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334 ˜ A Work of Hospitality, 1982–2002
or
our college degrees and fabulous
careers
our houses, cars, and bank accounts
Will be dead.
We can rid the land of lovelessness and fear
Where no one is a bum or bomb
Where everyone has enough
Where justice is our security
and we love one another.
“Ain’t no bums
ain’t no bombs
on this bus,” says Jesus.
“Follow me.”
Martin and Rodney: Kings among Captors,
by Ed Loring
J u n e 1 9 9 2
Racism is not a matter of the heart; prejudice is. Racism is not flesh and
blood; it is a power and a principality (Ephesians 6) of this final age of European
American hegemony in North America. Racism is power and privilege based
simply on the color of one’s skin. White folk are racists because we live in a system
that favors whiteness and crushes blackness. We live in institutions like
churches and schools that teach us that Americans cannot be racists in North
America, although they can be as prejudiced as anyone else. But African Americans
do not have the institutional power—political, social, or economic—to be
racist. Whites are racists. Blacks are victims of racism.
Racism is an addiction, as Nibs Stroupe has taught us in his book, While We
Run This Race. The first response of an addict when confronted with her disease
and with love of the high the drug produces is denial. That denial is not a personal
lie; it represents the belief system of the addict. Racism blinds white peo-