Kinship: The Answer to Racism?

Father Greg Boyle, in his presentation at Calvin College last Wednesday, he emphasized the word kinship as the key to addressing societal issues and establishing true community. As Nikki Toyama-Szeto presented her timely lecture concerning racial issues in honor of Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr., I couldn’t help but remember Father Boyle’s word. Despite the differing vocations of Father Boyle and Mrs. Toyama-Szeto, they both stressed the need for true community, or kinship, rather than a superficial discussion of the issues that divide societies.

I didn’t think much of racial issues growing up. I didn’t realize I was Caucasian, or that some my friends were of a differing ethnicity, until I took history in middle school. This naivety was in part due to the seemingly effortless multicultural society in which I lived in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and also in part because of my parents’ efforts to expose me to different cultures than our own from a very young age. Since the time I was born, my family attended primarily African-American churches, and my best friends, unbeknownst to me, were also African-American. My elementary, middle and high schools were private Christian institutions with a high percentage of international students, expanding my friend group over time to include friends from Kuwait, India, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and China. Even in high school when I learned of the past racial oppression in North America, I thought of racism as a historical evil, and in no way existent in my immediate life.

Attending college in the United States shattereds my naive reality. I can distinctly remember the first time I recognized the racial tension between Caucasians and African- Americans; I walked into the dining hall my freshman year and took a seat at a table with all African-American students. I smiled at them and began introducing myself. They stared at me as if I had lost my way, and didn’t speak to me for about five minutes. After the five minutes had passed, we chatted normally, but I had finally experienced the tension which I though only existed in my history textbook; it was apparent that I was not expected to befriend or sit with African-American students because I was white.

Nikki Toyama-Szeto remained very positive about racial issues throughout her talk, which I greatly respected. She described some events in her life in which she was discriminated, but quickly moved past these issues to address our true calling as Christians: to realize and appreciate each other’s differences in culture and race, and to realize that, “Without you, my view of God is incomplete.” My naive childhood experience in which race was absent was not a utopia as some people may have thought; I realize now that as a child I lacked an awareness of the enormous blessing I could have gained from recognizing other people of cultures and listening to their experiences.

As I move from this naivety to an adult realization of the complex histories and issues that currently surround race in North America, I will attempt to seek after relationships that enlarge my view of God and pursue, as Father Boyle puts it, kinship.