At the risk of coming off as over-simplistic about the terrible racist events in the news (shooting of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, accusing of Christian Cooper in Central Park, suffocating of George Floyd in Minneapolis), here are three personal and practical things that I try to do, whether traveling (as we're going to be tomorrow) or living in a state that is 86% white, to relate to others of a different race:
1) I choose to not be afraid, to smile and make eye contact, and to intentionally recognize the other's presence. No one (regardless of race or color) likes feeling ignored, and most of us appreciate when someone makes an attempt to go out of his or her way to acknowledge our humanity. If I can hold a door, offer a place in line, or strike up a conversation with someone who looks different from me, it’s *because* we are different and I want his or her experience with me to be different from what it may unfortunately have been with someone else who is white.
2) I don't tell racial jokes or make racial comments that play to stereotypes, and I don't let people (in general, but *especially* if they are friends) get away with doing so unaddressed. I've never had to go off on anybody, but instead have found it effective to just smile and ask the question, "Would you tell the same joke/make the same comment if someone who was (insert race) were here?" Unless he or she wants to discuss further, I let the question hang and hope and trust that God's Spirit will help him or her take the question to heart.
3) I make sure to read books and follow non-white thinkers and leaders on social media to learn how they might process life - religion, politics, art, economics, education, etc. - differently than I do. I also try to make sure I'm open to being challenged in my own attitudes and actions (look up "microaggressions") that I may or may not be aware of (note: two years of providing foster care for families racially different from ours did a lot for me in this area).
Without trying to seem a hero or to virtue signal here, I call out the actions taken against the three aforementioned men as wrong - so very and evilly wrong - and pray that change would come. True, much of the problem is systemic and inherent to our country and we have to work on that (Bryan Stephenson with Equal Justice Initiative is one to follow), but I don't want that to become an excuse for my own lack of personal responsibility in interacting with people different from me.
By God's grace, we can do better; for the sake of all that is true, good, and beautiful, we have to.
"Ignorance has wronged some races
And vengeance is the Lord's
If we aspire to share this space
Repentance is the cure"