Do we love the “other”?

“When we fixate on the racist individual, we’re focused on the least interesting way that race works,” said Phillip Goff, a social psychologist at U.C.L.A. who focuses his research on “racism without racists.” “Most of the way race functions is without the need for racial animus.”

That quote comes from the NYT and can be found here. Unfortunately, because it is on the subject of the Presidential race, much of what this article says will be completely lost in the thunder of vehement denials and of spin control.

The premise of the article is simple. Repeated studies have shown that even people who view themselves as non-racist will often choose between two people based on the basis of race. That is, a study (that has been repeated more than once by different scientists and institutions) has shown that, in this country, given two candidates for employment, with absolutely equal credentials, the white candidate will get chosen more often. And, the study was subtle in that two fictitous, but equal, files were created for various type of job postings. Sometimes one file was for a white person, and the other for a black person. Then the headings were reversed. Then, neither file was labeled with race. No matter where the study was done, if one of the files was for a black person and the other for a white, whichever file was labeled “black” was the person who was chosen for a job less often.

Similar studies have been done with men and women, and guess what? Right, you guessed it. Whichever file’s turn it was to be labeled woman was the file that was chosen for a job less often. But, to me, the most interesting part of the study was that even a black (or a woman) employer would still choose the fellow black or woman less often than their white or male counterpart. That is, that type of “bias” is so built into the system that even those who suffer from that bias will still express it.

Needless to say, us Latinos experience our fair share of the same problem.

This subtle bias on blacks, women, Latinos, etc., influences all our actions and is the hidden subset in all our national debates. In fact, I would like to broaden the topic to simply say that all of us are subtly biased against the “other.” As a group, we most tend to support or be in favor of those who fit our group’s definition of what we consider a role model. And, in America, that role model is a white, male, heterosexual.

But, before you think that I am simply publishing another rant against our country, let me point out that our Lord Jesus also had to address the same exact problem. I urge you to look at the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Does anyone remember the point of that parable?

Yes, the point of that parable was to point out that our neighbor is to be loved. But, do you also remember that the point was made by crossing the same boundaries that the study showed are there? The “shovel” with which he hit His listeners was that the person who occupied the slot of “least respected” and “least likely to be a role model” in that culture was the person who behaved most like a role model and most like God.

In other words, God already knew about the problem that we are facing today which was pointed out by this article. And he urged us to face that problem and to begin to break those images that keep us from ministering to the “other” and behaving in a God-like way towards our “neighbor.” It is only as we begin to see the “other” as our “neighbor” that we begin to be able to share the Good News with them in a way that is attractive and appealing and likely to bring them to repentance and the Kingdom. In society, it is only as we begin to see the “other” as our “neighbor” that we are likely to begin to behave socially in ways that truly extend appropriate civil rights in our society. We must become The Good Samaritan in our way of life.