Exploring Cultural Humility Sermons, workshop examine attitudes toward “the other” BY LINDSAY HARREN-LEWIS, PASTOR, PASTORAL CARE


“Not so long ago, if someone had called me a racist, I would have kicked and screamed in protest. ‘But I’m a good person!’ I would have insisted. ‘I don’t see color! I don’t have a racist bone in my body!’ I would have felt insulted and misunderstood and stomped off to lick my wounds.”


Tese opening words from Debby Irving’s book, Waking Up White, grabbed me. As a white woman who grew up in a culturally diverse school setting, I have always said that my greatest education wasn’t the reading, writing, and arithmetic kind but the kind I gained from attending public schools in the inner city of Rochester, NY.


I learned pretty quickly that not everyone looked, lived, talked, dressed, or thought the same way. I learned in not so many words that I had more access to opportunities than did many of my friends. I learned that there are racial lines, cliques, and stereotypes and ways in which my life fell into them. But what I did not learn were the systemic reasons for all of these situations, and I did not learn how to talk about all these things. My story is one in which I have always wanted to learn about people and understand about the world while never wanting to look dumb and certainly not wanting to embarrass myself or offend anyone.


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Above: Rev. Mark Koenig, PC(USA) coordinator for leadership development, racial justice, and networking, addresses some 68 attendees at a workshop exploring attitudes toward race, racism, and privilege.


Left: Rev. Paul Roberts, president of Johnson C. Smith Teological Seminary, discusses issues of systemic racism such as real estate practices that steer people of color to areas where residents have less access to home equity.


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