Rosa Parks Day

Today is Rosa Parks day. (You gotta' love Kindergarten, otherwise you would never know.) What a brave woman!
As I taught my kids today about who Rosa Parks was, and what she did,
I had to introduce them to racism.

This was a sad moment.

They had no idea. Before I got two sentences into Rosa Parks' story, Emma grabbed Justus and hugged him with a look of terror on her face.

The thought that people could hate people for having darker skin is unfathomable to their pure and innocent minds. They are so untainted by the world sometimes. I hated to even introduce them to this idea. People still today would show hatred or unfair treatment to their brother because he is brown. This is unthinkable.

It should all be unthinkable to us as Christians. But unfortunately, racism still lives on, even in the church today. I pray that we would ALL examine our hearts, and find where the racism lives there. I know, that with the power of the Holy Spirit, He can change hearts. But we have to be willing to go there. We have to be willing to break the power of generational sin. We have to be willing to look for the deeply hidden, ugly roots of racism in us that we have buried. The jokes we have laughed at...our earliest memories of how our grandparents or great-grandparents spoke of black people...our distaste for the culture of the lower socio-economic class mixed with our basic feelings and assumptions about people based on their skin color alone.

This is not okay.

How would you feel if my son wanted to marry your daughter? Does the thought bother you, somewhere deep down, even if you don't want to say it outloud? Is my baby considered to be of lesser value in this world because of his gorgeous, coffee colored skin?

Sadly, I know the answer to this question. The fact that people are lined up around the block to adopt white babies, and only a handful of people want to welcome a black baby to their family answers that question. I know firsthand...I've heard responses from prospective adoptive parents' very mouths...the thought of getting a baby with even a HINT of African-American descent...or even the appearance of it...is totally unacceptable to them. You may be shocked to hear some of their responses. You may not.

I was just very, very sad. And sometimes angry.

As a Mom, this is difficult for me.
I want the Christian people of today to celebrate how far we've come concerning racism. We should all recognize and commemorate the dates like June 19th, (Jax's birthday...I've had some very weird comments about this) the day slavery was abolished...the day our country outlawed treating beloved children of God being treated like animals and owned, abused, killed, without a thought.
If that day was celebrating this kind of victory for white people, we would all celebrate.
But we don't. We ignore it.
Martin Luther King Day. What a brave and amazing man who changed history.
He was martyred for this reason. He was a Godly man.

I don't think many white folks show up for his parade.
Why??

If we truly see each other as humans, created by God, loved by Him with the exact same love, why is there still such a division in our minds?
Why is interracial dating and marriage still such a hot topic?

I know this is the rantings of a mother today. But I hope it will stimulate thought and conversation among even just a few people. Rusty and I have searched our hearts on this. The Holy Spirit had to clean us out before we could add Justus to our family, and I'm so glad!!! I want this ugliness out of us! And as we are about to welcome another brown baby to this home, it weighs heavily on my heart.
I hope it will on yours too.