Monopoly, Race, and Me
I’m stepping aside from answering questions in this installment of Tentpegs. Most of you know that I’ve been reading a lot of literature on the Civil Rights Movement and that I’ve been meeting with a series of African-Americans to learn about their experience in America, back in the 50s and 60s and today. My studies are going on at the same time that a wonderful, wise young man named Brad Irwin is leading the congregation through a class called Just Neighbors on Wednesday nights. That class confronts us with the reality of poverty in our area, the hopelessness of poverty, and the need for the church to make a strong response.
During one class (and I wasn’t there. I am reporting what a few people told me), an older white member confessed some frustration. His grandfather had almost nothing but worked hard all his life and he “made it.” This person, too, went through a terribly rough time but “picked myself up by my own bootstraps” and succeeded. Why, he wondered, can’t other people do that? Several African-American members were hurt by that remark. Some of them were raised in poverty and some are still very much in it right now. The discussion went on — in a very good and healthy way — long after the class time ended. Had I been there, I would have had an answer that takes the form of a personal story and an allegory. Here it is. I’m interested in how you would have responded.
When I went to university, I was 16 years old. I had already done a year’s worth of work in the evenings and summers so I was entering as a sophomore. Since I had a 3.8 GPA in high school plus a lot of previous college work, it was thought that I would get a good scholarship. It was 1973. The Civil Rights Act was less than 5 years old and, frankly, much of the South and a good portion of the North was ignoring it. Laws continued to be made to force schools, businesses, and legal authorities to integrate and to give all, regardless of race, an equal chance. Problem was, there was some catching up to do and that caused all kinds of hurt feelings. I was told — directly and in person — by the registrar and the finance office of the school I entered that I could only be given a token, small scholarship but “if you were colored” I could have received a full ride. Their scholarship money was going to black students that year and — most of it — for the next couple of years. I never did get that scholarship.
And I was angry. It was hard not to blame black students for my financial woes. My parents were poor — you don’t make much on the mission field — and so I worked three part time jobs to get myself through those first two years. Sleep was a rarity.
Now… was that fair? Before you answer that, let me tell you a story to illustrate what I think is reality for many of our citizens.
Let’s say that nine people are playing a mega-game of Monopoly. They have been playing the game for quite a while and most of the good property is gone. In fact, even the worst property is almost entirely in their hands. Their piles of yellow, pink, and green money are quite impressive. If you’ve ever played Monopoly with people who are good at it, you know this point in the game: it is the point where everyone is doing well, right before the lack of available land and opportunities rises up to bite you. At this point, you allow a tenth person to enter the game. He is given no money, but he IS given a die and a token. He can step right up there and toss that dice, moving around like everybody else.
What are his chances? Ninety percent of the population of the game has had time to bond with each other, learn each others’ way of playing, gather resources, friends, connections, and money. Now, ten percent — the one player — is told he is being given equal rights because he is allowed to enter the game. He is without resources, connections, money or property. If he fails, he is blamed, not the rigged game.
Sadly, that is the case for many of our African-American communities. Note: I am not excusing the failures of black culture, the gangsta mentality among the youth, or those who line up for “Obama money” in Downtown Detroit. That is sad beyond belief. What I am saying is this: white people had hundreds of years to develop systems that work for them. A lot of white people were still poor — I was one of them and my father before me was in such desperate poverty that I have a photo of him when he was eight years old, hollow eyed with a protruding stomach, swollen by malnutrition and worms. Still, my father was able to go to school. Yes, they made fun of him because he used rubber jar rings to hold his shoes together as he walked miles to get to college… but he was allowed in. As recently as the mid 1960s, the federal government had to send 20,000 troops to Mississippi to admit the first and only black into university there… and dozens of US Marshals were shot down during the riots that consumed that state for the next month. My dad, poor and unkempt, was white. He was allowed to walk onto the campus of a school. The game worked for him.
I was poor. Even doing three part time jobs, I got out of school with nothing in my pockets. I drove a twenty year old car and my clothes were a long way from being stylish. Still… I was allowed to work in those jobs. They were open to me. I was also allowed to drive a car without suffering harassment, beatings, or shootings by the Klan. While I was in school, I heard about those attacks. Two young men in one of my class even tried to recruit me into the Klan, showing me poorly printed propaganda and promising me that I could “get my rights” if I fought for them. No, I wasn’t tempted… but I was a little afraid. And if I, a white boy who was kind of from America, kind of from Scotland, was afraid, what about a black student who just wanted to drive a car in Alabama or get a job in Jackson, Mississippi? Remember, this was just around the time that J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI, died after spending the last fifteen years of his life wiretapping any civil rights worker and harassing black people who listened to them (he, in a letter to Robert Kennedy, called Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “a damned burrhead” in 1967).
It just isn’t as simple as saying “there are equal rights now. Just pull yourself up and go to work!” While we have come a long, long way — thank God! — we need to remember that 90% of us had a long time playing at this table. We had more opportunities. That is evening out now, but we still have to face the facts: we are responsible for much of the racial division that now exists. Sure, both black and white have to share a ton of blame, but we have to remember the head start most of us got. We had open doors, opportunity, and the ability to move and freely travel. Our schools were better and that meant we had better chances to get better jobs.
I have no solutions to the current state of racial relations. I am not a proponent of unfettered Affirmative Action nor do I believe that it should be entirely scrapped. It appalls me that Affirmative Action might disqualify good firefighters, policemen, teachers, or pilots and place in an unqualified person. Yet, without some of these laws in place, would our systems be integrated at all? There has to be middle ground somewhere. I am not a fan of welfare, but I see people who absolutely cannot function without it for reasons that are out of their control. I see them every day and it wears on me to realize that the myth of “work hard and you’ll get somewhere” is just that for some people — a myth. Tell that to a single woman whose husband left her with two children, who has to work two jobs to have enough to buy thrift store clothes and toys for her kids, but who doesn’t earn enough to live in a place with good schools or safe streets. She is trapped and so are her kids. They can’t pull themselves up with their own bootstraps because they don’t even have bootstraps.
In times like this, I urge my people to place their own lives and pocket books on the line for the poor around them. I’m not always as quick as I should be in opening up my wallet, but I’m getting better. I encourage our people to help the honest poor, not the professional beggar or laggard. I also encourage people not to count on the government. It is up to each of us to do what is right. The Lord had a lot to say about the poor. If we had paid attention to him, there would have been no slavery and certainly no post-Reconstruction disenfranchisement of ten percent of our population. It is because of our sins that we are in this position and it is only through His grace and our obedience that we will get out of it.
And, for the record, I’m glad the other guy got the scholarship. And, guy? I never met you and I probably never will, but I apologize for my teenaged selfishness. I hope and pray that your life has been blessed.
October 29th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Having grown up in the deep south (Alabama) I, too, had a rude awakening when I grew older and saw things from a different perspective. I don’t know the answer to all of this, but I am fairly confident that as long as we keep trying what hasn’t worked, we’ll get the same lack of results. But that’s the way of government, isn’t it?
October 30th, 2009 at 1:05 am
Excellent analogy with Monopoly, Patrick. I spent my first 29 years in South Africa, so race and disadvantage is an issue that’s very “dear” to me.
October 30th, 2009 at 1:37 am
Excellent thought. It increased my understanding.
October 30th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Now that is the way my true brother in Christ talks
. Except for one or two things, but overall said well.
October 30th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
One thing that frustrates me is that the 60’s were 40 years ago yet many people still treat it as if it were yesterday. We have come SO far since then and there are SO many more opportunities out there for hard workers. I simply cannot accept young people (in their 20’s) today saying they were “held back” in life due to race. Their parents, sure.
Good read. Thanks.
I used to think the same way, Roland, but I don’t anymore. There are places in our nation where it is almost impossible to move up. In Detroit, less than 30% of those who enter kindergarten will graduate high school. The schools are terrible, full of crime, and the streets are unbearable. A child born there has very little chance to move up even a notch in life unless the church intervenes. The government just makes things worse. It is time that the church was the church.
October 30th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I, too, am torn between wanting to provide opportunities for those in need, and denying opportunities for those who are equally (or perhaps better) qualified.
I’ll ask a couple of questions:
1. How can unfair ever be fair?
2. Does it truly help people to continue to give them monetary aid without changing the society and culture that keep them perpetually impoverished? (And that question cuts across racial lines.)
I don’t know that I have any answers. I have a lot of compassion mixed with sense of injustice over discrimination (whichever way it goes), and a complete lack of faith in any governmental “solution.”
October 30th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Roland I have also thought this at one time or another and it is partially true. Some use that as an excuse to be lazy, but for some it is true because of the situation they are in.
I am a minister in Mississippi in suburbs of Memphis so there are many racial issues here. The reason some people still blame their situation on racism of the past is because they are caught up in a cycle that seems endless. It started with slavery and turned into racism that affected many of the 20 year olds parents or grandparents.
What cycle you may ask. I will give you an example of an apartment complex where I live that is subsidized housing for the poor. The complex is 95% black and all those who live there are poor. We were reaching out to a girl who lived there that I graduated with 8 years ago. She was raised by a single mother who was also raised by a single mother. She had a child just a couple of years after we graduated and had a couple other children with different guys. She ended up stabbing a girl and going to jail. You see it’s not so much that she didn’t know her father or even her grandfather it’s that she is in that place because her parents and grandparents could not get ahead because they could not get a good job. For some reason the poor, at least from what I have seen, are not taught Christian morals like those of the middle class. I don’t know why this is and it is not across the board. There are several in that complex that are very good Christians though most are caught up in drugs, sex, and even gangs. Many of them are poor because their parents and grandparents could never get ahead. The cause was bad education for blacks and lack of available high paying jobs for blacks. Because of this they are in poor areas where drugs and murders run ramped.
It is a sad situation that they now have the opportunity to get out of since things have changed.
I would exaggerate even beyond what Patrick said. They are playing monopoly in a game where they are severely handicapped on top of coming in to the game late. They have someone telling them if they kill all the other players they will win. Or if they steal money from the others they will win. Or if they just sit there the bank will take care of them. My point is these people are being lied to every day and getting caught up in the same cycle their parents were in. There are some who succeed but not many.
Is this my fault? Absolutely not! I’m only 27 and have never held anyone back. Is it my fault if I do nothing about it? Absolutely! We can start with the current generation if we will all work together to help them. Reach out to their parents and teach them a better way. Reach out to those in high school and teach them a better way. Reach out to the younger ones and teach them a better way.
For God’s sake just do something! These people are hurting and need God in their lives. Lets stop worrying about who’s fault it is and do something.
I wish I’d written those last three paragraphs. God bless you.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Patrick,
While reading your statements, I have never been prompted to write but this one really caught my attention because I have seen it an understand the message you expressed. While I’m usually against placing blame for situations like this, I feel we are still trapped in this racism because the government teaches us one race is more important than another. The specific race card may change from time to time but every time I fill out a government form requiring me to check off my race they are telling me race matters. I don’t think we will ever be to the position where anyone desiring to pull themselves up can do so until the record keeping of racial statistics comes to an end. Children will play with each other regardless of race because they just see another playmate. As you indicated from your experience, adults see the one treated different because of their race. If I was a business and wanted to be prejudice and only hire those of my color, I would not be able to compete with those who hired the best person for the job. As one person mentioned the 60’s happened 50 years ago and we need to get over what happened and correct what is happening now. We will only learn it does not matter when we stop being confronted with the reality that it does matter.
Reading your comment and one other here, I fear I did not make my point clearly enough. I’ll think about it and try again.
October 31st, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Thanks for posting this Patrick. That analogy is a very effective way of explaining the situation, and Paul’s addition was fantastic. My major at OSU is sociology, and I’m concentrating in inequalities. The more I study about the deep lines of division that run through our society, the more convicted I am that we as the church needs to live out the apostle Paul’s challenge in Eph 2. We desperately need to live out Good News, new humanity call, and show the world that there is a better way to live.
Thanks for posting this Patrick.
November 1st, 2009 at 1:30 am
What someone above said about the government teaching us that race matters is so true. When I first moved back from New Zealand where I was a “missionary,” my son (Mark) was in 1st grade. One day he brought home a little form of some kind – and I let him fill it out. He came to a question marked “Race,” looked up at me, and asked, “What do I put here, Dad? HUMAN?” I told him that would be good!
We can complain all we want to about the government, though. That does not excuse us. I grew up in the very deep South – and the churches were just about as bad as anyone else. I don’t know any church people involved in any lynchings – but church people did nothing to stop the lynchings, either. When we had opportunities to take a stand for right, we passed them up because of fear.
What were we afraid of? Some feared persecution by the culture around us – and that was a very real threat. The KKK was active in Central Florida where I lived. We just didn’t trust God enough to face them. Some feared the loss of advantages we enjoyed. Some leaders feared the loss of members or financial support. There were other fears as well – that white girls would marry black boys (somehow, white boys marrying black girls was not quite as fearsome).
As others have said, I do not have the answer – except that we must be willing to talk about it and act in a Christ-like way in the face of this great national shame. We need to take the lead in showing love, compassion, and fellowship – even sharing in the suffering of others.
Jerry Starling
November 2nd, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I do think we would be much, much further along if Govco was not so much involved. They were needed but they have WAY overstepped.
I am also very tired of the Democratic party citing race for every wrong and for pitting one race against another time and time and time and time again.
November 3rd, 2009 at 2:38 pm
I would not have made the issue about race, but about poverty. Race actually has little to do with test scores, admission to college, or jobs attained after college any more. Race does correlate weakly with those factors, but when you control for other issues race is a minor issue. Much bigger factors are
1) Income level of your family when you were growing up (most of the PhD’s I’ve met grew up in well to do families, although a few did not)
2) Single parent or both parent families (huge correlation in both education, crime, and out of wed-lock births)
Race matters insomuch as it correlates with these (and a couple other) factors. This is different than race, because we can do something to address these issues
1) Have functioning families adopt a single mother, and have the church help out with necessities
2) Make sure men are mentoring the children
We can do nothing to change a person’s skin color, or what background they have. We can help educate them and mentor their children. Many horrible things happened in the past, but we cannot spend our time worrying about the lynchings of the 60’s when it is gang violence that is killing so many now. There were problems in the past, but the problems we have now are the ones we need to address now.
Mentor
Adopt single mothers
Never treat poor children you are mentoring different – they will rise to your expectations, and if you set them low the kids will never rise to their potential.
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I don’t think I agree with everything Patrick said here, but I certainly agree with Chad.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:05 pm
I feel a little compelled to join in this conversation. I live and preach in a city (35,000) that is predominantly black both in terms of population and power. Moving here has been an eye-opening experience.
I have been amazed by the speed of racial reconciliation that has been occuring in this region, especially among youth.
I appreciate the references to how complex is this whole issue. In addition to the racial differences are the clash of two different cultures/value systems, and the issue, “Who’s values are going to lead the community?” Attitudes towards the role of government assistance, attitudes about the importance of education, attitudes about success, attitudes about submission, authority, and cooperation, attitudes about acceptable levels of accomodating others in public, attitudes about aesthetics, … are just some of the many cultural differences that make relations difficult. Since “opportunities” are social entities, all these differences come into play.
When a white person says “black people are…” and a black person says “white people are…” that is their honest perception based upon the values of their culture. The cultural discomfort, distrust, and the sense that the other is “not doing right” are genuine feelings. Very few people are “cross cultural” in this regard… and both races are often suspect of those who are. When you think of the basic act of one person choosing another for anything (job, scholarship, promotion, office) these differences come into play.
This all ties into economic opportunity in a hundred ways. One notable example: white culture is often satisfied to hand over the resources necessary to make opportunities… black culture searches to avail themselves of opportunities as “wholes.” Thus white culture says, “we are giving you what you need,” and black culture responds, “where? I don’t see it.” [Neither is right or wrong... just different perspectives.]
There are two “unheralded heros” in all of this. Those who have learned to engage the other culture, and endure the discomforts are one. The other is those who feel the deep discomfort, even distrust, but have risen above that and moved light years over the past 50 years. It is humbling to me to see elderly brethren in church who are not racist. Think of where we were as a society in their youth. Maybe they aren’t quite yet what we ought to be, but you have to appreciate the journey.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Here is a bit of a different take: I’ve experienced that a LOT of the issues around racism are learned. The only way to explain this is to confess it myself. I grew up in a predominantly Hispanic mid-size city in South Texas. Being hispanic myself, going to a predominantly white church of Christ, and having several black friends, race truly never really was an issue for me, nor did it ever seem like one for the community, or my congregation.
When I moved to North Texas, the DFW metroplex about 10 years ago, I was baffled to hear preaching, from local pulpits, about the need for the races to get along in Christ. My thought was, “Seriously, this isn’t even an issue anymore”. And in my life, it truly hadn’t been up to that point.
Fast forward a few years, having a had a few negative run-ins with different races in various situations (both sides of the coin), I realized this still is very much an issue. All of the things you shared are still quite true. But here’s the confession: I found developing in myself a distrust and dislike of other races, that had not previously been there. This was based on a string of bad experiences with a very small handful of people of different ethnicities and races.
Now, one could say, these prejudices were “latent” inside of me. But being a minority myself, having been of object of only VERY occasional prejudice at times, and having searched and prayed about it, I strongly believe these things had not previously been present in my heart. Hence, I “learned” them. I was startled at the revelation, but it said to me that if I learned this bad thing, I could also unlearn it. God has since helped me diligently “unlearn” these prejudices, which is occasionally still a struggle. The bottom line of what it’s take, for me, is seeing folks through the eyes of Jesus as much as humanly possible. And I fail at it miserably sometimes, but He also provides faithfully.
All this is to say, that one potential solution might be to teach each other and unlearn some of these prejudices, in light of God’s grace and Christ’s salvation. I’m nearly convinced that if the church could target even ONE generation of ALL races, in unlearning these prejudices, we would take massive leaps forward in a matter of a decade or two. Just imagine.
Sorry for the long post, but this is such a critical topic for the church today.
November 17th, 2009 at 4:12 am
I am always late to respond to great topics and great discussions. I just wanted to tell you Patrick that I appreciate your comments so much. As an African Ameerican, I grieve constantly at the state of African american culture. In Buffalo, where I grew up, black teens are destroying each other at alarming rates. Poverty is at an all time high as it is in other areas of the country. My older brother and I talk everyday about the ills in the black community and how its not getting better.
Our source of grieving is not only the destruction of the black community, but also the perception of non-blacks. I had a white sister in church tell my wife that all blacks want is free stuff and they don’t want to work. Also blacks keep blaming whites for what took place over 40 years ago. Why can’t they move on? Of course she felt comfortable telling that to my wife becuase my wife is white and I have been described as “not a typical Black person” – whatever that means.
There are repeated calls for african-americans to “forget” what happened while the nation simultaneously declares, “We will never forget what happened on 9/11″ 9/11 was traumatic, it was evil and it left an enduring mark on our nation. Some African Americans lost parents, grandparents, uncles, and cousins to lynchings, bombings, police brutality and other atrocities. So for many black people these atrocities were traumatic, evil and left an enduring mark. It’s not all that easy to just forget.
Having said that, as a disciple of Jesus, I believe in the ministry of reconciliation and I firmly believe in the church community taking a lead role in addressing the racial issues of our times. I continue to be a victim of racism amd it angers me. But I am also a disciple in the kingdom of God and I have a responsibility to adhere to the ways of the Kingdom.
I guess I’m just writing to respond to anyone who thinks racism is a made up factor in issues of poverty, advancement and equality. I would love for the church community to come together to not just voice our opposition to the government run systems, but to collectively pray, dream and act in communities in order to educate the impovershed (black, white, yellow, brown, etc.)about health, nutrition, money, social skills, forgiveness, acceptance, and love! And I want to offer my heart and mind for toward that end with anyone who cares about these issues and to have an open dialogue regarding issues of race. Let’s do this! God Bless!