Race often goes before us, introducing one to others before she or he has even entered the room.  As soon as the social coloring of a person’s skin is determined, assumptions are made and the experience is rated and ruined before it has even begun. Race is often the deciding factor for the necessity of a genuine relationship, the possibilty of understanding or an assessment of personal safety. Race sets the agenda, determines the amount of effort we will give to it and the results of our engagement.  What is often not addressed is that all of them are the same–negative.  For race, opposite cultures do not attract and just as soon as both are in the room, there will be conflict.  “It is only natural,” race tells us.  But, truly, it is only socially.

We are socialized to maintain this conflict and to create difference even when there is none.  We are trained to separate, to take sides and to form competitive cultural teams.  We learn to compare ourselves to others from our heads to our toes, from the school house to our own houses, from birth to death.  We learn the social coloring of a person’s skin and immediately decide whether or not the relationship is worth pursuing, discern if one will be able to reach an agreement or if one should even risk being in the presence of another. We turn to race for every occasion as if omniscient and we tailor our reactions to its declarations.

But, the information that race provides about an individual is always general and stereotypical.  It cannot provide personal information but gives details that are specific to the racial group and leads persons to obvious historical assumptions that do not allow for meaningful dialogue and often prevent the formation of genuine relationships. The information that race provides is most often misinformation. And when race or the social coloring of a person’s skin gets our attention, it points to our lack of awareness of the actual person. If when we look at a person, our first sight of them is race, then we have not looked at the her or him at all. We have surrendered our sight to the lens of race and turned to race to tell us what it sees.  Sadly, we have eyes but we cannot see (Psalm 135.16). We have knowledge but it is useless in getting to know the person standing in front of us as there are some things that race simply cannot tell you.

1. Race cannot tell you the person’s name.
2. Race cannot tell you where the person is from.
3. Race cannot tell you the person’s likes and dislikes.
4. Race cannot tell you where the person grew up.
5. Race cannot tell you what the person’s favorite color is.
6. Race cannot tell you the person’s birthday.
7. Race cannot tell you what makes her or him laugh or cry.
8. Race cannot tell you what the person believes.
9. Race cannot tell you what the person thinks.
10. Race cannot tell you where the person lives.

Race does not help us to get to know each other; instead, it ensures that we remain strangers.  Get to know each other by living the race-less life.