LeAnne Hardy, author and editor
  • Home
  • BIO
  • My Books
    • Children's and Young Adult
    • Historical Fiction
    • Non-fiction
  • Blog
  • Editorial Services

My ​Times and Places
​


​​

The View from Inside My Body

11/30/2016

2 Comments

 
Picture
​​I am racist.
 
I think we all are racist. In this world we cannot help but be influenced by the color of our skin. Much as I love my brothers and sisters at Solid Word Bible Church where we worshipped when we lived in Indianapolis, my white skin has given me different life experiences than their black skin. I cannot help but view the world from inside my white body.

For six years we worshipped together, prayed together, studied the Bible together. My shallow thinking wanted to claim, “We are all the same; these people are just like me,” but that wasn’t true. I never asked prayer for the family of a relative shot in a drive-by shooting. To me a college sorority seemed like a shallow social club, not a life-line for a first generation college student. Just when I thought I fit in, I would be startled by some totally different perspective that had never occurred to me—my racist assumption that everyone views the world like I do.
 
In my years as a missionary librarian in Africa, cultural differences were obvious. I hoped that my feeble attempts to participate in the culture—studying Shangana, singing with the women’s choir, learning to cook pumpkin greens in peanut sauce—would hint at the love of Jesus that I wanted to communicate, but those things could never make me an insider. I abhor the forced labor, purloined resources, and personal indignities that often accompanied colonialism, but I tend to assume that the “blessings” of modern medicine, education and world economics make it all worthwhile. Not really, to hear one of my more outspoken African friends talk.
 
I recently read Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehis Coates. In it the American author essentially explains the facts of life in a white-dominated world to his son. I found that after fifteen years in Africa I resented being lumped with “those who think they are white,” but that resentment pales beside those who are arrested for DWB (driving while black) and have to swallow their resentment just to stay alive.
 
Coates’ parents rejected the gospel that led to a non-violent Civil Rights movement, and so did he at an early age, leaving him with nothing to believe in except that “We are our bodies.” The book is a call to respect those bodies. For me, a chronological account would have more effectively shown the inevitability of the author’s feelings. This book is not that. Nor is it a tightly constructed argument. It’s more of an essay—a rambling rant without even chapters—but it demonstrates the deep pain of American people of color in an age of one police killing after another. My responsibility as one of  “those who think they are white” is to listen with an open heart to this expression of what the world looks like from within a black body and hopefully gain some small portion of understanding to soften my inherent racism.
2 Comments
Kim Childress link
11/30/2016 08:14:58 pm

Really enjoyed this blog, and this made me want to read this book! I pray you are well!

Reply
LeAnne
12/1/2016 09:36:28 am

Thank you, Kim. Another book that highlights color and justice is Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, an attorney who works with prisoners on death row. Very powerful.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    LeAnne Hardy has lived in six countries on four continents. Her books come out of her cross-cultural experiences and her passion to use story to convey spiritual truths in a form that will permeate lives.

    RSS Feed

    Add http://www.leannehardy.net/1/feed to your RSS feed.
    To receive an e-mail when I post a new blog, please subscribe.
    Subscribe to Blog

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Author Interviews
    Current Events
    Devotional Thoughts
    Guest Blog
    Holidays Christmas
    Holidays Easter
    Holidays-Easter
    Holidays Other
    Holidays-Thanksgiving
    Missions And Missionaries
    Music
    My Books
    My Life And Family
    My Travels
    Non Fiction
    Orphans And Vulnerable Children
    Photos
    Publishers And Publishing
    Reading And Sharing Books
    Reviews
    Skating
    Theological Education
    Tributes
    Writing

    Archives

    June 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    September 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    March 2000

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • BIO
  • My Books
    • Children's and Young Adult
    • Historical Fiction
    • Non-fiction
  • Blog
  • Editorial Services