Go Through Samaria

While pursuing my teaching degree, a fellow classmate assumed I smoked weed because of my nationality. I told this person that I had never smoked weed in my entire life. In response, this person accused me of lying. He did not know me or know my values, but allowed a stereotype to dictate his perception of me.

Unfortunately, this is not unique; we make assumptions about people that we do not know or more often, refuse to know. The Jews and the Samaritans for many centuries did not get along. The Samaritans were a multi-racial group of people who were not thought of highly. 

In John chapter 4 Jesus decides to move away from the status quo. Instead of avoiding the Samaritans, as was common practice, he decided to walk right into their neighborhood. He wanted to interact with and validate these people. He wanted to extend true love to the very people that his own ethnic group did not get along with or know very well. 

In today’s society, there are many stereotypes about every ethnic group, culture, and nationality. These stereotypes are often grounded in bias and fear, so we avoid intimate interactions and relationships with those who have a different skin color from us, different hair texture, and different twang. We would rather take the long way to our destination than to risk interacting with those with whom we think we have nothing in common. 

Though many of us interact on a surface level with other groups, very few of us have close relationships with people of other races/ethnic groups. We keep our conversation cordial and polite, but we fear that if we say something it may offend someone, so they don’t get to know us and we don’t get to know them. However, if we refuse to be vulnerable with others we will never really get to know each other and grow into our best selves. 

Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman allowed her to grow emotionally and spiritually; he even elevated her status among the people. In the same way God has called us as educators to elevate the status of our students who are from disadvantaged backgrounds because of racism and other types of discrimination. 

But how can we elevate our students when we do not know much about them? Many people grow up in all black, all white, or neighborhoods that primarily represent the ethnic or racial group to which they belong. We may even teach in schools where the staff and/or students are predominantly of one race.

These are a few practical steps to help us move beyond mere integration to experiencing true authentic relationships with people of other races. 

• If all our close relationships are with people of our own ethnicity, then we need to actively seek out relationships with people who are “different” from us. This could help give us some perspective that we may not be able to garner from students in our classroom.
• If we happen to be an administrator, school board member, or on the hiring committee of a school, then we need to become intentional about recruiting and hiring teachers of historically disadvantaged backgrounds. There are too many schools where very few, if any of the teachers or administrators are black or another ethnic minority, even if there is a diverse student population. 
• Likewise, if the teachers and administrators are all black or another ethnic group, it is wise to recruit and hire people of diverse ethnicities. It is important that our students get exposed to, and have positive relationships with people of various backgrounds. 
• As believers, God wants us to go above the status quo and love people authentically.  In our relationships we should not be color blind. We need to acknowledge people’s heritage, ethnic groups, and race. Acknowledging these things shows that we value all of the identities of the individual.  
• Don’t make assumptions. Ask people questions. If we have genuine relationships with people, then if we ask a question that might seem racist, the person more than likely will correct our misperception and continue to be our friend. This is why it is essential for us to make friendships with others; some questions/issues may be inappropriate to talk about in a classroom, and we don’t want to disempower our students in any way. 
• It is also important that we do not automatically “cancel” a person, because he or she says something that we perceive to be racist or biased. 
• Dialogue is essential. It is the uncomfortable dialogue that will help us learn and grow together and gradually make changes in the systems that perpetuate racism and other biases. 

It is only when we take the uncomfortable route that we will learn and grow in our teaching practice to empower our students, whether they are Black, White, Native American, Asian, Pacific Islander, Latina, or any other race or ethnicity.