Blog #2

I love the power of story. By simply listening to someone else's story, you are better able to understand. As I get older and hear more and more stories, I have learned to humble myself because a lot of times I can't even seem to understand how they feel.

Reading Ta-Nehisi Coates story, I am feeling very humbled in the fact that there are a lot of things that go on that are bigger than I am. As a white person, I may not have actively discriminated or intentionally put down those of color, but even being unaware of it happening all around me makes me feel guilty. I went through history classes all throughout my life learning about these figures not even giving a thought to how it made people of color feel that all these figures were all white. I haven't really thought either of Coates opinion of his way being paved by a white person.

How can we change that? Is the teaching of history in schools a part of where this stems from? Despite all of these things happening around us, how do we as Christians rise above and choose to love?

Blog #1

Ta-Nehisi Coates attempts to explain the unexplainable to his son. How do you tell your son, who only sees the good in the world through his innocent eyes, that he will be treated differently over something that he has no control of? I grew up in a small town, and we never had any sort of crime. I can't seem to wrap my mind around the idea of stepping outside and constantly being in fear. My parents were protective of what I did, but they never truly feared for my life. Just getting a taste of how he felt was alarmingly different then the way that I was raised. 

A section in the first part of this book was when he talked about how he developed a new language to protect himself opened my eyes. Because of the culture that he was brought up, he had to be so cautious of what he said. Just simply asking to see someone's bike was taken as he was starting a fight. Using the example of Treyvon Martin, he explains the danger of simply growing up as a young black man. My heart hurts for those who constantly feel like they have to defend themselves from the world around them. 

As a Christian, I wish our human eyes could see how God views his children. Before people become so quick to judge, I wish they would take into thought how precious that person is in the Lord's eyes.