Racial discrimination is not new. New ministry offers healing, hope
Featured image: Sister Dong Hong Marie Zhang with her father. Her family has struggled in an anti-Christian culture. (Photo courtesy of Sister Dong Hong Marie Zhang)
Asian Americans have endured increasing racial discrimination and violence, which have caused great media attention since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.
Actually, racial discrimination is not new. It has existed since the time of the Old Testament. Even the Prophet Jonah couldn’t escape from his narrow and nationalistic prejudice against other races of people. God sent Jonah to go to Nineveh to deliver his message that the city would be destroyed due to the sins of people there, but Jonah disobeyed God.
He didn’t want to preach to Ninevites, not only because those people were wicked and violent, but he was also afraid they might actually repent, be forgiven, and eventually conquer Israel. Jonah preferred that God destroy Nineveh rather than save them. However, God’s plan was not Jonah’s plan. The people in Nineveh repented despite Jonah’s half-hearted preaching.
Racial discrimination is the manifestation of hidden pride, prejudice, judgment, jealousy, and hatred. It is sin in each of us, at personal, community, structural, and social levels, consciously or unconsciously. According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), racism is the sin that says some human beings are inherently superior and others are essentially inferior because of race. It is the sin that makes racial characteristics the determining factor for the exercise of human rights.
At a recent weekly prayer meeting, I invited a group of Chinese faithful to share their personal experiences or opinions regarding racial discrimination. The common feeling was fear — the fear of being discriminated against and assaulted. A few persons had experiences of feeling isolated and treated as “others” due to their Asian colors and languages. Some people didn’t have direct experiences of discrimination but were concerned about the increase in reported incidents of verbal and physical attacks against Asian people.
God speaks to us through Leviticus: “When an alien resides with you in your land, do not mistreat such a one. You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself” (Leviticus 19:33-34). Racial discrimination is against God’s law of love, human dignity, and equity.
After the Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyrians, the remaining Israelites and Assyrians inter-married in the Samaria area. At Jesus’s time, the Jews despised Samaritans, the people of mixed ancestry who worshiped various false gods and considered them unclean. While orthodox Jews tried to avoid Samaritans, Jesus reached out to a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in a Samaritan town and brought the Good News to her by talking about the living water. The woman brought other Samaritans to Jesus through her witness, and they believed in him.
In God’s eyes, each of us deserves to be loved, cared for, respected and redeemed, no matter what race we belong to, because we are all created in the image of God.
For the healing of the country, USCCB launched “Journeying Together,” which calls for intracultural and intercultural dialogue. These virtual gatherings have been held monthly since September 2020. Six cultural “families” (Asian Pacific Islander, Black and African American, European American, Hispanic American, Native American and Alaska Native, and Pastoral Care for Migrants, Refugees, and Travelers) come together to share faith, hope, concerns, cultural narratives, and common struggles, and to learn to understand each other across various cultural communities.
“Journeying Together” aims to build bridges, promote appreciation, welcome strangers, value diversity and inclusion, and provide support. Through these sessions and prayers, we all hope to come together, united as one in the love of God. The healing road due to racial discrimination seems still long, but in God, everything is possible.
Sister Dong Hong Marie Zhang is the liaison to the Chinese Community for the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J.
Learn more about the Chinese Apostolate for the Archdiocese of Newark at https://www.rcan.org/chinese-catholic-apostolate.
This article first appeared in The Felician magazine and was reprinted with permission.
