Is this ok?

"We're a culture, not a costume"

I saw this campaign being featured on angryasianman.com and thought it was so appropriate in light of Halloween. According to AAM: “These posters were created by Students Teaching About Racism in Society, a student organization at Ohio University. The campaign addresses all the ridiculous “ethnic” costumes that idiotic people like to wear on Halloween, something I’ve had to address here for many years every time October rolls around.”

I just cringe looking through the pictures on these posters of people dressed up as geishas and terrorists. I hate it when people mock another culture and say, “what’s the big deal? It’s just a joke!” As the people of God, we need to be especially sensitive when someone is treated as the “other” or “outsider.”
We need to be learners and not mockers of each other. And I say that, knowing that I slip up from time to time and say or do some really insensitive things. May the Lord help us to recognize and speak up when we see something that paints people in a way that is “not okay.”

I was having a conversation with someone about this campaign, and this person brought up a valid point, “Sometimes it’s bad (meaning, dressing up as someone else’s culture), but it’s not always bad.” He was saying that its the Asians that get up-in-arms when we see a majority culture person dressed up as an Asian, or mimicking an Asian language, but no majority culture person would get mad at an Asian dressed up, say, as a cowboy. Hmmm…. I don’t know about this one. What makes something ok? Thoughts?

You can find out more about this campaign  here or here

Sex Trafficking

Brad Riley from IEmphathize recently came and spoke to Columbia students on the issue of sex trafficking.  Many of the students were surprised that this was an issue that our country faced, that it wasn’t just a foreign problem.  The students were engaged and wanted to know how to be active to fighting against this injustice.  Locally, JFK airport is a major trafficking hub and Flushing Queens contains many underground brothels.

Watch the following video that featured two teenagers who were kidnapped and forced into sex slavery:

Jesus calls us to pray against injustices and to seek the welfare of the city.  There are many ways that you can get involved. Check out the following organizations:

• Iempathize helps to engage people in the issues of sex trafficking.
• Restore NYC seeks to restore freedom, safety and hope for foreign-born survivors of sex trafficking by providing long-term, holistic aftercare services. We partner with local and federal officials as well as other organizations to facilitate the prosecution of traffickers and empower survivors.

Fall Retreat – The Journey

Listen to Bret Ogburn‘s talks from the fall retreat.  To download mp3′s start playing the talk and right click the DOWNLOAD MP3 text and select “save link”.

Campus opening video!