Posts

Showing posts from July, 2012

Racism in Religion

In American Society, racism is a taboo subject. And in the church, it's even more taboo. But it was real. Very real. I experienced it firsthand. I remember the leader of my church (the pastor's wife) coming into my apartment (actually I was staying with two sisters in the church in a two-bedroom apartment) and blasting my roommate for having all "Afro-centric" decor. "You've got to get rid of this," She said with disgust, flailing her hands in dismay at the Kemetian (Egyptian) paintings on the wall she'd gotten at a Harlem festival. She said the "ethnic decor" was not conducive to evangelizing different kinds of people, that they would be somehow pushed away by my roommate celebrating her own culture. No "universal appeal"  our leader said, aggravated, her blue eyes flaming. It was weird at the time, but it was understood amongst my household that this woman was not "white" but our leader-the leader who God had appoint