Edgar, Bela, and mike sliding down

Wow, a very enjoyable song with Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, and Mike Marshall.

White Privilege

I find it hard to come to grips with the fact that my 4 year old niece already has developed some stereotypes. She, living with my very conservative brother-in-law and my equally conservative sister, has probably already encountered stereotypes from them. Ideas that illegal immigrants are undesirable people stealing away our jobs, that poor people are scary and dangerous, and the myriad of stereotypes about other cultures. She probably has even begun to equate whiteness with value. I'd like to say that these things are not true, but I saw it even as I visited this Christmas. She has no friends to speak of who are from other races and she has all of the privilege that goes along with white middle class life. On top of that, her dad likely has passed on the idea that everyone can pull themselves up "by their bootstraps"; not a bad idea in itself but far from the harsh reality of inequality.
She undoubtedly already has gender stereotypes as well. She loves to watch Disney movies, which are full of gender stereotypes and she values "looking pretty". Even as I visited I saw her parade around and "strut her stuff" as best a 4 year old can do. It pains me to see her affected by the constant sexualization of our children. I worry about her future; will she be taught from a multicultural perspective in school? Will she come to tolerate and eventually move on to accepting and even cherishing those whose cultures are often belittled in this country? It reminds me that I owe it to the children I teach to show them that America is not just for the white man, and that history is not dominated by his influence. would I want any less for my niece? I worry because, by age 9, she will have developed a full set of ideas about the world. Will she be one of her generation who works for change? Or will she resist making America into what it has always claimed to be?

A Vespers Realization

If anyone still reads this blog I may get some varied reactions. Please think about what I have to say as objectively as possible before jumping to conclusions.

Taking the education course Understanding Diversity has really opened my eyes to the reality of racism today. Though we no longer have segregation in the schools or other areas of public life we still have institutionalized racism that serves to devalue the culture of others and even devalue them as people. When schools teach history strictly from the European vantage point they promote racism. When people tell coarse jokes about race they perpetuate stereotypes which promote racism. When white men hold privileges that others don't they promote racism. I personally help the cause of racism when I start from a position of fear when in contact with people of other races.
This may not be unbelievable to most, and this is not the main thrust of my entry. What is thought provoking is the thing I realized during Vespers tonight:
"Our current way of doing worship at Bethel is racist"

Worship at Bethel is comprised of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) and hymns, and hymns are fairly rare. Part of the reasoning behind this is the fact that the large majority of Bethel students are upper-middle class white people. We grew up with CCM and are comfortable with its sound and style. However, we do have a minority of students who don't have this background and we, in essence, force them to adapt to our musical tastes because we are the majority; we expect them to become white and middle class in the area of worship.
Now, for the most part, I have no problem with catering to the majority if the minority sees no problem adapting to this reality. However, I take issue with the spirit of superiority in which it is done. I have heard from those in leadership positions for Vespers (I am one) and Chapel that hey refuse to attempt music from other church traditions. Why?
Because they aren't familiar with the music.
This is legitimate, but isn't it worth it to learn a musical style if you can benefit from it? Gospel music is much more celebratory than nay of the music we have in our repertoire, and its repetitive nature offers a chance for meditation in a joyous and communal light rather than our introspective and often depressing mantras.
This is "our music"
What about "their music"? How would you feel if you moved from a church with one worship style and then cam to a place where you were forced to worship in a completely different style. On top of that, you get a feeling that, if you can't worship to it, you don't belong to the community and most likely have a personal problem.
Our music is better.
Though not stated outright, we have a mentality that this music is superior to other music. I have heard that it is the most progressive, the freshest, the most powerful, and the music that speaks to us the best. This position is the most hateful of all. It says that other musical styles are stale, weak, and cannot connect with our generation. Now, if we limit ourselves to one particular genre like this we are missing out on more that we can imagine. Hymns alone are packed with the truth of scripture that we can't hope to find in CCM.

We as a student body need to move past viewing worship as a personalized session for introspection and begin to see it as a community gathering where all people and traditions are represented. Even if a particular culture is not present we should consider attempting to worship in their style because each heritage is full of lessons every Christian should learn. Why limit ourselves to one genre when we can pick and choose based of what music is right for the purposes of honoring and exalting God? I'm not saying each service must be diverse or that we should make everything equal, but starting to add music from other cultures can move us from a place that promotes bigotry and racism to a place that embraces all people and cultures. Otherwise we will end up the same way our grandparents have become with hymns.
I'm certain that there are those who could better articulate this problem, but since they are not doing so (or have resigned out of frustration) I will attempt to call attention to this blind spot in our Christian worship.

Goodnight,
Wes

Don Ross - Never got to Pernambuco - www.candyrat.com

Every Once in a while you find a musician who blows your mind. This is one of them.