Shawn Casselberry's Blog
Ignorance is. / 01.20.10, 12:19 PM
Ignorance is one of the legacies of racism in our country. Racism has divided us by color and class so that we know little about one another. Ignorance is perpetuated through segregation. Martin Luther King, Jr. referred to Chicago as one of the most segregated cities in the nation. After 40 years, it’s still true.
The Chicago Tribune reported in 2008, “Blacks make up about 35 percent of Chicago’s population of nearly 3 million and are largely concentrated on the South and West Sides. Whites make up nearly 28 percent, largely located to the north and in slivers of the South Side, while Hispanics, about 30 percent of the population, are scattered to the Northwest and Southwest Sides of the city center.”
Segregation has been maintained in Chicago for centuries by laws, force, discriminatory real estate practices such as redlining, public-housing policies that concentrated blacks in low-income neighborhoods, and “urban renewal” which has increased gentrification and the displacement of mostly poor people of color from wealthier, white neighborhoods. Although many whites voted to elect Obama the first African American president, whites are still not nearly as interested in living in neighborhoods of color.
The truth is, we can’t know each other if we live on opposite sides of town, attend different churches, go to different schools, and shop at different grocery stores. For decades and decades we have lived in isolation from one another and thus ignorance of one another. Stereotypes become shortcuts (convenient lies) to actual experience and interaction with those across cultures. Whether through de jure segregation in the 1950s when this separation was reinforced through laws or de facto segregation as we have today by economic forces and personal choices to remain separated, the result is the same: ignorance.
Ignorance is fear. Separation breeds ignorance and ignorance breeds fear. I have always found it ironic that people on the West Side of Chicago are afraid of the South Side and people on the South Side are afraid of the West Side (the North Siders are afraid of both!). We fear what we don’t know. Many times our fears are exploited by the media for ratings and politicians for votes. The result is that we stay away from certain areas of the city or from certain kinds of people and our ignorance remains unchanged.
For many team members, Mission Year is the first time that they are living in close proximity to people of a different culture or class as them for an extended period of time. For many of their neighbors, it is also the first time they have had a white, Asian, African American, or Latino neighbor. This creates a tremendous opportunity for learning and breaking down barriers of ignorance.
Mission Year is also determined to have more multi-cultural teams. We are challenging our society’s ignorance head on by bringing people from many different backgrounds to learn to live and serve God together under one roof. Stereotypes quickly fall away in the context of intentional Christian community. By modeling love, unity, and peace across racial and economic lines, we become witnesses of the reconciling power of the gospel.
Ignorance is NOT bliss. If we are to move forward we have to admit our own ignorance and seek to educate ourselves. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.” Every year I have a white team member say “I wish I could return to when I was ignorant of the realities of my privilege” as if it’s better to be ignorant. But would we really rather be ignorant of reality? Would we rather live in denial about the advantages we receive at the expense of others?
Ignorance is curable. If segregation policies and personal prejudices have largely contributed to our collective ignorance, then surely we can reverse the curse by intentionally choosing to live among each other or “neighboring” as Mission Year President Leroy Barber calls it. We can overcome our mutual ignorance by mutual learning. We learn each other by decreasing our distance, hearing each other’s stories, asking good questions, educating ourselves by reading each other’s histories (filling in the gaps of our ignorance of others), and showing genuine interest in what makes us unique as well as what we have in common.
As followers of Jesus, we should fearlessly seek Truth. If we want to walk in truth we cannot maintain the ignorance of our culture, our peers, or our family. We must continue to renew our minds from the patterns and prejudice of this world. Only then can we truly see the Beloved Community Dr. King envisioned become a reality. Only then can we become neighbors, friends, and even family.
For now, ignorance is. But it doesn’t have to be.
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Well said, Shawn!
By Krista / Jan 20, 06:33 PM / #