A reader writes: Here’s how racism works …

A reader writes:

Brian, I have followed you for a number of years. A New Kind of Christianity rekindled my faith, and I was fortunate enough to hear you speak here in Kansas City –
A true story of how I learned black lives don’t matter (at least as much as everyone else’s).
A little background.
I am a 73 year old white male. I grew up in Arkansas. My dad was a white supremacist from Alabama (in fact, the son of a Confederate soldier and Klan member). And my Mom was an incredibly virulent racist from Brooklyn, New York. Needless to say I have heard it all, including the idea that the United States should have backed Hitler during WW-2. When I went to college my attitudes began to shift causing much strife in the family.
Before I retired, I worked as a Safety Manager for a nationwide propane gas company. As part of my job, I would visit field locations and inspect customer installations.
I was in a small East Texas town and the branch manager and I went to a house where they had installed a propane tank a few months previously. The installation was very shoddy with a number of safety violations.
When I asked the manager how his people had done such a poor job, his reply was “Well, it’s nothing but a n#%%@r shack”.
Nothing but a n#%%@r shack! You could have picked my jaw up off the ground.
Needless to say, that seriously impacted that manager’s career path – he was gone within a very short time.
Brian, that lesson has stayed with me for over 20 years, and when African Americans started protesting that “Black Lives Matter”, I understood where they were coming from, and to me what the are REALLY saying is “Black Lives SHOULD matter as much as any other life matters, but they obviously DON’T”.

Thanks for this story … It powerfully illustrates how racism that is embedded in a culture expresses itself in any number of ways – including deadly ways. It also points to the importance of the Black Lives Matter message. In this moment of cultural foment, thanks for adding your voice to the choir singing about conciliation, peace, mutual understanding and respect, and the building of a better future.