Think about an average day in your life…are you usually in control or does someone or something else exhibit control over you? According to Harvard University's Scientists of Project Implicit, “Previous research has demonstrated that having people think about being in a position of power makes them stereotype more and prefer their own social groups relative to other groups.” I recently took Harvard’s Implicit Association Test to measure my unconscious bias to thin people over overweight people. Come to find out I do have an unconscious preference to thin people. After that I decided to take a race test, by the same researches. I discovered that 46% of test takers had an automatic association of good being a characteristic of white people and bad being a characteristic of black people. If you don’t believe you have any bias or stereotypes, then click here to find out!
The fact that we all have unconscious thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes about different groups of people is very fascinating to me. Studies show that by the time a child turns 3 years old, they have already developed racial prejudices and preferences. In many ways we are products of our environment. If a black person grew up in China seeing only Chinese people, speaking Chinese, participating in Chinese culture, watching and listening to Chinese media, then I believe that person would have a natural affinity to Chinese people and would unconsciously associate being good, successful, and acceptable with being Chinese. Look inside your home. What photos are visible, what kind of books do you read, what programs do you like to watch on tv, what culture do you celebrate, and what kind of friends do you let your children play with? Like it or not, we all have deep hidden biases toward different ethnic groups and believe various stereotypes of others. According to my IAT test results, I have a slight automatic preference for Light Skin compared to Dark Skin…and I’m black! I was in the 16% by the way. 54% of those who took the test had a moderate to strong automatic preference to lighter skinned compared to darker skin. The question that plagues my mind is how do these types of biases affect the church? One pastor confessed to me that the reason there are no blacks at his church is because his predominantly white congregation have sub conscious stereotypes about black people and vice versa. What is a pastor to do? Should he rush to immediately integrate his church so that he no longer becomes the subject of bloggers like myself? Or should he try to get one black person to come and be satisfied with that? I think the answer is a combination of many things. By the way, some of my answers come from Randy Nabors, senior pastor of New City Fellowship, who has been doing cross cultural ministries for over 40 years. Randy believes, and I agree, that the elders of a church should decide if it is in their mission to reach out to other ethnic groups in their community. Also, churches need to find what they are good at and seek to use their unique skills and abilities to creatively and strategically reach out to those other groups.
There is not a church that has a one size fits all model of cross cultural racial reconciliation. Churches must look at their environment, assess the needs, and meet those unique needs of their respective communities using their specific congregational skills. The gospel of course is the fundamental motivation for this entire process. We love because He first loved us and gave up His life as a ransom for many. We must be willing to be incarnational when it comes to ministering to our community. We must look at our own prejudices and biases and explore areas of our lives that unconsciously reinforce those biases and seek to root them out with the gospel. For some of us that may mean mixing up our circle of friends, listening to media that reflects the beliefs of a specific ethnic group to understand “hot button” issues, reading books written by members of a different ethnic group than your own, allowing your children to play with kids that might not necessarily be of the same culture or ethnicity. This takes allot of work and prayer, but if we as a church are committed to this type of self examination and self reformation, then there is no telling how God can use us as a powerful testimony of His kingdom come and His will being done.
Read more about racial bias at ABC News
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