By Liz Chang

During my first year of college, only 7% of students were people of color there. This was very different from the public school social life I had growing up in New York City. I remember during my freshman year of college, we were doing a classroom ice breaker activity with instructions to find someone who ____ and have them sign their name in that box for BINGO. When a white student came up to me, I said to her, “Oh, I know which one you need me to sign. The one that says find someone of a race different from yours, right?” Her response was, “No, I don’t see you like that.” 

I was stunned. (And by the way, what was the facilitator’s plan for this BINGO box about racial differences for a 93% white student population?)

Not only was her response ignoring my racial identity, it was also said in a way that reflected her internalized value that she ought not to see race or racial difference. That it was better to not see me like that. To not see me, let alone not know or acknowledge that racialized experiences exist on a larger scale.

We live in a society where race is a social construct that has been manipulated to underpin systemic problems, perpetuate social injustices, and further disempower and marginalize groups of people. So when someone tells me they don’t see me like that, it tells me that they don’t have any internalized awareness or understanding of this.

When I think about the history of racism in America, the impact of white supremacy locally and globally, the poison of colorism, and the ways in which all these intersect with other social identities… I also remember that this has been a part of the fall of humankind since the beginning. From Biblical times of when families split apart and people groups claimed territories through fighting and destruction, the belief that a people group identified as “other” is also lesser has been perpetuated generation after generation. The markers of that otherness have its variations from region, appearance, wealth, social status, religion, ability, and so on. And our present day world is no different.

• Can anything good come from Nazareth? (John 1:46)
• You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? (John 4:9)
• He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.” (Acts 10-:28)

The list can go on and on of examples in the Bible that describe social situations in which people groups are dehumanized. But these particular examples in their larger context show a different way. They flip the script on the social norms and prejudices of the time; norms and prejudices that may be overt or silently understood and assumed. In Christ’s example, there is an upheaval of the status quo in prejudices that were present regarding various social identities.

The times are no different for us to need a God who is about justice, uplifting the marginalized and tearing down the systems that really miss the mark on equity and humanity. And, in order for us to join in with God in seeking justice, we have to believe that God sees. God sees us in our context. 

God sees our racialized experiences. God knows the history of how those racialized experiences came to be. God knows the people and circumstances that were at play to perpetuate institutionalized racism and the messages that dehumanize and oppress. 

And, God is with us in the lament and anger that oppression causes.  God hears our cries for change and empowers us to fight for it.

Because God is FOR the oppressed. God is FOR the marginalized. 

And if our God is for us, then who can be against us?

For reflection:

• What is your social context and what does it look like to be anti-racist in your various social locations?
• What are ways you can actively increase your awareness, be an ally, be an advocate, and fight for change?
• Is the God you know a God who is only concerned about our individual problems and individual sin or does your God see context? And more specifically, does the God you know care about racialized experiences?

Liz Chang is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and provides therapy for individuals, couples, and families as the owner and founder of Radiant Marriage and Family Therapy (radiantmft.com) in Seattle, WA. Liz is Korean-American, was born and raised in New York City, and now resides in Seattle where she and her husband enjoy going for walks in nature and are constantly entertained by their cats Benny and Cheez-it (Instagram @bennyslyf).