internalized racial oppression

Because it was built into the foundation and walls of the American home, racial oppression has internalized deep into our human psyches.

Internalized inferiority:  The multigenerational process of disempowerment.  Accepting and living out the definition of self given by the oppressor that you are less than or unworthy due to your race.

Internalized superiority:  The multigenerational process of entitlement.  Accepting and living out the definition of self that you are better due to your race.  

Both are false states.  Neither are who we really are.  Internalized racial oppression has harmed all people. It is a part of our human broken condition.  It has caused us to not love ourselves nor our neighbor well because it has caused us to see and think of one another and ourselves through the lens of comparison and competition rather than through the lens of love. These false states are present and need to be continually acknowledged and addressed as we work toward justice, healing, reconciliation.   

Romans 12:2 says "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is- his good, pleasing, and perfect will."  The love of God, ourselves, and our neighbor is God's good, pleasing, and perfect will.   

Beneath the internalized racial oppression, we are all unconditionally created in and for divine love.  However, power and privilege have often gotten in the way of divine love expressing itself.  Through generations of comparison and competition, those who have internalized superiority have gained a great deal of earthly power and privilege at the expense of others.  This has  actually taken us away from REAL power.  We can see this so plainly in our current time in history. If we want to discover real, collective power, we have only to look at the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.   Justice for the oppressed, rightly seeing people's divinity and humanity, sacrificial serving and love, confession and repentance, community and belonging....that is real power.  Jesus spent his whole life modeling real power and inviting us into such a life of love with him.  

Action Steps:  
*Begin to notice (in you and around you) where you see comparison and competition at work.  
*Where do you see comparison and competition creating unhealthy power and privilege?
*Where are you seeing examples of real power that expresses itself in love and justice?