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Key Bible Verse: Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk ... (1 Peter 2:1-3, NRSV).

Martin Luther King Jr.'s profound vision has riveted and shaped us all:

 "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal' … that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

We white Americans read his speech and think, Yes, we've done a lot of that. Maybe it's not a dream anymore. In 2000 the last state complied with the Supreme Court's 1967 ruling against bans on interracial marriage. So we're the first legally integrated generation. All races can vote; people of color are increasingly at all levels of government.

We mostly started on our racial journey as adults. Our parents, pastors, bosses, and teachers didn't, or couldn't, talk to us about race, racism, and interracial interaction. Most of them—and many of us today—don't have to think about race, because the system set up around us usually runs smoothly.

It's not until you [nonwhites] show up that we realize something isn't quite right—and often we blame the messenger. So we need to start at the beginning, with milk, before we're ready for the meat at the table of cultural diversity.

—Doug Schaupp in Being White

Adapted from Being White (InterVarsity, 2004) by permission.

Copyright © 2009 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Thank you, Lord, that your power not only changes individuals but also societies. Use me as one of your agents of social improvement.

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