Very intense conversation tonight.
We opened with this passage from Randy Woodley’s book, “Living in Color.”

Most of us want to avoid the discomfort we face in interracial and multicultural situations. Here are two of the classic lines often heard in these uncomfortable moments: “I don’t look at the color of a person’s skin” and “I’m so glad God is colorblind.” Let’s get this straight: If you don’t see my skin color, then you are not just colorblind; you are totally blind! And if God is colorblind, He sure did some good guess work in His creation, especially with the rainbow!

Honestly, I know what people mean by these statements. What they are trying to say is, “God doesn’t judge a person on the basis of race or culture, but rather on what’s in his heart.” The truth of that statement is commendable. but the stark reality is, our colors and cultures differ one from another. Statements like “I don’t even see your skin color” lead some people to act as if they should be ashamed of their ethnicity, while our ethnicity is part of how God made us. It is a gift to be celebrated, not a handicap to be hidden.

We shut the place down and talked for an hour and twenty minutes past closing. Here are some bullet points:

• The feeling of White privilege is very palpable and visceral to those who are not White.
• Whites individually are often unaware of White privilege and its benefits– this is a prime symptom of being the dominant majority
• The systemic nature of racism creates insidious properties where individually no one fully understands where a sense of responsibility begins and sense of helplessness ends
• People of color are sent the implicit message that they are less valuable than dogs, specifically, Michael Vick’s dogs. Have you heard media coverage of the Jenna Six? Didn’t think so.
• People of color are often pitted against one another (ie. Asians seen as model minority – whose model? for what reasons?)
• White privilege is not something that people of color expect Whites to forfeit necessarily, but to wield justly for those who are underprivileged
• People of color perceive Whites to be threatened with the loss of control and in their transition from dominant majority to minority
• Historically in America, the church has massaged the public conscience between the capitalist manipulation of people of color and the lofty ideals of the Constitution to create a just society
• We as people in the church have long lifted up the ideals of Scripture but live far below them. We live as though  God excuses us from the brokenness rather taking part in the actions to repair and restore.
• The church has laid down its subversive role in society, but must take it up again
• Diversity in the church is not seen as a high value by people of color, but rather that social justice be implemented from Monday thru Saturday –we need a deeper theology of shalom (PDF of paper written by Jimmy McGee)
• Honest and safe conversation is part and parcel of the solution–it was liberating for people of color to speak in front of White people how they really feel despite how uncomfortable the conversation got
• Racism is both oppression and repression – we have come to hate ourselves, we long to be white, and do so with great expense to our great heritage and the redemptive analogies that exist within our mother cultures.

Some follow-up thoughts as I drove home:

• With regards to my own Asian American identity, I must wrestle with the fact that my self-loathing must not turn into self-worship.
• We must strive to reverse the process where we have co-opted White privilege and White views of others and of ourselves
• We must dispel the myth of the Asian American Dream and be brave enough to expose our dysfunction
• We must work immediately to build bridges within and without our communities. Ethnocentrism is only constructive when we find the redemptive qualities to add to the greater community of believers.

Finally, Jimmy McGee assembled the following reading list for further exploration in the intersection of race and faith. The comments following the book listing are his. Enjoy and thank you to the EmergingPhoenix Cohort in Atlanta for the space and courage to host this conversation.

• Your God is Too White by Columbus Salley & Ronald Belm
• Divided by Faith by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith
  A great book that finally have white men articulating what Black folks have been saying for some time.
• Yellow by Frank Wu
  Mr. Wu is not a Christian, but he does an excellent job articulating a Chinese/Asian perspective. He really articulates that our country’s racial conflict is not simply Black and White.
• Following Jesus Without Dishonoring Your Parents
  Understanding perspective is necessary to resolve conflict and build coalitions. I thought this is a good book to understand the dilemma within young adult from various Asian cultures struggling to follow Jesus and love their family
• A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki
  Ronald Takaki is one of the leading Ethnic Studies professor in the country. He is retired now. This book offers a wonderful multi ethnic history.
• Living In Color by Randy Woodley
  Randy is a dear friend who is Keetoowah Cherokee. He offers a thoughtful reflective book on issues of multi ethnicity.
• Why are all of the Black Children Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel-Tatum
  I really believe this is one of the most powerful books written on race in the last 10 years or so.
• Silent Racism
  I have read only smalll portions of this book. I really think it’s profound. Many progressivde and/or liberal whites don’t want to be perceived as racists. she presents case studiies that helps whites to see that they are, though they hate the perception.
• Being Latino in Christ by Orlando Crespo
  Orlando is another good friend. He really does a wonderful job of articulating the need to understand the significance of his ethnic identity as a Christian. He also addresses the issues of division between non-Spanish speaking Latinos and Spanish Speaking Latinos.

Is the kingdom of God the privilege of any one group of people? Emerging theology bellows a resounding, “No!” Yet the structures, doctrines and histories of our faith traditions are infused with the notion that there are those who are privileged and have some right to be. Our hope for the next cohort gathering is together to expose the hidden entitlements and subvert the unspoken privilege afforded those dominant within Western Christian culture as well as to consider the power unjustly levied by Christians in Western culture.

Those of us facilitating the conversation on Tuesday, 28 August 2007, believe that these power inequities are most dramatically revealed in matters of race, even within the church.

“Race is a fiction we must never indulge and a fact we must never forget.” In his 1903 seminal work, The Souls of Black Folks, W. E. B. Dubois prophesied that the problem of the 20th century in America would be “the problem of the color line.” Since not even American religion chose to adequately address race during the 20th century, we believe the power dynamics connoted by the phrase “the color line” still haunt our efforts to participate in the work of the kingdom of God even today.

We invite you to prepare for our time together by reading an article by Harry Belafonte, “Is America a Burning House?” on King’s fears regarding America’s prospects—even Christian America’s—for actually enacting justice. Then read an excerpt from Robert Jensen’s The Heart of Whiteness found on NPR.org. While there, consider listening to Jensen’s interview; it is also insightful. While reading, answer the questions and implications that both men raise; don’t let them pass as rhetorical. And overall, ask yourself, ” How should my current participation in the kingdom of God finally adequately address the concerns that these and other followers in the way of Jesus are raising about power and what its misuse has done and is doing to the human family? ” This is not just a black-white conversation.

We hope to hear your voice in the conversation Tuesday, 28 August, 8pm at Little Azio’s –

749 Moreland Ave.
Atlanta, GA 30316
Phone 404 624 0440

Get Directions

Much love,
Melvin Bray, David Park, and Jimmy McGee

I picked up the book “Sold” and literally read it in less than a day. My heart is in any direction but up right now.

The beautifully written tale is about a 13-year-old Nepalese girl being sold into child prostitution. (Click here to find out how it was written – Sold-About PDF). But it’s not just in India or Nepal.

The trafficking in children for sex was once thought to be a problem beyond America’s borders. But the FBI and the Justice Department have now started focusing intently on the issue–and what they’ve found is shocking. Thousands of young girls and boys are falling victim to violent pimps, who move them from state to state, which makes it a federal matter. The younger they are, the more they’re worth on the street.

Two years ago, the FBI and the Justice Department launched something called the Innocence Lost initiative. More than 40 FBI agents have been dedicated to task forces in the 14 cities with the highest incidence of child prostitution–places like Atlanta, Detroit, and Minneapolis.

It’s in the city I live in. There are friends working to free child sex slaves, but the thought strikes me that many of my Asian American brothers and sisters are more concerned with their 401K’s or making partner or landing that account than issues like this. I know of very few Asian American activists in this arena, in my generation, or in my city. Where are we?

In conjunction with this thought came the question of whether our lack of activism comes from our long held understanding of the woman’s place within the social hierarchy. This chapter from the book in particular captivated my attention to how rarely women triumph in the world I come from.

Everything I Need To Know

Before today, Ama says, you could run as free as a leaf in the wind.

Now, she says, you must carry yourself with modesty, bow your head in the presence of men, and cover yourself with your shawl.

Never look a man in the eye.

Never allow yourself to be alone with a man who is not family.

And never look at growing pumpkins or cucumbers when you are bleeding. Otherwise they will rot.

Once you are married, she says, you must eat your mal only after your husband has had his fill. Then you may have what remains.

If he burps at the end of the meal, it is a sign that you have pleased him.

If he turns to you in the nights, you must give yourself to him, in the hopes that you will bear him a son.

If you have son, feed him at your breast until he is four.

If you have a daughter, feed her at your breast for just a season, so that your blood will start again and you can try once more to bear a son.

If your husband asks you to wash his feet, you must do as he says, then put a bit of the water in your mouth.

I ask Ama why. “Why,” I say, “must women suffer so?”

“This has always been our fate,” she says. “Simply to endure,” she says, “is to triumph.”

The very notion that the sex trade exists and thrives at the expense of young girls makes me sick to my stomach and ashamed to call myself a man.

I will be ashamed to call myself a Christian if I do not lend my voice against it.

The Not For Sale Campaign lists 27 million people as slaves today. The site also makes the statement that “slavery is a social, political, and economic issue.” All of us are called upon to be modern day abolitionists and people of faith must not shrink back from advocating for human rights in our churches and communities.

Being enslaved forcibly is an undeniable tragedy. But what of those who volunteer to be slaves?

With the issue of slavery being so pervasive–social, political, and economic, I believe we need to account for perspectives of the slaves themselves which may unknowingly perpetuate the very mechanisms of slavery. Similar to the dynamics of a domestic violence situation, there must be a mentality in the oppressed that rationalizes some of the terms of the dysfunctional relationship in order to have something else. In fact, without knowing all their options, it may be feasible for that person to submit to those conditions willingly perhaps even eagerly so.

All this to say it is possible to become slaves by volition and that it leads to a different type of slavery. And to extrapolate further, it is to propose many Asian immigrants  to the United States willingly subjected themselves and their children to this subtle slavery.

Immigrants, post 1965, boarded ships and planes to arrive in the United States and while they didn’t have the title of slave or indentured servant, the incentives were just too great. The World Wars and the Cold War made the US the only pristine country in the world to strike out a brave new existence. No one pushed them on the boat this time, they were pulled.

Sounds overly dramatic, doesn’t it? Especially when most Asian Americans would say that they serve no masters of any color. But if you were to take a cross-section of Asian American values and identity and you might find that they have largely accepted all the idols of White America, even at the high price of self-effacement. Furthermore, Asians in particular, became the new “Uncle Tom”s with an interesting social contract of “honorary white” status:

The bargain Japanese Americans accepted when they sat with whites was this: “We will let you be honorary whites under two conditions: First, you will never be able to drive the bus. Secondly, you must pay no attention to the people at the back of the bus; you must claim no relationship to the people at the back of the bus; and you must absolutely never, ever protest what is happening to the people at the back of the bus. If you do all this, we will pretend to ignore your color. And someone else will always be worse off than you.”

This bargain is still offered to Asian Americans. When we expect it, we buy into an honorary white status. Other people of color see this. Understandably, it makes them feel resentful and angry toward Asian Americans.

While the reform in immigration policy was considered by many to be part and parcel with the Civil Rights Movement, there are more than a few Whites and Blacks who regret the move. Whites regret it because of the influx of Hispanics; Blacks resent it because it retarded the momentum of the Civil Rights Movement to the point that Whites believe that all the objectives of the Civil Rights Movement were fulfilled a long time ago; and Asian Americans? [Read more...]

Wish I could go to this…but here’s the least I can do. Click here to register and please feel free to liveblog it, as I will be looking for the insider info. Blessings~

…we pretty much ignore, apparently.

So this is probably old news to much of the world,  marriage might be a religious institution, we might have to go the whole nine yards and say that divorce is too.

And while we knew that the United States had long lost respect for the holy vows of matrimony, South Korea is not far behind. To be specific, Korea is third behind the US and the UK in terms of the highest rates of divorce in the world.

Quite a shame considering South Korea boasts numbers as high as 50% of the population being Christian. It seems increasingly difficult to correlate healthy marriages to Christianity.

We don’t have numbers for Korean American couples, but I’m sure they can’t fare that much better. The stress of the immigrant experience can only add to the burden on a marriage. I’ve witnessed marriages in which the couple serve as merely glorified roommates, and once the nest is empty, the opportunity to quit playing charades often grows. Confucianism can lead to the most hollow of relationships. Many children benefit from the parents’ sacrifices, but not from their examples.

I applaud the church in the above article for addressing the issues, as we cannot accept the fact that the mere proliferation of the Gospel will do the work of true transformation in the very metaphor of Christ’s love for the church. It is simply not in our culture to love one another well:

Contrary to the Korean system, husbands and wives “must learn” communication skills, Park said.

“In Korean culture [there is] no cross communication,” he said. “Men are handicapped; they don’t know how…. You must learn to talk to one another in order to enjoy a healthy relationship. Pastors must learn these skills and then teach them to their congregations.”

The following video asks the question, “Is Marriage Dead?” by NYC’s “The Resident”. Marriage is absolutely a sacrement (holy moment), but we bear the responsibility to value it in our own lives.  What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

This just in: “Korean hostages receive medicine.“  And this on the heels of the funeral of the second martyr:

As we wait and pray for the Korean missionary hostages to be delivered from Afghanistan, a question crossed my mind – how does one know when to “let go”?

By “letting go”, I mean give one’s self up.  I don’t mean we, as the outside body,  give up praying for their freedom or that we give up the hope of their release, but for someone who is standing in the face of such evil oppression, at their very gunpoint at times, when do they decide to give themselves up, commit themselves to the fate that many of us cringe and shrink from?

There seem to be times where one should do everything in their power to run from death, as Paul did in Damascus, and then there are times one submits to it, Christ being the ultimate example of this, and Paul himself submitting later in his life. As the words of the Teacher echo, “there is a time for everything.”

When voluntarily submitted, a person’s life is the most powerful statement of faith as shown in the cases of the Civil Rights Movements and the Independence of India. Ruthless oppression cannot afford to take innocent life because the dead speak so loudly, and evil cannot quiet them. Irrational nonviolence eradicates irrational violence, albeit with a factor of time and the pursuit of truth and justice.

In the eyes of their captors, the lives of these missionaries are seen as little more than leverage, but I wonder if the hostages understand that their lives are much more weightier than that. Missions is not a defensive posture at all – rather, it is merely  the most assertive nonviolent posture.

The real dilemma for the would-be martyr is whether now is the time to pray for deliverance or for commitment.

We hope and wait, and though many of us have never seen you, oh how I love you. Be strong, be courageous –