We Are Not Racists

I was raised by parents who weren't racist.  I was told many times that we weren't racists. Everyone is the same, God doesn't see color. 

I knew that God lobed all of is children equally when I was 12 years old and preparing to become a Deacon.  It was that summer that God told the Prophet Kimball that black men could hold the Mormon priesthood.  God was finished punishing black men for Cain's murder of Abel.  You see, what I learned when I was studying the Gospel was that there was a war in heaven and some of those who fought for the Lord in that war were valiant and some were cowardly.  Then, when it came time to come to earth, to be born into mortality and get bodies, the valiant were born to white families and the cowardly received brown skin.  Those 'darkies' were the seed of Cain. 

That wasn't racist.  We are not racist, I was told.

I asked my father some deep questions because I had friends in school and friends on sports teams, who weren't white.  I asked him about mixed race kids, mother's white, father's black.  Were they cowardly in heaven, or were they noble. My father sagely explained that they were black, and while on our side in the heavenly war, they weren't as valiant as white people. 

 

According to LDS Apostle Bruce McConkie, some of those who fought on God's side "were more valiant than others…Those who were less valiant in pre-existence and who thereby had certain spiritual restrictions imposed upon them during mortality are known to us as the negroes. Such spirits are sent to earth through the lineage of Cain, the mark put upon him for his rebellion against God and his murder of Abel being a black skin...The present status of the negro rests purely and simply on the foundation of pre-existence" (Mormon Doctrine, p.527, 1966 ed.).

It was just predetermined, not racist.

Another way I knew we weren't racist was because of my good friend, David Bell.  I played with him a lot through 5^th grade.  He was black, but not black as coal or black as night, more a light cream swirl in vanilla ice cream mixed well and made a constant shade of non-white.  He'd come over and play with me and even eat at my house and we weren't racist because a little black boy ate at our table.  Well, at least he ate with us when my dad wasn't home, but my dad didn't really like David, not because he was black, but because David's father was an officer and he didn't want us to fraternize with officer's kids. 

We are not racist, I was told.

When my father retired from the military, we moved to Blackfoot, Idaho, and I went to a civilian high school. It was the first civilian school I'd ever attended, and it was an enlightening experience. The majority of the students were white, none of the students were black, and a tight minority were Indian from the neighboring Shoshone-Bannock tribes on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. 

My father grew up in this town, next to this reservation, and I found out all about the reservation from him and his brothers. Words of wisdom like, “Don't go on the rez unarmed, because those Indians would love to kill a white man.” And, “They'll rob you blind and take what they've stolen to the rez where the law can't follow.” I was told harmless jokes, like, “a seven course meal on the reservation was a six pack and a puppy.” Harmless, and wise, don't you think?

My mother hated the Indians.  Not them as people, because they surely were lovely people individually, but she didn't like them acting like Indians.  Why couldn't they just be like us?  Why couldn't they just get jobs and have families? You know, be like white people.  That's not racist, that's just learning to get along in America.  It's just like my father complaining that those Indians get handouts from the government that they don't deserve.  They have every opportunity to succeed in this country, just like everyone else.  It's a colorblind country and everyone has a shot at the American Dream. 

My dad likes black people like Condaleeza Rice. And he respects Indians who eschew the reservations, wear regular clothes, and don't put Indian stuff in their homes and on their vehicles. That's not racist.

We are not racist, I was told.

Besides, they should've been more valiant in the Heavenly War.

CV Rick, not a racist.

Comments

[Success Warrior]

Scary stuff.

With the decline of Christianity in North America, many churches are looking to third world countries to harvest new believers (and their money). I wonder how that effects the LDS doctrine. Maybe they aren't racist as long as you pay your tithing and stay "over there".

[Graeme]

wow. I don't know much about the church of LDS. Crazy.

I grew up next to an Indian reservation and remember the same racist comments.

[CV Rick]

It is Crazy . . .

They don't teach that stuff anymore, and when those quotes are brought before them, they'll ignore it or claim they're made up.

True church of revelation, that.