Today’s message is going to be very different from how I normally preach, because it’s going to be focused on four stories, and it’s also a little more personal than I normally like to be because these are also my stories. But this message has been sort of bouncing around my mind for a while now, and I thought today was an appropriate time to say it.
The first two stories are about perceptions, or we should probably say assumptions. When I was attending Harvard, I had to go to the cashier’s office one day and there was a long line waiting to talk with someone, and in front of me there was a very large man. He was probably 6’4” and at least 250. His neck was bigger than my thighs. He was huge. Now Harvard does not offer any athletic scholarships, nor do any of the other Ivy Leagues, although they still do quite well, including being undefeated in football this year and beating UNM in the NCAA tournament two years ago. But that’s just bragging, but anyways this guy was huge and I instantly thought, I wonder if Harvard lowers its academic requirements in order to recruit and bring in some athletes to play for the school? Does anyone want to make a guess as to the race of this particular student? He was African-American. The moment I asked myself the question I realized the outright bigotry that went into it, the assumptions that I had made, not only about him but about others like him.
