Hi, friends! It’s been a minute since I’ve written a blog. I’ve been growing a lot & along with growing comes growing pains. The hard places are the best places to be, so I’ve been told.
While on the field, I wrote a blog about the color of Christianity. (https://kyliemckenzie.theworldrace.org/post/colors) Give it a read before you read this one.
Racial oppression, culture & diversity are super important to me, especially within the church. I think that its incredibly important to talk about it & important to be educated about it. As a woman of color, feeling seen, understood & celebrated is a struggle for me as for many other people of color.
An incident in class sparked something in me that I didn’t know was there… a burning passion to bring awareness, perspective & knowledge about race & celebration to the church.
During our public speaking day in class, our objective was to simply engage the audience & get them on board with our idea/opinion. We had a few minutes to come up with a two minute speech & then present it to the class. As one does, you tend to get a little dramatic when presenting in order to captivate people & to draw them in. One of my classmates, who is insanely good at public speaking, was simply trying to relate to the audience & had said something that didn’t include me, seeing as I’m the only person of color in my whole class. He said, “We, white middle class Americans deserve…” People started laughing & I even laughed because of how uncomfortable I was. At the end, he genuinely apologized but unintentionally made the situation worse. I left class feeling incredibly out of place & unseen & there was nobody around who could relate. I knew his heart was not to hurt me, but his words did hurt me. At first, I tried to play it off & not make it a big deal, but it was. I sought the Lord about it & He told me to speak about it. So, the next morning I pulled my classmate aside before class & shared my heart & knowledge with him. He humbly (the amount of humility it takes to receive that kind of feedback is incredible) stood there & intently listened to me & apologized. He taught me what it looked like to humbly receive. I then pulled someone in leadership aside & asked for the space to speak what was on my heart during class. I stood, shaking & tearing up, & spoke. I had to. I found myself longing to be known & longing to talk about this because it’s a part of who I am.
You see, I knew in my heart that my friend’s intentions were never meant to harm me, but it was the unintentionality & unawareness that hurt the most. How can we love one another if we don’t know them? How can we know them if we don’t see them? I’m fully seen by my Father, but I think it’s so important to see & celebrate our brothers & sisters of color. But, how will people ever become aware if we, as people of color, don’t ever speak about the perspective that we have?
To the church, this is my encouragement & plea to you: Talk about color. Talk about diversity & culture. This isn’t a taboo topic, but rather a topic that can bring more awareness, clarity & ways to love each other better. I believe this is a way to bring Kingdom. Each & every person carries the glory of God, let’s be a body that calls it out in each other & celebrates one another’s differences. Celebrate color, celebrate the beauty of the Father’s creation. By doing this, we work as one, in unison for the glory of the Lord. We have so much to learn from each other.
I’m brown, bold & extremely proud of the color of my skin. Get to know me, listen to me, celebrate me, see me & by doing this, you’re loving me well.
If you want to talk further about this topic, please reach out to me! I’d love to chat. Thanks for giving this a read!
Ky
ALSO, I’m still fundraising & I’d love if you considered supporting me whether that be prayerfully or financially. I’m selling 8×10 prints of my top six photos from the Race to raise support. Shoot me an email or message me on FB if you’re interested!
