Racism is not an idea or a concept, though for some it has become an ideology. Racism isn’t a “cultural issue” among others to be bantered about on social media with an air of detached curiosity or self-exempting privilege. Racism is a spiritual perversion rooted in the way in which we treat certain bodies. Racism is a deep spiritual sickness in humanity that manifests itself in the endlessly uncreative forms of mistreatment, oppression, neglect, exploitation, and violence.
Racism is rooted in the sin of Cain, the denial of “brother keeping.”
This sin, though spiritual, is directly connected to the way bodies are treated. Racism is about the body. When we speak of George Floyd, we speak of a body, a black body gasping for breath as the knee of another body presses down on the neck, cutting off from that black body the necessary lifeline of oxygen. It’s a clear picture of bodies, a white body suffocating the life from a black body, the replay of the primeval story of two brothers, one mistreating the body of the other.
The history of racism is a history of mistreating bodies, the bodies of real men, women, and children. It’s the history of enslaving bodies, selling bodies, ripping bodies from the ties of their kin, binding bodies to forced labor, a labor that produces a fruit their bodies will never enjoy. It’s a history of raped bodies at the hands of those who exert power over bodies they’ve claimed as property. It’s a history of bodies denied rights, simply because they have the wrong bodies. It’s a history of lynched bodies, threatened bodies, and terrorized bodies. It’s the history of bodies crammed into close quarters in substandard housing as the bodies of the privileged point in superiority at the ways those historically mistreated bodies act.
It’s a history that continues to deny bodies adequate healthcare.
It’s a history that continues to lock bodies away in prison at disproportionate rates.
It’s a history that continues to pay certain bodies lower wages.
It’s a history that continues to perpetuate scarcity in nutrition, access to education, and housing to certain communities where those bodies are located.
It’s a history that denies it’s history by suggesting, “That was then, and this is now. All bodies are equal.”
But all bodies are not equal. Some bodies have historically been and continue to be cut off, left out, abused, and in the case of George Floyd (and the countless others) made victim to the carnage of the violence this spiritual sickness produces.
Not only is racism about bodies. It is embodied. Racism lives on in the bodies of those historically mistreated because of their bodies. It lives on in the inherited traumas passed down from one generation to the next. It lives on in the presumption of guilt because of the color of the body. It lives on in the societal truth that certain bodies are often considered expendable. It lives on when certain bodies are considered threatening simply because the color of their body. It lives on in the body of every young man who leaves the house wondering, “if today will find me in an occasion that might cost me my life simply because my body was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Racism isn’t an unfortunate “idea” easily changed or a historic problem easily legislated. Racism is about broken bodies, rooted in a deep spiritual sickness, one that watches on as bodies like George Floyd cry out,
“I’m through.”
Those haunting words, not unlike the words that God speaks to Cain, “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground,” demand a response. Yes, to confession. Yes, to lament. Yes, to prayer. But a meme won’t suffice. A hashtag isn’t adequate. This is a spiritual sickness manifested in the body and requires bodily action. It was what Cain did to the body of Abel, denying it, that set us on this trajectory of historic fratricide. It’s what the Good Samaritan does with his body to the broken body of the beaten traveler that makes him a merciful neighbor. It’s what Jesus does with His body that makes possible the reconciliation of our bodies to His and the making of One Body that traverses the perverted divisions that sow the seeds of violence.
We must act bodily.
We must bring our bodies into solidarity with the bodies of our brothers and sisters of color.
We must bind our bodies in proximity, a loving, faithful presence to those we too often encourage from afar.
We must leverage the privilege our bodies afford us for the sake of making lasting change.
We must be willing to lay aside the power our bodies afford us and instead take up the role of servant.
We must pause our bodies and wait to be given guidance from the bodies most affected by racism.
We must be willing to lay down our bodies for the sake of others as a true act of Christ-like love.
We must manifest in The Body of Christ, the kind of community that unites in pursuit of BOTH justice and reconciliation, dignity restoration and peace-making.
Instead of waiting for the next “I’m through” from another George Floyd, as the last gasping breath, we must hear the words from Jesus’ broken body, “It is finished.” The spiritual forces that bind us to violence, to division, to injustice, they have been defeated. The long history of scapegoating and the tyranny of the powerful and privileged, “It is finished.” It is now to us to manifest in our bodies the holy self-giving love of Jesus that bears out that victory in real, redemptive, reconciling ways.
May God have mercy upon us.
