Who we call friends

Today I think about race relations.

Since I'm from west Michigan and have gone to university elsewhere I have friends and perspectives that show up from all parts of the country on social media.

Just observing their reactions, I feel like I'm in the middle of a war.  I'm shocked.

In general I find that my White friends tend to decry the rioting, and my Black friends tend to be promoting awareness of police brutality.

How segregated are our lives though?  When I moved to Pennsylvania I had one close friend who was Black, I had maybe two friends who were openly atheist, and I only knew a couple people who were gay.  My circle of friends that I spent time with was exactly like me.  It's easy to point at other when you are surrounded by essentially yourself.

Over three years I became close friends with only three Black people, maybe 10 or so atheists, and acquainted with perhaps five outwardly gay people.

The fact that I can count these other people groups on my hands is telling (I say other in the sense that they are not White Protestants)--it's telling because I'm progressive by west Michigan standards.

For your own life, maybe do an inventory of your close friends--friends you would call to get a cup of coffee with--not acquaintances.  How many of your friends aren't like you?

This isn't a guilt thing.  What does it matter?  Why do I bring this up?

You will never be empathetic with an other until you don't consider them an other.  It's not about not seeing race.  It's about befriending and spending time with people that are different than you in some way--you'll find that they're the same in many other ways.

When I see images on television I picture my friends taking those places.  When homosexuals don't have rights to marriage, I have friends in my life that don't have rights to marriage.  When Black men and women are killed by police, I have Black men and women friends that could be unfairly targeted or suspected of something because they are Black.

That's why I get mad.
That's why I get mad when others don't get mad, and when they start calling my friends, or those like them in skin color "thugs".

Lack of empathy--it is maddening.