Thank you for addressing this. I witnessed a church I use to go to respond in these ways and it made me feel so uneasy. Like all of sudden wanting to find a way to include black people by having them as a guest speaker or having seminars to educate ourselves on how to connect with black people but didn’t make an effort prior. Or strategizing on the idea of “if we add a black person to our staff then it will be the key to creating diversity in our congregation……” like it was a goal to a acheive and check off. And when they did associate with a black person it was so obvious they were doing it for the wrong reason by pointing it out or making it known. I was coming from a highly diverse city where I was the minority, to a predominantly white city. I found it so odd white people needed to take a workshop on how to engage because having the love of Christ in me caused me to want to genuinely build a relationship with all people regardless of their race, I never found that intimidating or confusing or that I had to take a class. Like you said that approach makes them feel like a month or token.
Thank you for addressing this. I witnessed a church I use to go to respond in these ways and it made me feel so uneasy. Like all of sudden wanting to find a way to include black people by having them as a guest speaker or having seminars to educate ourselves on how to connect with black people but didn’t make an effort prior. Or strategizing on the idea of “if we add a black person to our staff then it will be the key to creating diversity in our congregation……” like it was a goal to a acheive and check off. And when they did associate with a black person it was so obvious they were doing it for the wrong reason by pointing it out or making it known. I was coming from a highly diverse city where I was the minority, to a predominantly white city. I found it so odd white people needed to take a workshop on how to engage because having the love of Christ in me caused me to want to genuinely build a relationship with all people regardless of their race, I never found that intimidating or confusing or that I had to take a class. Like you said that approach makes them feel like a month or token.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I've definitely been there. And girl, ODD INDEED!!!
❤️
Thank you and thank you for reading <3