Motivation Check
This Week's Theme: Racial Bridge-Building
Tony Evans
Saturday, December 23, 2000
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Q. What are inadequate motivations of whites for involvement with blacks?
A. Some get involved out of fear of black anger. For others, racial involvement is a way to control those they are appearing to help or to showcase themselves. Some get involved simply because it's popular. However, the most prominent motivation for involvement is whites' feelings of guilt based on past wrongs done to blacks either by themselves or their forefathers. While there's a place for responding to legitimate guilt, the well from which that is drawn soon runs dry.
How about the other way around?
For some blacks, getting involved with whites is merely a fad. For others, it is an economic opportunity or a call for financial restitution. Others use it as an excuse to unleash what they feel is justly deserved retribution for past wrongs. Others function in predominantly white environments and involve themselves with whites out of their need to be accepted and their desire to reduce conflict.
What's the right motivation?
Reconciliation predicated on genuine relationships. The absence of relationship leads to paternalism or inauthentic service. People in relationships seek to empower each other as they serve each other. That's the only appropriate foundation for long-term racial harmony.
Will reconciliation work if a person's motives are genuine?
That's the right basis. But there must also be a full understanding of the high cost of commitment to involvement.
Tony Evans is a Dallas, Texas pastor and president of the Urban Alternative.
Adapted from: Let's Get to Know Each Other (Nelson, 1995).
NOTE: For your convenience, Breaking Down Walls is available in the ChristianityToday.com Shopping Channel. 1 of 1
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