The Death of Ideologies III--Racism and Racial Cooperation

By far the most sensitive topic of these three is the issue of racial cooperation/harmony. It is a much more "hot button" topic in America than even feminism--which can be easily determined if you look at racial/feminine jokes. Most people can still get away with jokes demeaning women, even in mixed company, but racial jokes, in all but the most controlled environments, are not acceptable. They are not acceptable because racism is still such a powerful force in our culture. The Presidential campaign of Barack Obama, and his recent attempt to lay the issue of racism aside during his campaign through his speech that gave the impression he was engaging the issue, is testimony to this.

I, too, have a story to tell about this, though it is painful to tell. It arises out of my experience in the 1990s, primarily, but was fueled again by ideology. The ideology I adopted, first in a pabulum-type way in the 1960s, and then more powerfully in the 1970s, was that America had a problem with racism, that Black people (as they were called at the time) had been unjustly oppressed, that such oppression and racism had no place in "modern America" and that I needed to do whatever I could in order to stamp it out. Whereas the "radical feminism" ideology that I imbibed is, I believe, pernicious, this set of beliefs is actually good and helpful. However, it backfired on me in a special way in the 1990s, which story I will now tell you.

A Cooperative Work

I didn't grow up in a racially-integrated community. However, when I moved to CA in August 1967, I was immediately thrown into a cauldron of racial disharmony. My high school (Menlo-Atherton) was being wracked by race riots; within a week after school began the school was closed for a few days. Just as I understood almost nothing of the "Summer of Love" or "flower power" in those days, so I was quite ignorant of why anyone would be rioting about anything, especially in my nice CA high school. My first acquaintance on a friendship level with Afro-Americans (as they were called in the early 1970s) was at Brown University. Our Christian fellowship was an integrated one; I felt I even developed friendships with several of the Afro-American brothers/sisters.

But the idea of cultivating racial harmony didn't really arise in my mind until 1990, when my small college in KS was visited by an African-American (as they were called at that time) man for "spiritual emphasis" week, as I think it was called. He spoke well, we ate lunch together, and he proposed that we engage in some joint writing projects as a way to enlarge both of our lives. I recall having met him briefly more than 20 years previously in my early days in CA. I was in the youth group and Menlo Park Presbyterian Church; he was from Oakland and had decided to reject the "Black Panther" culture for Evangelical Christianity.

So he and I began to explore ways of working together in our writing. I proposed a book on the Psalms, since I had taught them on occasion and had memorized many over the years. He concurred. I brought to our writing projects a mind "overflowing with ideas" (as one newspaper described me in those days); he brought connections so that we could get our books published--through InterVarsity Press. We really didn't get going until sometime in 2002; I think I just let the idea "slip" as I was gearing up to teach in a new area for me (world history).

But then we began in earnest in 1992. I drew up a plan for the book--30 Psalms in 30 days, centering on the themes of "longing," "distress," "trust," and "praise." I referred to this as the "rhythms of life" which the Psalms help identify and affirm. I would rough out the ideas for each chapter, identifying Psalms that we might consider; he would read and comment on what I had written. He even invited me to one of the staff meetings in Madison, WI to present some of the ideas we were developing. Our relationship seemed to be off to a great start.

A Second Book

Our "Psalms" book came out late in 1993, and he accepted my suggestion to turn next to the Book of Job. Ever since I taught the book at a retirement community in Lent 1990 I had been fascinated by Job's loss and his ways of speaking of the loss. I began to rough out an approach to Job, and then started writing with eagerness. As I was finishing the 100-page mark or so I started to have the slightest tinge of a feeling that I didn't explore. That feeling went as follows--"I am coming up not only with all the ideas but with all the words for our projects. Granted, he is getting the contracts from a publisher, but, in fact, he is acting more like my agent than a co-author." The thought was only a passing thought, and I finished this book in the summer of 1994 (published in 1995), making sure to give him first credit in names on the cover of the book. After all, I felt, just like in my approach to feminist ideology, that Blacks or African-Americans had been so oppressed by Whites for so long that in attempting to redress the balance one should be willing to do all or most of the work, putting his name first without qualms. So I did.

There was a third book, also on Job, for the small Christian Reformed denomination. It was more of a study guide for small groups working on Job; my co-author said that I could feel free to do it because I already knew the material from the Job book. I eagerly did it, generously listing his name as the first contributor. Then, we decided, at my suggestion, to turn to a book on Jesus. He was able to get yet another publisher to issue our book, along with an artist and literature teacher, and we put together a very good book, I believe, which was finished in 1996 (published in 1997) under the name Yearning Minds and Burning Hearts: Rediscovering the Spirituality of Jesus. Again, I wrote every word, though he was responsible for getting the contract and some of the other participants in the project.

A Gap of Years

By 1995 I was getting fed up with our "relationship" because I felt it was inherently unequal. We split royalties and I gave him "first billing," but I felt I was doing all the work. But because of the regnant ideology in my mind, where I owed some kind of redress for centuries of oppression, I didn't say anything. My wife, of course, caught wind of my feelings, and urged me, sometimes in patient language and other times vehemently, to talk to him about it. I resolutely refused.

But in 1996 I decided to go to law school, and the issue was moot for about five years, until I was finished with law school, engaged in law practice and had some time to think about writing again. He told me he had yet another publisher and this publisher would love to "republish" the Job book from 1995. Even though I had doubts about rekindling our relationship, I felt that since it was only going to be a kind of "republishing," I could do it rapidly and without much effort. But I didn't realize how much I had changed since 1996. I wanted to bring a "legal" reading to Job; indeed, I think the first chapter of our 2004 book on Job is absolutely unique. But I ended up writing the entire book again, and by myself. Even the editing completely fell to me. In addition, he had encouraged me to join in on the "Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible" project, where I could write some study introductions to some of the books. I did it for six books, listing him as the first contributor for the Job introduction (at his insistence). He relented and agreed to my listing myself first on our 2004 Job book.

Conclusion

After this last experience I actually confronted him on our writing relationship not being "equal," and he and I had a parting of the ways. I called him to wish him Merry Christmas in 2005, but we haven't spoken to each other in 2 1/2 years now. I decided I had to lay aside the spirit which actuated my work with him over the years--where I would do what I felt was almost all of the creative writing, planning and revision, and then give him first billing on the book. I did so because of ideology, just like I lived with radical Feminism and Evangelicalism for so many years.

So now I have put all those ideologies aside. It doesn't mean that I think I have "arrived" or am a more perfect man. It simply means that I have called a halt to all these ideologies that had such a debilitating effect on me. Of course there was good that came from all--my Bible knowledge from Evangelicalism; two wonderful children from my marriage; several books from my connection with an African-American person--but I now have those "results" without needing to have the ideology that got me into difficult straits along the way. If you ask me today what "ideology" I have now, I simply smile and say that I just try to understand the world. I hope I have laid aside the fear that really was at the base of all of them; I certainly don't want to make any of those ideologies my own again.

3444