tone of the conversation, is out of reach for a minority individual.” Over-reacting makes us act like “white saviours,” swooping in to solve problems that would be more effectively solved by the people with the problem, further disempowering the very ones we are trying to help.

hile over-reacting often has good intentions, under-reacting (putting our heads in the proverbial sand) is the more nefarious of the two. Under-reacting stems from the feeling that because we were not personally involved in a past problem, we have no responsibility to deal with the resulting present inequalities. As Maddison says, “Despite commonly experienced feelings of guilt, we do much to avoid, deny and reject the notion that we are guilty of anything.” Claiming race-based injustice as a thing of the past is dangerous, because it ignores so many injustices of the present, which is bad for everyone. The United States is an easy example of how past atrocities have led to current ills. Tim Wise, an anti-racism educator, outlines in his 2013 documentary White Like Me some of the striking ways white privilege is still systemic in American culture — and how many white Americans deny its reality. In the United States, the median wealth of white families is 20 times higher than black families and 18 times higher than Latino families. Studies even show that white job applicants with criminal records are more likely to be called in for an interview than black applicants without criminal records. My friend Paul points out another example: even though all races (and classes) use drugs equally, the vast majority of those convicted for drug use are AfricanAmericans. “Power difference is easy to ignore (if you have the power),” he says. But if we just assume racism is in the past, we can’t see the problems that are happening right now. As Maddison writes, “We are more comfortable still when we can deny that current generations carry any trace of guilt for past acts. But despite this denial our collective guilt persists.”

n the end, I think both reactions share common ground: they both stem from guilt. Guilt, as an emotion, usually seeks to be placated or ignored. As a Christian, I’m not called to guilt: I’m called to freedom from guilt through redemption. So how can I move past my neurotic questions to more understanding and more equality? First, we need to acknowledge our blind spots about race and power. This means

acknowledging that if you’re white, you’ve more than likely experienced benefits that others might not have, just because of your skin colour. I don’t believe that means feeling guilty about going to good schools or having a healthy childhood; it means acknowledging that all might not be equal, and we ourselves might have hidden prejudices we don’t always see. Christians face a particularly hard blind spot in this area. We see people as imagebearers of God, equally created by a loving Creator. In Galatians 3:28, we have the powerful statement that in Christ,

listen. Jenée Desmond-Harris, a writer for The Root (an African-American news and culture magazine), recently gave her list of excellent tips for talking about race in the wake of the Treyvon Martin shooting. Talking about race, she writes in “How not to derail the dialogue on race,” isn’t racist. She encourages white people to remember that each race isn’t “monolithic,” but made up of individuals with unique experiences. Listen to those experiences. Strive to be inclusive, or even step out of the way when an injustice needs to be addressed. Instead of wielding our power,

Instead of wielding our power, let’s aim to listen to the needs of others and be equal partners in finding solutions. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” These are still revolutionary ideas, and ones that should be fundamental to our treatment of all people. But we need to be wary that this holy ideal does not keep us from acknowledging the reality of how our racial identity affects us and others. Next, we can’t be afraid to talk or to

however well-intentioned, let’s aim to listen to the needs of others and be equal partners in finding solutions. And instead of spending our time feeling bad about what our people have done to other people, let’s use that extra energy to identify the prejudices within ourselves that keep us from fully loving our neighbour with a love that isn’t “blind” to their race.

hite guilt is just one corner in a labyrinth of contexts, structures, and individual experiences when it comes to race. As I’ve more deeply explored the issue, I’ve come face-to-face with my own prejudices and assumptions; sometimes I’ve felt defensive, or powerless, or sad. The main thing I’ve learned is that when wading into this murky pool, the most important tool to have is humility. Philippians 2:5 says that in your relationships with one another, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” The Apostle Paul goes on to share the hymn about how Jesus willingly gave up his privilege, humbling himself to the highest degree. I see this humility in Marlae, as she uses the revelations of her time in Africa to inform her thoughtful and compassionate work with refugee families. I see it in my friend Paul who is seeking the “good, hard truth” about power dynamics and subtle racism to better serve migrant farmers, inmates, and addicts. Let’s not seek justice because we feel bad about the past, or even the present. Let’s seek justice because it’s the right thing to do.

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Admit it.

We’re still racist Just because Barack Obama is president, doesn't mean we don't have a problem.

By Chelsea Batten Illustration by Jacob Kownacki

asked my friend in Asheville, North Carolina, if there was a church near his home that I could attend on Sunday. He rolled his eyes. “So many,” he said. “What kind of church are you used to?” I described it: upbeat, hands-in-the-air music, caring people, frequent manifestations of the Spirit. “There’s a church like that not far from here,” he said. “But — it might not be — I don’t know if they’d appreciate it.” When I pressed him for details, he said it would be one thing if I knew someone who was a member and went as his or her guest. But to just walk in would probably be disruptive, he told me. People would wonder what I was doing there. Why? Because I’m white. So here I was, excluded from the service on account of my skin colour alone. But was this really racism? As Tim Wise, an anti-racism author and advocate, writes in his blog that this kind of exclusion is “a question of which white folks seem never to tire when discussing subjects like affirmative action, or other diversity initiatives intended to expand opportunity and access for people of color [sic] in higher education and the job market.” On the occasion that a white person is either accused of racism, or experiences something like it against herself, the defence usually goes one of two ways.

42 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

1) We live in a “post-racial” society. It’s highly incorrect, of course, to assert that racism doesn’t exist at all in North America. It shows rank insensitivity to the legacy of years of cultural and legal oppression and to the shades of significance that minorities experience from one day to the next. Still, nobody these days is being denied entry into movie theatres, restaurants, or bathrooms. (Not legally, anyway.) What’s more, according to the Pew Research Center, interracial marriages have doubled since the 1980s. The TV is full of evidence for this. (That Cheerios commercial! That sitcom where the Indian chick dates one white guy after another!) And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but in 2008 the United States elected its first black president. Clearly, at least 51 per cent of American voters can’t be that racist. Right? This belief — that by majority rule, America has left its racist roots behind — has even coined a new word. President Barack Obama’s election to office had journalists and statisticians theorizing that America had finally become a “post-racial” society. Some faces shine when they hear this term, as it represents Martin Luther King Jr.’s immortal hope: that his children would be judged not by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character. But you would be hard-pressed to find an academic or critical voice saying this day is truly upon us. Those hopes are flatly levelled by voices such as Rolling Stone contributing editor Touré. “What people seem to mean by ‘post-racial’ is: nowadays race no longer matters and anyone can accomplish anything because racism is behind us.... [Therefore] we no longer need to think about race or take the discussion of it seriously,” says Touré. And what about the people who prefer other races over their own? Does this confirm the irrelevance of race? One woman told me about her growing realization that her ex-boyfriend might be with her because of her skin colour. “He told me he’d always wanted to date a black girl,” she says. On the other hand, she says he hated it if she implied that something he said might sound racist, at odds with his apparent obsession with black

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44 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

culture. “Like he was really paranoid that we would make him out to be some kind of bigot.” The Oxford English Dictionary defines bigotry as, “obstinate or unenlightened attachment to a particular creed, opinion, system or party.” Obviously, the most common (and overwhelmingly hashtagged) sense of the term indicates the inverse — an intolerance for other creeds, opinions, systems, or parties. But the people who find themselves preferred, complimented, or adored on the basis of their skin colour or hair texture or culture seem to agree: the preference still feels suspiciously like racism. And then there’s the other defence against the existence of racism.

“It is often easier to deplore racism and its effects than to take responsibility for the privileges some of us receive as a result of it.” — Paula Rothenberg 2) It’s cancelled out by “reverse racism.” “Reverse racism” is a term that gets brought up whenever a Caucasian college applicant is rejected simply because the school had to admit more minority students. It’s held up indignantly (maybe even triumphantly) on those rare occasions when a white person feels slighted for the colour of his or her skin. It’s hard to find a credible work, written or otherwise, that promotes the view of reverse racism. Books arguing reverse racism as the root of a spectrum of problems — from crime to economic collapse to religious persecution — are found mostly in obscurity, often anonymously self-published. The only serious work I could find on the subject of reverse racism, (and by “serious” I mean acknowledged outside its fan base) was written in 1972 by Wilmot Robertson. This book, The Dispossessed Majority warns that “the American Majority [is] racked by ... the rampant virus of minority racism, which has sapped the Majority’s resistance and its will to prevail.” As an influential presence, this “majority” has remained stuck in the ’70s — a Google search under the term “reverse racism” will yield far more sarcastic GIFs than thoughtful arguments. This could be because, as multiculturalism consultant Paula Rothenberg writes in White Privilege: Readings on the Other Side of Racism, “It is often easier to deplore racism and its effects than to take responsibility for the privileges some of us receive as a result of it.” And whether white people like it or not, they do afford privileges. “We work hard, too,” the plea goes. “Why should other people get special treatment because of their skin colour?” But as Peggy McIntosh writes in her acclaimed 1988 essay, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” arguments like this assume equality to begin with. Her essay lists fifty specific examples of what white people can assume about the way they walk through the world.

They include, “I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race.” And, “I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.”

y friend Renee, who is French and Irish on her mom’s side but has the colouring and features of her Indian father, is occasionally asked by complete strangers if her fair-haired, blue-eyed daughter is her own. One lady at a playground pursued the matter, by asking, “How?” “I said, ‘Do you want me to tell you the story of what happened that night?’” Renee laughs dryly. “If you ask a douchey question, I’m going to give a douchey answer.” But she doesn’t think of this experience as racism. “I think that’s naive ignorance. I know they mean no harm,” she says. Racism would be seen so clearly if we were just willing to call it out. Just as you can’t pull a fire alarm and not run, you can’t expose racism and not do something about it.

We’re sure

Jesus loves these

smiles too.

Just as you can’t pull a fire alarm and not run, you can’t expose racism and not do something about it.

Differences make us nervous; we want to know what to expect from a person when we first encounter them, and explain to ourselves afterward why they weren’t the same as us. We want to know why those people down the hall are always having such loud parties or why there are such strange smells coming from their doorways. Or why the ratio of black people to other races in American prison is 6 to 1, and in the NBA 7 to 1, or why Mexican women are so sexy, or why white people can’t dance, or why it feels so uncomfortable walking as a woman of one race into a church predominated by another. Members of the politically correct white “majority” are willing enough to take the blame for their ancestors. But what happens when their apologies are suddenly not enough, when they are blamed for racism or feel they’ve been victims of it? Suddenly it seems unfair. We’re not racist — we’re not — so rather than make accusations, we just let the distance remain. It seems that despite our best intentions, things are not going to change. Maybe it’s better to keep a distance. Get too close in the effort to change things between races, and you might offend somebody. If nothing else, you’ll surely be uncomfortable. But that, according to Paula Rothenberg, is exactly what indicates you’re on the right path. “Discomfort of this kind,” she writes, “is a sure sign that we need to continue the conversation.”

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2013-12-05 4:54 PM

Reads

The land

and its people By Flyn Ritchie

Leah Kostamo, Cascade Books, 2013

When Margaret Atwood likes you and your book, you know you’re doing something right. And when she tweets about it to her 453,672 (and growing!) followers, you will be very pleased indeed. Leah Kostamo launched Planted earlier this fall, and had a chance to talk about it December 3 on Context with Lorna Dueck, a live studio audience TV show filmed at the CBC building in Toronto. She also met Margaret Atwood, who was a guest on the show with her. Leah has been receiving a lot of positive response to her book, in which she tells of her journey of starting

and running the A Rocha community for the past 12 years with her husband Markku. A Rocha was the first Christian environmental centre established in Canada, and is part of an A Rocha network with centres in 19 nations. Eugene Peterson is a fan; in fact, he wrote the foreword to the book. He writes, “In an arena frequently marked by controversy and acrimony, A Rocha is cheerful, winsome, exuding gratitude. I continue to be struck by the two common characteristics that are given fresh expression in this book. To begin with, modesty, a humility that permeates A Rocha culture … and then there is such joy.” "Met 2 real life Kostamo doesn’t lecture; she tells refreshing and #GodsGardeners appealing stories from her own experience. This book #maddaddam today! would be a great gift for anyone concerned about the ... They walk the walk!" Margaret Atwood environment and social justice issues. It is a Christian tweets. book, but it can be appreciated by anyone.

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Planted: A Story of Creation, Calling and Community,

Steve Heinrichs: Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry, herald press, 2013 Steve Heinrichs has edited a fascinating selection of essays which, taken together, make the case that the church needs to disentangle itself from its “settler” (colonial) heritage and practices regarding Indigenous people. Many people have become aware of the brutal effects of the residential school system on Aboriginal people; children were isolated from their families and communities in church-run schools. Dave Diewert, an activist and lecturer at Regent College, states the issues clearly: “The role of Christianity in the legitimization of oppressive colonial power and its ongoing capacity to blind settlers to the violence and injustice that grounds their present state-sanctioned privileges, is deeply disturbing.” Diewert quotes a comment in 1889 by Alexander Sutherland, a superintendent of the Methodist Church, to his colleagues working with Indigenous people in Western Canada: “Make the savage a Christian and he will settle peacefully on reserves. Teach him the Scriptures and he will give up his claim to the land that we require.” Steve Heinrichs’ call in response to this tragic history is simple: “We’ve got to invert the infamous agenda of our settler states —“to kill the Indian, and save the man” — and instead, “kill the colonizer in settler society.” He has assembled a diverse group of more than 30 writers to tussle with the issue — non-Christian and Christian, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal. All are interesting, many are compelling. A few — while arguably important because they represent a point of view — could have been left out. Some descriptions of Christianity give way to caricature, and are at times mean-spirited. One egregious comment by Derrick Jensen compares the “dominant culture” to a mass murderer. His contribution to the discussion: “You stop Ted Bundy by stopping him.” Whether Heinrichs allowed his contributors too much latitude or not, Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry is an important book. In the end, he issues a simple challenge. The truth about settler treatment of indigenous people is clear, he says, and has now been widely disseminated. “The need is urgent: repent, resist, do something.”

Tolly Bradford: Prophetic Identities, UBC Press, 2012 This book examines the lives of two “Indigenous missionaries on British Colonial Frontiers, 1850-75,” Henry Budd, a Cree from Western Canada, and Tiyo Soga from South Africa. Tolly Bradford says the fact that these men — and many others like them — embraced Christianity “complicates narratives of all-powerful missionaries and hapless Indigenous victims.” Both men “constructed new understandings of Nativeness . . . [they based] their identity on two elements that their Christianity, and even their new global consciousness, could not deny: their Indigenous language and their ties to ancestral land.” Bradford argues that “contrary to the assertion . . . that British missionaries were ‘footsoldiers’ of imperialism who were able to ‘colonize the consciousness’ of Indigenous missionaries, my history places considerable emphasis on the limits of missionary power (especially in Budd’s case) and the importance of Indigenous agency in shaping the mission encounter.”

Peggy Brock: The Many Voyages of Arthur Wellington Clah, UBC Press, 2011 Arthur Wellington Clah was a Tsimshian man (from the Northwest Coast of B.C.) who kept a daily diary for more than 50 years over the latter half of the 19th century. In it, he recorded his movements between the colonial and Aboriginal worlds. Clah described the arrival of traders, missionaries and miners — but he also told of his conversion to Christianity. He refers to himself as the first Tsimshian Christian, and was an active evangelist. Peggy Brock argues: “To understand Clah’s acceptance of Christianity, it is necessary to recognize that although Clah was aware that Christianity was a recent innovation on the Northwest Coast, he did not think it was a foreign import, but rather a genuine Tsimshian religion.” In the end, unfortunately, while missionaries brought short term benefits, they “did not live up to expectations and were overtaken by the imposition of colonial rule.”

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Last word

The Master

Chef By Michelle Sudduth

Did you know that over 20,000 species of butterflies cover the earth? And more continue to be discovered! I recently read that we share the earth with over 100,000 types of trees, over 27,000 types of earthworms, and quite spectacularly, over 400,000 varieties of beans.

Michelle is a musician, writer, and worship leader. Raised in Colorado, she spent her 20s in Nashville, and holds a Master’s degree from Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. She currently resides in Los Angeles, at a coffee shop or a piano bench.

If I was creating beans, I would probably be happy with kidney, chickpeas, black, and pinto. Then I’d get bored and move onto squashes or something. God loves diversity. He’s the true originator of all things. And he would never get bored making a 400,000-bean salad. So let’s consider a few things about this bean salad we are in (just go with me on this one). First, you and I are each only one type of bean. I must hold my place in order for the salad to taste, resemble, and have the aroma that God was inspired to make. Each individual bean has great value; if Lennon tried to be McCartney, we wouldn’t have the Beatles. If I’m a chickpea and try to be a kidney bean, the meta-salad is greatly altered, and even diminished.

48 | CONVERGE . January - February 2014

Additionally, if I start thinking chickpeas are more important than, say, green beans — and try to make my way to the top by climbing over green beans — well, I have greatly discounted the dignity and importance of my neighbour. I am not only wrong in my assumption regarding the green bean’s inherent value, I have also arrogantly judged the creative design of the diverse mixture. And if I ever decide to gather all the types of beans that are similar to me to one side of the bowl, pushing the dissimilar beans to the other side, I have also interfered with the original concept of the recipe. I think you get the point of the metaphor. God loves diversity, and has placed a high value on unique individuals sharing common community. Alternately, God doesn’t love separation, oppressive hierarchy, isolation, or division. Galatians 3:28 says in The Message: “In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ.” If we are disciples of Jesus, we see diversity as a very good thing. We honour variety. We don’t place it in a value system where some are more important than others for whatever trendy, political, cultural, or inherited reason. We celebrate how each individual — just by who they are — supports, defines, and refines our community. We take seriously the call to liberation of those exploited by those who have no respect or consideration for each beautiful creation God has made. We are all challenged in some way by this call to move outward towards one another. If you have experienced significant pain because of the way a person or part of the culture has devalued you, know that God wholeheartedly celebrates who He made you to be. God invites you, and everyone, into a healing life of turning the table on all places you have felt devalued, through radical love and forgiveness. Let’s all pray that God continues to open our hearts to those around us, humbly putting each other above ourselves. Ask God for eyes that don’t close in fear when we encounter differences, but open to the beauty in the variety He created, to the point of taking the next step toward relationship. May all of us grow in love towards those who are unlike us and celebrate our diversity by offering ourselves to each other in humble service and common sharing of life.

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