A couple years ago I had a very startling experience which, for many, is a common occurrence.  I was treated as a potential thief not because I did anything wrong or suspicious.  I was profiled simply because I ride a motorcycle.  Several years ago I was on my bike riding through Marshall, MI and I stopped at a gas station I had been to many times in a car.  I pulled my bike up to the pump, took my helmet off, and began to fill the tank (all 5 gallons of it) when I noticed an older female employee.  She was standing outside the door with a phone in her hand and poised to her ear.  And she just glared directly at me.  I just looked at her to make sure that I was really seeing this.  Normally I would pay at the pump but for some reason I didn’t that day and I was surprised that they turned the pump on.  But as I filled my big 5 gallon tank, she just glared at me, phone at the ready to call the authorities were I to speed away with my 5 gallons of gas.  Because, as we all know, motorcycle riders are all bad and not to be trusted.  It was bizarre.  I don’t mind telling you I was pretty annoyed at this.  I’m a pretty tame motorcycle rider–no chains, no skulls, no crossbones, no gang patches on my leathers—heck, I don’t even wear leathers.  But simply because I was on a bike, it was assumed by this lady that I was not to be trusted.  Though I wanted to say something to her when I paid, I didn’t because whatever I might have said wouldn’t have been good.  I just smiled at her and bid her a nice day which she haltingly returned.            

This came to my mind as I was watching a news report on the most recent death of an African American young man.  Much has been said lately in our society about racial profiling, racist police, and just the ever present and growing racial divide in our society.  I fear that, as a nation, we are taking huge steps backwards on this issue.  So here are my thoughts.  

First, I hope I don’t need to tell Christians that any form or racism is absolutely abhorrent to God.  Abhorrent.  To look down upon, fear, feel superior to, or treat another person differently because of their ethnicity is sinful.  

Secondly, I believe that every one us, myself include, though we might know better and would deny it have this sinful tendency within us.  Every one of us—regardless of who we are and where we come from.  It’s a sin tendency we must fight with all vigilance if we claim Christ as our Lord.             

Thirdly, I have no idea what it’s like to be a police officer of any kind.  But I have personally known many of them over the years and know them to be worthy of respect and honor for the dangers they face every day to protect the public.  And my wife, in her position with the Michigan State Police, knows very well many of our State Troopers and I am convinced that we are blessed to have some of the finest, most courageous men and women in law enforcement anywhere.  Are there and have there been racist police? I’m sure.  But to disparage the 99% of the police who do their jobs honorably to the best of their ability with the best of intentions when forced to make split second decisions is just wrong.  

You or I or the talking heads on TV have no idea what it’s like to say goodbye to our loved ones every morning knowing it could be the last time, or to literally put our lives on the line while not earning jack squat.  Yet it seems the entirety of America’s law enforcement is being painted with the same broad brush.  These men and women need and deserve our respect, our thanks, and our support.  

Lastly, neither I nor other white folks have any idea what it’s like to be African American—especially an African American man.  I had one little, minor instance of being stereotyped because of something other than my heart or character and I fumed about it for days!  But to be subject to what many people of color have to put up with is absolutely foreign to me.  And I would think it would make a person angry and defeated.  What I’m saying is simply that we, as white people, have no idea what it’s like to be African American.  And I have listened to white people give all kinds of justification and rationalization for unkind or outright racist comments.  I’ve probably even uttered some of them myself. But until we’ve had a store security guard trail us because of our color, or until you’ve been pulled over because you’re a black man married to a white woman just to make sure that the woman wasn’t being abducted, or until we have attended multiple funerals of people we love because they have been swallowed up by problems related to systemic prejudice and injustice then we don’t have a clue what it’s like.  So when we hear or read “Black Lives Matter” we don’t need to immediately counter with “All Lives Matter.”  What we, as believers in Jesus, need to say is what I believe He would say: “You’re absolutely right, they sure do.”