I mentioned in a previous piece that no law can change the way we look at another ethnic group. Although slavery and segregation have legally come to an end across the world, has racism really left our society? Has it perhaps just taken another route? And has the pain and trauma of those still suffering become silent?  Even though laws have been abolished, people of colour have been left to survive in a world in which implicit racism still exists and white privilege has never been addressed.

You only need to speak to a handful of people from different ethnic minorities to learn about different examples of implicit racism in our everyday society, not only towards adults, but also children. I was watching a programme in which a black British boy, aged eleven, was describing his first experience of racism. He and his white British friend visited a corner shop and, on entering the shop, his white friend was shouting at the top of his voice, but the black boy remained quiet. However, the shopkeeper told the black boy to get out of his shop. Two black British friends of mine have also had similar experiences at such young ages. One of my friends talks about an experience she had at school when she was fourteen years old. Her teacher told her to “tone down” her natural afro hair. My other friend tells me of an incident that occurred when she was ten years old, during a school disco. Each person had to put their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them to make a conga line. Not only did no one want to touch my friend’s shoulders, but a boy actually pulled down his sleeves to cover his hands in order to be able to touch her. No teacher noticed or said anything to those children. I wonder whether the children, their parents or their teachers would say anything today. This isn’t new to many people of colour. I have even heard of black schoolchildren being referred to as cousins of monkeys and apes, and being told things like, “Oh, I didn’t see you there,” and, “I can only see your teeth in this picture!”

I am writing this piece not with the intention of catching anyone out or making anyone feel bad; instead, I want to draw your attention to how common these occurrences are. I want to emphasise that, in each of these circumstances, nothing was ever said. The racism went unnoticed and the pain was silenced or numbed by the victim involved. How does a child who is already going through so much cognitive development then process the trauma of racism? How are you meant to respond when you may be the only person in the room feeling that pain? You might choose to say something, and risk coming across as either aggressive or overreacting; or you might say nothing, and numb the feeling of hurt altogether. This is a choice that many people of colour are confronted with on a daily basis and from a very young age. I have some friends who have supressed their feelings so much and for so long that they don’t even flinch at the frequent racist remarks. I also have friends who have just gravitated back towards their ethnic community in order to avoid this altogether. However, I should point out that, in America, things are slightly different.

African Americans have resided in America for so many centuries that they can’t go back to the country of their grandparents or gravitate towards their ethnic group, since America has been their motherland for generations. Michelle Obama explains this very well in her book, Becoming, when she talks about her trip to Kenya to visit Barack’s mother. She says: “It’s a curious thing to realise, the in-betweenness one feels being African American in Africa. It gave me a hard-to-explain feeling of sadness, a sense of being unrooted in both lands.” My advice to those of you who have experienced anything of what I have mentioned above would be to find a safe space where you can address these feelings, whether you speak them out loud or write down. Most importantly, you must celebrate your dual heritage. As I mentioned in another piece, you have created for yourself your own culture: you don’t have to choose one country over the other; your ethnicity is unique to you.

My question would be: how much are we really noticing racism in our everyday lives? And do we say something when we see it? Let’s not keep quiet like those before us and let’s stop the curse that is racism. It is not the job of the wounded to carry on fighting a battle that they never wanted to fight in the first place. It is the responsibility of everyone. The Bible says in Ephesians 6:12, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world.” The key word here being UNSEEN. A study was once carried out on five primary school teachers, who all claimed to not have any racial bias (which most of us would also claim). They were told to look at a video of a classroom full of children and asked to spot any naughty behaviour. Using technology that detected movements in the eye, all five teachers looked towards the black children first. Horrified at the results, only one of the five teachers initially released her results publicly. Another test was done with a group of first-year secondary school children. They were measured by how quickly they could relate positive words to white people and black people. Again, all the children in the classroom claimed not to have a racial bias. However, the results showed that most of the class did, in fact, have an unconscious bias towards white people, as they were able to match positive words to white people quicker than they could to black people. One of the white boys, who were shown their results, was so emotionally affected by this that he went home crying and felt as though he had done something wrong.

I repeat: this isn’t to make anyone feel bad, but perhaps we are fighting something that isn’t practically visible. Although governmental changes need to happen in order to stop systematic racism, maybe we also need to address what is going on in our brains. The Bible says in Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Humanity has been through so much, including war, genocide, segregation, poverty, mass incarceration, colonisation, ethnic cleansing – I could go on. These events have had a significant impact on our brains, from what we think and feel towards a certain ethnic group, to how some process the trauma of implicit racism. Now more than ever, we need to constantly be renewing our minds. For ethnic minorities and their ancestors, each generation has presented itself with new forms of racism. My prayer for this world is that we will not be conformed to our past ways of thinking, but that this generation will see the light and start acting differently.

Are we truly noticing what is happening in our supposedly modern society and the cultural barriers that may still exist around us? We need to break down these barriers and abolish what can feel like silent segregation. The enemy is really at work in the brains of people, and this is a global curse that needs to be neutralised. The word ‘neutralised’ is used to describe an opposing force that can render something ineffective. We need to start applying an opposite force as a society in order to render racism ineffective. It is encouraging that we are now seeing white and black protestors marching for equal rights together; we are seeing huge organisations and companies recognising the importance of addressing this issue; and we are seeing black and white churches speaking more openly about this topic, too. Racism isn’t just a societal issue; it is a gospel issue. I believe that the biggest opposing force we can apply is the Holy Spirit – the spirit that, with faith, is capable of moving mountains. The Bible, in Hebrews 6:4–6, talks about “the powers of the world to come”. A great preacher once wrote that we can operate under these powers today if we partake in the word of God and the Holy Spirit. He went on to write is that, with these same powers, we can also wipe out murder, sorrow, pain and other global curses. My final advice to you would be to find your role in this fight against racism and let us not miss a window of opportunity to do the right thing.

Author: Laura M Galarza

Editor: Melissa Bond

Acknowledgements: Thank you to all those who helped me write this piece, to those who shared their most vulnerable experiences of racism, and to those who shared with me, their journey to uncovering some unexplored feelings and traumas. Thank you for your time . I thank God for giving me this platform to help shed light on these issues and I thank God that He has already united us in Christ Jesus.

God bless.