I’ve been seeing more posts lately on other blogs about church diversity, and they constantly remind me about how the church focuses on the visible, without digging deeper in this issue of diversity.
When a suburban, white, middle-class church attracts a few people of different ethnicities, it becomes something to be celebrated. Why? What does having a black family, or a Chinese family coming to your church service have to do with anything if your songs are contemporary, white America, Christian radio songs and your message speaks to your white American congregation?
We quote lots of Scripture showing why God mandates reaching out to other ethnic groups, yet fail to remember how culturally relevant New Testament churches had to be in order to grow in Ephesus, Galatia, etc. We have Paul’s letters--and the context of their praise and rebuke--as reference to just how culturally diverse these churches were. The Bible is rich in its story of how culture plays a big role in the story of its characters. We need more stories of people within our churches that speaks to who we are individually and how that shapes us collectively. We are a mosaic of different pieces all coming together to form the face of Jesus--Not a mish mosh of different faces assimilating into a whiteboard seen through rose-colored (or brown, red, yellow, black, or purple) glasses that screen out color and makes everything look monochrome.
If your church is ethnically diverse in its makeup that’s great. However, when you fail to learn that our differences go beyond appearance and actually penetrate down into our DNA, you fail to realize the wonderful, painful, sometimes hidden world of what makes us not just ethnically diverse, but culturally diverse.
I’ve been tracking the feedback on Toyota’s ad campaign for their Sienna Minivan. They made a commercial featuring a white, suburban family performing a rap parody. Some find it funny. Some find it offensive. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the video titled “Swagger Wagon”:
After watching it and contemplating my thoughts, I must admit that while I don’t see it as blatantly offensive, like as if they used the N-word thoughout the song, I do see it being offensive.
Unfortunately, my lens that I see the world through may be different than yours because I’m Japanese. I grew up having people hate me just because I looked different. After having people call me derogatory names that didn’t even apply to who I was--as if I were Mexican, Vietnamese, Chinese, Native American, etc.--I realized it had nothing to do with me personally, but it had everything to do with the fact that I was not white. So, when people do something that in essence mocks another race/culture/subset then I generally take offense to it. In reality, I rarely see anything overtly done in an offensive manor to African-Americans due to all of the public dialog that has transpired, but I see a lot of subtle racism against African-Americans all the time. I am in the camp that believes there is more to the “Swagger Wagon” video than some other may see at surface level.
After having said this, I will admit that there there are things that will have a similar sense of mockery towards other cultures, such as the movie Malibu’s Most Wanted featuring Jamie Kennedy, the son of a white politician in Malibu that acts as if he were a black rap star living in Compton. However, in watching the movie the mockery is really on Kennedy and the fact that he can never know what it’s like to be a black rap star. The movie doesn’t portray African-Americans as deserving to be mocked. In the end, there are redemptive qualities that reveal why one can be proud of their African-American heritage and why they could (and possibly should) take offense to someone like Kennedy’s character. However, I don’t see any of this in the Toyota commercial. I see it as a sense of trying to take away something that isn’t theirs. Using African-American hip-hop culture as the butt of jokes with Caucasians being the only ones laughing. Think about it. Who actually drives a Toyota Sienna minivan? Yes, it’s mostly a white, suburban, soccer mom demographic. Therefore, that’s exactly who this ad is targeted towards. It’s not a serious attempt at hip-hop such as from Eminem or Mark Wahlberg. No, it’s mockery at its subtle finest. Let’s white, suburban family earning $60,000+ a year have a laugh at the expense of blacks and their hip-hop culture and at the same time somehow find a cool factor in this video. Had the video shown a Sienna with 24″ chrome wheels and the dad been drinking gin from a bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag in his left hand while sporting a 9mm pistol in his right hand, I still think white suburbia would laugh, but the rest of us would realize it wasn’t funny at all. Notice how they also seem to go back and forth in their personas--when doing rap they use different voice and posture than when asking each other, “Honey, where are the kids?” There is just enough stereotype missing to be deceptive, yet enough in such things as the arm movements during the rap, throwing dice, and rope chain around the mom’s neck to realize they’re using stereotypes of urban African-Americans in the hip-hop culture. To me, almost every time stereotypes are used, it’s underlying intent is racist…even if only in a subconscious level.
As someone who isn’t a typical white, suburban dad I will agree that I am probably a little more sensitive than you. With all of the prejudice I have faced in my life, I am not bitter or angry. I don’t resent “the man” and I oppose affirmative action. I mean heck, Toyota is a Japanese company and obviously I can’t be racist about people from my own ethnicity, but it’s typical target marketing at the expense of people outside of that target market and I’m not a fan. You won’t find me blasting Toyota and white suburban people that find the video amusing and may even ultimately go buy a Sienna as a result, but I do feel like you should at least know my perspective and why it is offensive. Maybe some day you’ll learn to respect all people, not just those that look like you do, and realize that they have value and deserve respect, not mockery though stereotypes.
For a different view, here is a blog post from James Edwards who shares the perspective that no matter is done, all white people are racist in the eyes of non-whites. For the record, I obviously believe this not to be true: http://bit.ly/b0NAzE
