Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Associated Baptist Press Foundation
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Donate Subscribe
Search Search this site

We’ve got a lot of race work to do in America

OpinionMarv Knox  |  November 28, 2014

By Marv Knox

No matter what we think about a grand jury’s decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, can we acknowledge attitudes about race divide our nation?

The grand jury’s Wilson/Brown decision sparked protests in 170 cities across the nation. Despite looting in Ferguson, the vast majority of those protests remained peaceful, although deeply passionate.

To be sure, the death of one black teenager at the hands of one white policeman did not send tens of thousands of protestors into the streets. Likewise, the decision of one mixed-race grand jury not to indict one officer did not cause hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans who resonate with those protestors to shake their heads in disbelief.

No, reaction to the grand jury’s decision transcended what happened both in the middle of a suburban street last summer and a decision reached in a county courthouse just before Thanksgiving.

For millions of Americans, the grand jury’s decision represents American racial injustice. The point is not Michael Brown and Darren Wilson. The point is every person of color confronting white authority in our society.

You definitely recognize this if you are a parent of nonwhite teenagers — particularly sons, especially black sons. You probably recognize this if you are the friend of one or more of those parents and you have had honest conversations about raising their children in America today. You recognize fear. You recognize utter powerlessness to ensure the safety of young people you love more than life itself.

Do not be distracted by the specifics of Michael Brown’s case. By nearly all accounts, both Brown and Wilson were at fault that hot summer day. All other facts aside, a black teenager died in the street, and a white police officer pulled the trigger. The echoes of those gunshots reverberate still.

They reverberate in the hearts of parents of color, who fear dangers almost invisible, if not incomprehensible, to white parents. Fear that a child, particularly a son, will be assumed guilty if anything — and sometimes before anything — goes wrong. Fear of wrong time/wrong place/wrong color scenarios ending in tragedy and injustice. Fear of a future filled with mountain-high obstacles composed completely of melanin.

They reverberate in the hearts of white people, too, who cannot comprehend racial rage a half century after voting rights and civil rights acts supposedly changed the nation. Who cannot explain, much less tolerate, what seems to be simple lawlessness. Who, though they rarely think it and cannot express it, fear a future in which that rage embodies full expression.

This is why we’re all so fidgety about Ferguson. Together, Wilson and Brown pulled a scab off a wound white people thought — maybe “hoped” is a better word — healed over. But it’s a wound everyone else knows still oozes, far from healed.

So, how does it ever heal? Can we, as a nation, ever actually achieve “post-racial” peace? And if it is attainable, how do we reach it?

This is a challenge where the church — full of conservatives and liberals alike — should wave off government and proclaim clearly and forcefully, “We’ve got this.”

Baptists are best equipped to lead in charting racial progress and, ultimately, peace. Of all voluntarily associated groups in America, none is as racially mixed — though not fully integrated — as are Baptists. The Baptist banner flies over African-American, Anglo, Asian-American, Hispanic, multi-ethnic and myriad other congregations. We don’t come together all that often on Sunday morning, but we come together. We come together in associational, state and national meetings, and we sit across from each other at board meetings.

Yet beyond platitudes of resolutions and other broad public statements, we rarely address race.

Sisters and brothers, we’re past due for heartfelt, honest and fearless conversations. We need to talk about race. And we need the unvarnished truth.

We need to hear from one another. But for starters, Anglos need to keep quiet and listen. Whites must plead for blacks, Hispanics and others to talk candidly about what life is like for them. About raising children. About jobs and education and opportunity. About healthcare and housing. About traveling anywhere and everywhere. About drugs and prison. About our denomination, too.

And then Anglos should respond. Not with defensiveness or explanation. But with similar honesty. About what frightens them. About what frustrates them. About how they see change.

The bosom of the church may be the only safe place for such conversations.

But until we talk, honestly talk, we cannot hope to heal.


OPINION: Views expressed in Baptist News Global columns and commentaries are solely those of the authors.
Tags:RaceFerguson MORacial JusticeMichael BrownCommentariesMarv Knox
More by
Marv Knox
  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • Featured

    • The fantastical world of climate change denial: Slouching toward annihilation

      Opinion

    • Veterans and faith groups urge Congress to secure the safety of Afghan immigrants

      News

    • Frederick Buechner influenced millions with his insightful writing and quotable lines

      News

    • Remembering a sign for the times: The serpent and the seminary

      Opinion


    Curated

    • In latest ‘gOD-Talk’ discussion, Black millennials discuss hip-hop and faith

      In latest ‘gOD-Talk’ discussion, Black millennials discuss hip-hop and faith

      August 16, 2022
    • Colorado to spar over discrimination case in Supreme Court

      Colorado to spar over discrimination case in Supreme Court

      August 16, 2022
    • Crossing the rubicon? Mar-a-Lago raid enflames right wing fantasies of Christian Caesarism

      Crossing the rubicon? Mar-a-Lago raid enflames right wing fantasies of Christian Caesarism

      August 16, 2022
    • An interfaith discussion on the role of religion in mental health

      An interfaith discussion on the role of religion in mental health

      August 16, 2022
    Read Next:

    No, Dan Patrick, God did not write the U.S. Constitution

    OpinionRick Pidcock

    More Articles

    • All
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Curated
    • Carver School of Social Work was a victim of American fundamentalism, authors explain

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Looking for hope in a time of abandonment

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • BGCT wants to ‘review and consider changes’ in its relationship to Baylor

      AnalysisMark Wingfield

    • My two phone calls to Frederick Buechner

      OpinionBrett Younger

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Hymn stories: ‘The Church’s One Foundation’

      OpinionBeverly A. Howard

    • Veterans and faith groups urge Congress to secure the safety of Afghan immigrants

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • The fantastical world of climate change denial: Slouching toward annihilation

      OpinionRodney Kennedy

    • When forced to choose between their ministry and their transgender child, this family chose love

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Remembering a sign for the times: The serpent and the seminary

      OpinionDalen Jackson

    • Frederick Buechner influenced millions with his insightful writing and quotable lines

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • No, Dan Patrick, God did not write the U.S. Constitution

      OpinionRick Pidcock

    • Black religion and reparation questions

      OpinionWendell Griffen

    • Progressive National Convention joins with AFL-CIO to advance racial and economic justice

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • What happened to American conservatism? Engaging Matthew Continetti’s The Right

      OpinionDavid Gushee, Senior Columnist

    • Historic Kentucky church calls gay man as co-pastor

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Department of Justice investigating SBC on sexual abuse

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • ‘Everything is changing at the same time,’ veteran religion reporter explains

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Skepticism holds seeds of hope: The SBC and clergy sex abuse

      OpinionChrista Brown

    • Tony and Lauren Dungy know something about influence, on the field and at home

      NewsMaina Mwaura

    • Here’s what I’m learning in therapy

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • Letter to the Editor: I also stand with Brittney Griner and kneel for the Anthem

      OpinionLetters to the Editor

    • It’s easier to be a bully today, author explains

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • A thoughtful question at Bubba-Doo’s

      OpinionCharles Qualls

    • When conservatives today speak of ‘states’ rights,’ they likely don’t mean the popular vote; here’s a case in point

      AnalysisMark Wingfield

    • Carver School of Social Work was a victim of American fundamentalism, authors explain

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Veterans and faith groups urge Congress to secure the safety of Afghan immigrants

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • When forced to choose between their ministry and their transgender child, this family chose love

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Frederick Buechner influenced millions with his insightful writing and quotable lines

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Progressive National Convention joins with AFL-CIO to advance racial and economic justice

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Historic Kentucky church calls gay man as co-pastor

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Department of Justice investigating SBC on sexual abuse

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • ‘Everything is changing at the same time,’ veteran religion reporter explains

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Tony and Lauren Dungy know something about influence, on the field and at home

      NewsMaina Mwaura

    • It’s easier to be a bully today, author explains

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Transitions for the week of 8-12-22

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • SBC president says he tried to enlist more women for sexual abuse task force but got turned down repeatedly

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • At long last, Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy appears to be dead

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Some evangelical leaders see FBI visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago as evidence of the religious persecution coming to them

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • New study finds scammers luring migrants with false information via Facebook and WhatsApp

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Progressive Baptist congregation on Wake Forest campus votes to close

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • South African women’s soccer team success shines a light on gender wage discrimination

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • It isn’t a church and doesn’t have members, but it is a way to keep United Methodists in the fold as their congregations disaffiliate

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • Rural church offers community development grants through Gratitude Project

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • The church needs to do better on monkeypox than it did on HIV, faith leaders say

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Russell Moore named editor in chief of Christianity Today

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • 40 Congressmen urge IRS to reconsider classification of Family Research Council as a ‘church’

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Online religion content isn’t luring Millennials away from in-person church

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Looking for hope in a time of abandonment

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • My two phone calls to Frederick Buechner

      OpinionBrett Younger

    • Hymn stories: ‘The Church’s One Foundation’

      OpinionBeverly A. Howard

    • The fantastical world of climate change denial: Slouching toward annihilation

      OpinionRodney Kennedy

    • Remembering a sign for the times: The serpent and the seminary

      OpinionDalen Jackson

    • No, Dan Patrick, God did not write the U.S. Constitution

      OpinionRick Pidcock

    • Black religion and reparation questions

      OpinionWendell Griffen

    • What happened to American conservatism? Engaging Matthew Continetti’s The Right

      OpinionDavid Gushee, Senior Columnist

    • Skepticism holds seeds of hope: The SBC and clergy sex abuse

      OpinionChrista Brown

    • Here’s what I’m learning in therapy

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • Letter to the Editor: I also stand with Brittney Griner and kneel for the Anthem

      OpinionLetters to the Editor

    • A thoughtful question at Bubba-Doo’s

      OpinionCharles Qualls

    • In applauding Victor Orban, U.S. conservatives call their shot

      OpinionRodney Kennedy

    • Christian nationalism is a danger to our nation

      OpinionMarvin McMickle

    • Advice from a sunflower

      OpinionPhawnda Moore

    • What I learned at Wake Forest Baptist Church

      OpinionDavid Ramsey

    • Why can’t we accept sexual and gender diversity in humans as well as in all creation?

      OpinionDan McGee

    • I’ve been unaware of my privilege, and if you are a man, you probably have, too

      OpinionRobert P. Sellers

    • Are left-wing radicals pushing Cracker Barrel to the edge of the slippery slope?

      OpinionBrett Younger

    • To be more welcoming, let’s remove our flags

      OpinionJustin Pierson

    • News flash: Not all Baptists are Southern

      OpinionBrian Kaylor

    • Why aren’t we defending Brittney Griner?

      OpinionRodney Kennedy

    • A school administrator reflects on rebuilding relationships between schools and homes

      OpinionStanton Eugene Lawrence

    • Judging the stripper and the carouser in ourselves at the Communion table

      OpinionBrad Bull

    • After the Guidepost report, we need to know more about FBC Woodstock’s City of Refuge and NAMB’s support for it: Was ‘moral failures’ code for sexual abuse?

      OpinionJoanna Sullivan

    • In latest ‘gOD-Talk’ discussion, Black millennials discuss hip-hop and faith

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Colorado to spar over discrimination case in Supreme Court

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Crossing the rubicon? Mar-a-Lago raid enflames right wing fantasies of Christian Caesarism

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • An interfaith discussion on the role of religion in mental health

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Republicans keep mostly mum on calls to make GOP ‘party of Christian nationalism’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • The Faith-Based Politics of El Salvador’s Millennial President

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Reckoning with their history, Lutherans issue declaration to Indigenous peoples

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Religion, Spirituality Second Most Frequently Read Genre in U.S.

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Pope Francis meets transgender guests of Rome church

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Politicians seek to control classroom discussions about slavery in the US

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Despite vastly different values, evangelical ‘Hamilton’ connects secular left and Christian right

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Both Open- and Close-mindedness Increase in U.S.

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Native Americans urge boycott of ‘tone deaf’ Pilgrim museum

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Boston’s Jews are getting a ‘Jewish tavern’ to study religious text — and drink beer

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • ReAwaken Tour host says he feels harassed by NY prosecutor

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Why the largest US Lutheran denomination apologized to a Latino congregation

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • The Supreme Court Wants to End the Separation of Church and State

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Suspect in Dallas salon May shooting indicted for anti-Asian hate crime

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Anglican Division over Scripture and Sexuality Heads South

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Amy Spitalnick, who took on neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, is moving to Bend the Arc

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • New York City’s Largest Evangelical Church Plans Billion-Dollar Development

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Ben & Jerry’s fears its new Israeli owner could sell ‘Judea and Samaria’ ice cream in latest court hearing

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Why Alexander Hamilton gave his heart to Jesus at a Texas church this weekend

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Baby Blues: How to Face the Church’s Growing Fertility Crisis

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Orthodox Alaska Part 2: The Beatles, Bees And Orthodoxy Animated In One Man’s Life

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2022 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS