On Racism: A Personal Story and a Personal Plea

On Racism: A Personal Story and Personal Plea

by Tim Gunnells

Most of my life I have lived in the South except for a few years out West. My younger years were split between two Southern States that played pivotal roles in both the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. I was born in South Carolina; our state fired the first shots of the Civil War. The place of my birth was a small city whose majority population was black. I am white.

The middle years of my youth were spent in two different, small towns in Alabama. The towns consisted of primarily two races: black and white. While the whites lived in various parts of the community, most blacks lived in specific sections. Those sections had names. Everyone knew them. The blacks and whites had names too.

I attended public school a decade or so after integration. I never knew what it was like to go to an all-white school, and I am very thankful. My life has been made richer by friendships with people of different races. My parents and grandparents treated people of all races with great respect and showed love in many ways. I am thankful for their good hearts and good example.

Racism was certainly alive in the South during my youth. However, racism was and is not isolated to one region of the United States. In fact, it is not isolated to the United States. Racism is a part of the human predicament. Hatred, prejudice, and fear are not isolated to one race, one region, or one culture.

Since I grew up in a home where racism was not exhibited and I had friends who were black, I did not grasp the extent that others experienced prejudice. I did not fully appreciate the need for Black History Month because “my” history had never been excluded from any books.

My understanding of the world began to change around my sophomore year of college when two black students approached me about participating in a Black History Program in our college’s chapel assembly. They asked me to lead singing for a chapel program. I was the only white person on the stage. When I asked them why they chose me to represent my race, they said, “Because you understand us.” To this day, I have no idea what they meant, but I took it as a genuine compliment. In later discussions, they talked about some of the racism that existed on our campus. Again, I was oblivious to it, but I was not the one facing it.

My wife and I married before she graduated from college. For a particular course, she had to interview a person of a different race about how they had been treated with prejudice. She interviewed one of my dear friends, a black man about 10 years older than me. He was a successful businessman, my fishing buddy, and a member of our church. The stories he told simply flabbergasted me. I never knew a black man who drove a Mercedes could get stopped by the police several times a month. (This is not a diatribe against the police. I have many family members and friends of many races who have served in law enforcement without prejudice.) I am simply saying that I was ignorant that people could be treated so differently because of the color of their skin. Ignorance and naivety can be nice places to live, and I had a comfortable home in both of them.

About a dozen years ago, one of my dear nieces married a black man (unfortunately they are now divorced). They have three precious boys together. To say those boys are beautiful would be quite an understatement. They are smart, strong, and kindhearted. They have also experienced mistreatment because they do not fit nicely into one race.

I also have an adopted nephew who is black. I love him dearly. His smile makes my heart smile. God has blessed our family in amazing ways because of my nephew and great nephews. As their uncle, I will protect them and show them love and stand up for them.

As a Southern, white male, no, as a human being, I am grateful to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others like him who helped to begin to change the world for the better. However, we all still have much work to do by treating all people with love, respect, and kindness. I believe I am most like my hero and savior, Jesus, when I do.

“And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation” (Acts 17:26).

I sing this song with my children and I hope you do too. I hope you live it out by your actions as well.

          Jesus loves the little children,
          All the children of the world.
          Red and yellow, black and white,
          They are precious in His sight.
          Jesus loves the little children of the world.