Racism is Not Dead

The other day I faced a little bit of racism. Normally that never happens to me besides one of my friends or someone who thinks that they are my friend tries to be funny by making a reference to my color. More times than not it just annoys the heck out of me. This time tho it was by a complete stranger. I was actually naive to what was happening at the moment. Shows how trust worthy of other people that I am. And how not cynical. I thought this dirt bag was trying to be helpful but boy was I wrong. I don\’t know, I feel like it wasn\’t that big of a deal as most people would think but for some reason it really pissed me off. I also got kinda convicted.

I was stopping at my favorite gas station to get a soda before work. At the same time of my arrival a cop pulled up as well. We both went in and I paid first then walked out. I headed to my car and there was a car parked next to mine. A man sat in the passenger side and rolled down his window and said hey in a overly loud voice even for outdoors. I said hey back to be polite and went on my way. Got in the car and began to turn it on. Before I did the man yelled, \”hey, your buddies are over there\” and then pointed in the direction of the cop car. At first I didn\’t realize what he was doing and have him a confused look. This stopped me from turning on my car. He then said it again and pointed more directly at the car and this time it clicked. I got it. And my face of innocent confusion quickly turn to a f-you kind of face. This made me turn and start my car. Then a thought popped into my anger filled head. Say something back! So I rolled down my window and said, \”hey, you know the funny thing is that I probably have a way better record than you do\” and as the last word fled from my mouth the music from my stereo blasted and drowned out his rebuttal. I pulled away proud of what I had said and all the while thoughts of what I should have said flew through my head as all I wanted to do was drive back and hit him in the face with a baseball bat. Or at least say a few more choice words. I couldn\’t believe it. Serious? Did I just get lumped in a stereotype because of the color of my skin. I mean seriously. He didn\’t even know my name and all of a sudden he assumed that I was a criminal. Wow!

After my anger had subsided I began to think about my faith. How as outward and obvious as my race is to people so should my faith be. It should be as dark as my skin and when people see me the see Christ. I have been reading and many verses pop into my mind for this but I will leave it at this. I hope that people see me as a follower of God more than the color of my skin.