Mennonite Weekly Review

The Democratic party’s nomination of Sen. Barack Obama for president represents a landmark of progress for a nation scarred from birth by racial division and injustice.

For the first time, a person with brown skin and African heritage leads a major party in seeking America’s highest office. The significance of this fact lies in the transformation it took to get here.

Four decades ago, a nonviolent revolution capped a 100-year struggle from slavery to segregation to civil rights. Today, an African-American politician’s success has made real the promise of equal opportunity that seemed impossible for so long.

The nation’s journey from enslavement based on race to seeing a black man advance within one step of the White House marks a historic reformation of American culture. Yet we can be sure the change is not complete. A question hangs over the campaign’s final months: Will Obama’s race affect how people vote?

According to a CBS/New York Times poll cited in Newsweek, “24 percent say that the country isn’t ready to elect a black president. Five percent acknowledge that they, personally, would not vote for a black candidate.” Writer Jacob Weisberg adds, “Five percent surely understates the extent of the problem.”

Racial prejudice — and its counterpart, white privilege — remain entrenched in America in countless subtle ways. The persistence of inequality rises to the surface of national consciousness only rarely, such as when Hurricane Katrina exposed the contrast of white and black experiences in New Orleans three years ago.

And yet, polls show that voters younger than 35 believe race is not relevant to the campaign. Perhaps the evolving diversity of American life has created an environment for young adults to form a post-racial world view. The equality of diverse people is natural, taken for granted. Obama himself — with a biracial background, too young to have been part of the 1960s civil rights movement — embodies this diversity and this generational shift.

As Obama symbolizes the American hope of transcending race, we might ask: If it can happen in politics, why not in church? According to Rev. 5:9, our fellowship is to be drawn from “every tribe and language and people and nation.” But more often the church has propped up the barriers that separate people of different skin colors rather than breaking down “the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph. 2:14).

Efforts to fulfill the multicolored biblical vision include Mennonite Church USA’s goal to “teach and practice anti-racism as a spiritual reality.” In the past decade, people of non-European ancestry have assumed denominational leadership roles as never before. Many congregations that are defined as racial-ethnic are growing, in contrast to trends of decline in traditional white churches. Yet whole-hearted inclusion and true equality await fulfillment.

In the pew and on the campaign trail, Americans will benefit from an honest conversation about race. This is happening in the public square in this extraordinary political year. It will also happen in our churches if we confront prejudice as a spiritual problem, pursue reconciliation and celebrate diversity as a gift of God.