Devotional by Mark Dugan
The face of American RacismWe like to think of our society as pluralistic and as moving beyond racism. We like to congratulate ourselves for our progress. Of course there are examples of blatant prejudice and racism against African Americans, Muslims, and immigrants. But surely these examples are few and far between, the exceptions that prove the rule. Right?
Not necessarily. In law practice, I frequently see the real face of American racism:
- One man, a homeless immigrant, worked for several months for a restaurant in Kansas City, Kansas, cleaning the grounds, running errands, and unloading trucks. The restaurant owner allowed him to live in the basement, and over the course of several months, he paid a total of $50. For months, the worker trusted that he would be paid more. He wasn’t.
- A couple from Mexico, here legally but with little facility in the English language, purchased a cleaning franchise and found themselves working long hours, paying high franchise fees, and taking home a pittance at the end of the month. The franchising company bragged that 80 percent of its franchisees, those who paid the high fees and took home the pittances, were African American or Latino.
- An immigrant father and his two sons worked for years at a Mexican restaurant for 60 hours a week, but were paid for only 40 hours, making $2.30 per hour plus tips. Not wanting to lose their jobs, they never complained until they were sure they had other jobs. The attorneys for the restaurant, seemingly blind to cultural differences, are incredulous that the workers would work for so long without complaining about being underpaid. They insist the workers are lying.
- An immigrant from Mexico who started a carpentry business had to put up not only with being shorted on several jobs by a general contractor, but with hearing the contractor call him a “dirty Mexican” and tell an exterminator, “we’re spraying for Mexicans today.”
The people perpetrating this racism are not necessarily so different from us. They are business owners who think they are providing employment opportunities, valuable contracts, or even the “American dream” of business ownership. Clearly they could benefit from a little self-examination, but so could we all.
Saint Andrew provides a place not only where we can celebrate moving beyond our cultural assumptions, our biases, and our racism, but where we can examine the assumptions, biases, and racism we have not yet shed. Looking at these parts of ourselves might not be comfortable, but in secure environment, we might just find the keys that will help us move beyond our biases and appreciate authentic pluralism.
God of us all, thank you for the opportunity to explore our imperfections, and thank you for the diversity that confronts us, challenges us, and enriches us.
(Mark, his wife and two sons are members of Saint Andrew. He is an attorney who recently started his own practice in environmental, employment, and commercial law.)
