2016 will, for me, stick in my memory as the year I finally began to realize how much I (as a white dude) don’t know about race issues in our country. Because my parents were born and raised in the civil rights era in Detroit (and played Motown incessantly when I was growing up), because my wife is Korean, because my roommates in college were black, and for a myriad of other reasons, I assumed I had this race thing figured out.
Until I realized I didn’t.
A few dear black brothers in Christ gently challenged me this year and encouraged me to do some research, to talk to some people, to listen to some podcasts, and to read some books.
So I have.
And I am just scratching the surface of knowing what I don’t know.
In a couple weeks, I am going to (hopefully) write a few posts on some books I have still mulling over, but for now I want to give you a resource that was a huge turning point for me. This summer, at the Acts 29 Pastors Conference, Matt Chandler led a panel discussion with Thabiti Anyabwile, Dwayne Bond, Brandon Washington, Leonce Crump, and Eric Mason on the topic of Race and Reconciliation.
It’s not often I recommend people take more than an hour to watch something, but watch this (especially if you are a clueless white dude like me). This was more helpful than I could imagine going in.
Click here and scroll to the buttom of the page to watch the video.
I’m not going to add any more commentary than that.