Rev. Steven Holm: Reflections on Race and Caste
“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”
As we near Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Rev. Steven Holm shares his reflections on race and caste in America.
In the winter of 1959, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta, came to India for a month-long stay as guests of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He had long wanted to visit the land of Gandhi, the man he considered to be the father of nonviolent protest. As they traveled through India large crowds gathered to greet them and he was surprised at the warm reception. It seems everyone had been following the news of the Montgomery bus boycott and he was regularly asked for his autograph. King was interested in seeing the places where Gandhi had led protests, but he also wanted to visit the so-called Untouchables, those people who had lived for centuries at the bottom of India’s well-known caste system. Even though India had abolished that system with Independence in 1948, life had remained unchanged for large numbers of the Dalits.
According to Isabel Wilkerson, author of the book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Dr. King was taken to visit high school students who came from Untouchable families. There he received the following introduction from the principal. “Young people, I would like to present to you a fellow untouchable from the United States of America.” At first, he was dismayed and a bit irritated--he couldn’t understand why the lowest caste people would see him as one of them. But after reflection he later wrote, “Yes, I am an untouchable and every Negro in the United States of American is an untouchable.” He realized that he had grown up and was living in a caste system that was every bit as rigid and unyielding as that of India.
We’ve heard a lot of talk about racism in recent years but after reading Wilkerson’s book I’ve come to believe that what we call racism is the external manifestation of the incredibly powerful caste system that has evolved in North America over the last 400 years. It started in colonial America as early settlers were forced to deal with those already inhabiting the land and continued as Africans were brought in to work the land. In that environment, Wilderson writes, “There developed a caste system, based upon what people looked like, an internalized ranking unspoken, unnamed, unacknowledged by everyday citizens even as they go about their lives adhering to it and acting upon it subconsciously to this day.” At the top were white Northern Europeans---at the bottom were black slaves. Within the system there were dozens of variations and exceptions, but the higher a person was on the ladder, the more benefits there were to be enjoyed.
This system was in place where I grew up, a small Norwegian farming community in central Wisconsin. It was operative in the one room schools I attended as I began my education. When I was in 6th grade I admired a girl just a year younger--but the day I found out she was a German I realized she could never be my wife. Where did I learn that? My parents never told me. I certainly didn’t hear it in church. It was caste--and by birth I had been absorbed into it. No one talked about it or even knew about it, and I have continued to benefit from it until this day. Not only am I a white male, a member of the dominant caste, I am a white Norwegian male, one who Wilkerson says is at the very top rung of the ladder. Every step of my way through life I have been advantaged and privileged, not by any of my accomplishments but by my gender and the color of my skin.
I realize that what I’ve written may be offensive to some, and others will say that times have changed and that the old caste system has been put aside. “We’re all free now,” they claim, “the glass ceiling has been shattered and skin color makes no difference anymore. Martin Luther King has a holiday now and we’ve even had a black president.” That’s a wonderful sentiment but the caste system is deeply entrenched and resistant to every form of assault. Like the interior plumbing and wiring of our homes it remains hidden, a potent presence in every city and state. A master of disguises, it can’t be legislated against and or defeated at the ballot box. Just when it seems that the old prejudices are dissipating, and folks are becoming colorblind, new evidence appears showing that caste is alive and well. In recent years we’ve seen the signs of its comeback in the rise of hate groups and the proliferation of hate speech in politics and on the internet.
In some ways the caste system is like the demon in Matthew 17 that the disciples couldn’t cast out. Jesus told them that only deep faith could excise such a powerful enemy. And I guess that’s our hope as we honor Martin Luther King again this year. When he came back from India, having been enlightened, he continued to fight America’s caste system until he died at its hands. That struggle continues! The first step is to humbly confess its influence in our own lives, calling it by name, and admitting our own collusion. From that point on it’s a matter of deep and fervent prayer until the caste system is finally eradicated, not only in law, but in every human heart. All are created in the image of God--it’s the varying colors that make us beautiful.