#whoselifematters

Guess what?  People come in all different colors.  For some reason, the color of a person has been associated with their worth for as long as records of society have been kept.  Often, people end up in one of two schools on this: 1 - a person's color does not matter and therefore it does not exist (this is the colorblind theory), or 2 - a person's color determines their status, their worth, their personality, etc. (this is often referred to as racism, but is actually the definition of prejudice).  More extremely, you have those who are, in fact, racist, and exhibit hatred toward those with different colors of skin.

Regardless of the school, I think many of us are lying to ourselves.  We clearly are different colors, and there is no association between a person's skin color and their worth aside, from what we have imposed.  We should not deny either fact, nor should it become as raging an issue as it has today.

I am not going to comment on specific events, but suffice it to say that race has become the hot button issue in the media, with several acts of violence/aggression committed among the American people, mainly between those classified as white, and those classified as black.

These acts are not always racially motivated, but since we don't hear of them until after they occur, we are forced to derive details from remaining evidence, often that the suspect and the victim are sporting quite different skin colors.  This leads many to assume there is a racism component; an assumption which, in itself, is sad news for the American people, for to have a person believe a crime is motivated by skin color points to the idea that skin color difference continues to be an issue.

Racism is a problem.  It's a problem that we, the people, have.  I am not racist, but I know people who are and I know people who have been victims of it.  The question is, how do we fight it?

It seems our best attempts at present include facebook statuses, flag pic wars, hashtag campaigns, and countless debates as to whether people and actions and things are racist.  Like, it's not even really a good attempt, guys.  In trying to fight racism, we've ended up fighting each other, which is really how racism got its claim in the first place!

The truth is we are wasting our weapons in the wrong fight.

27For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.
Galatians 3:27-29

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Ephesians 6:12

The other day I was pulling out of the parking lot of a shopping center and I saw two young black women pull over right in the middle of the lane to exit the lot.  They got out of their car and started running.  It was a strange sight.  I thought maybe the car had broken down or maybe they had lost something out the window?

I looked ahead and an older-aged white man was attempting to push his car down the median of the highway outside of the parking lot.  He was not getting anywhere any time soon, until he suddenly gained speed.  He appeared befuddled at first, until he turned and saw the two women helping him push the car down the street and safely into a gas station, at which point the women turned about and ran right back across the street to get into their car.

We will not win the war against evil by fighting one another.  Hashtags and facebook statuses will not win this battle.  Victory will not come through armchair debate.

We will win the war against evil by responding to the call, by refusing to let skin color be a thing, by laying down our pride and our false judgments, and picking each other up, leading each other to the cross, and running back across the road.