Sometimes I feel like I have a target on my forehead as if to say, “Here. Right here. Stare and point and assume I’m a typical American that all your stereotypes can fit into perfectly.”
Well, for all who were imagining that ridiculously large sign hanging from my eyebrows, no need to strain your imagination. There is no target or sign anywhere on my body. But everywhere I’ve gone for the past year I have been treated as if I do.
I knew when I signed up for this crazy trip around the world that I was relenting all possibilities of feeling normal: from beds to banter, and food to freedom. Apart from being immersed in a Skype conversation, or locking myself in a room with the rest of my American team, I have not felt normal the entire duration of my trip.
But normalcy to me—as a white, middle-class American—has been a different journey compared to my teammate.
Angela and I have been on a team together for eight months out of the eleven of The World Race. Even though we have experienced the same adventures, conversations, and miracles throughout our trip, her perspective hasn’t matched mine.
As an African-American, Angela has spent her entire Race experience—not to mention the past 23-years of her young life—in the minority. She started a blog series entitled, “Race on the Race” to capture her World Race experience through her eyes.
“Race is an everyday reality for me,” Angela writes in her most recent Race on the Race post. “It’s hard. It’s painful. It’s full of pride.”
As a Psychology major pursuing a PhD in Sociology, Angela has been extremely open and responsive to my undoubtedly ignorant questions about race. Through talking, I realized that I didn’t want to stay in my ignorance. In the same educational way Angela writes in her blog series, I wanted to bring awareness to my community as well.
Even though she writes about being black in her World Race experience, she has shared with me many circumstances that have occurred in her own backyard.
“Everyday of my life (both on the Race and off) I am [made] aware that I’m black,” she expresses.
For myself, one of the biggest things I’m looking forward to when I come home is feeling normal again—knowing I can walk down a street wearing gym shorts and not receive judgmental stares, or that I can politely refuse offers (whether it’s food or phone numbers) without a grimace of cultural distaste. However, for Angela, she still fights for her race even in the comfort of America, and worse yet, among some Christians too.
“For some reason, I thought the Church was better than this,” she comments. “That we wouldn’t as easily eat the stereotypes that the world and the media feed us; that we would get to know our brothers and sisters in Christ of all ethnicities.”
(In no way am I pointing blame or assumption to the entire Christian body, and Angela even states later in her blog post, “I write this not to condemn, but to inspire action.”)
There have been many scenarios on the Race that I have witnessed Angela being scrutinized because of her race. For the most part, it’s not out of malicious intent and possibly just a result of ignorance, but are we doing our part as a Christian body in not showing judgment and extending grace to all?
Race aside this includes everyone from millionaires and the homeless, to jocks and nerds, democrats, republicans, gays, lesbians, Catholics, Muslims, everyone…and me! How can we make this a better world to live in? (Probably a question that no one deems possible to answer.)
As I stated before, I came from an ignorant place. Not because I wasn’t properly educated on race, but because I didn’t have a need for that sensitivity in my social circle. I was unaware of the inadvertent hurt that I caused because of it.
Now, thanks to informative conversations, blog posts, and an immense amount of patience from Angela, I have gained a deeper understanding on her perspective of a battle that she has to fight everyday.
For more on Angela’s World Race experience, visit her page here.
