The Struggle: Is it really real?

“I’m already done!” he said as he held up his paper to show me.

I had just asked my class to stay on task and finish their work, pretty routine, but to this student, these chastisements are different, personal. You see, I am never talking to him. He has been in my class for three semesters, and I know he will be one of the first ones to finish, and whatever it is will be well-done. So, why does he feel the need to show me what I already know? The benefit of having him for so long, and having him for English, is that I know him a bit. I know he hasn’t always lived here, and I know that he feels that people here judge him because he is black. I don’t know the specifics, but in middles school, someone falsely accused him of something based on his appearance. In his mind, every day is a fight to prove to the world that, despite the color of his skin, he is not the bad kid they assume him to be. His struggle is real.

He is brilliant. One of the funniest, most entertaining kids I’ve never met. He is a hard worker and respectful, but he is in a constant state of mental turmoil. He and his mother, a believer, do not see eye to eye, and the fact that he came out as gay last year is a point of contention. On top of that, some kids in his art class last semester were making fun of him so much that a friend of his had to tell the principal in order to make it stop. He is fun but not happy. He feels that he is not accepted, and for that and other reasons, he is angry. His struggle is real.

She is smart, beautiful and has so much going for her. She really wants to graduate, to accomplish something, to be successful. But the voices around her are not encouraging. Her family didn’t graduate or get as far as her in school, so they chastise her telling her her grades are not good enough, her job isn’t good enough. Why doesn’t she just drop out? She probably won’t make it anyway. Does she really need to be better than them? Maybe she should just quit everything, and stay home so she can help her family. They have so much going on. Her struggle is real.

In a country polarized by political issues, Christians have an important role. It is easy, when we don’t have that disenfranchised person standing right in front of us, to brush it under the rug. “Why don’t they just suck it up and quit whining?” “They just want special treatment.” “Nobody is discriminating against them; they are just imagining it.” “They chose this lifestyle; what are they whining about?” “What if I just decided I wanted to be a different race? How would that be?” I hear these phrases, often in Christian circles, and I think we are simplifying situations we don’t understand. These beautiful people illustrate it. Discrimination based on race, sexual orientation, poverty, etc . . . are real. I have witnessed them all first hand.

So, what do we do? How do I play a part in solving it? What if that is the wrong question? Of course, we should fight against injustice. We need to change our thinking. As Isaiah 1:17 says, “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” Whenever an issue like this comes up, we should pretend we are standing in front of that person who feels defeated, beaten down, rejected. As Atticus Finch says, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” (To Kill a Mockingbird). Maybe we should expand our horizons, meet people from different walks of life. Maybe then we will think twice before being rude, insensitive, derogatory. In the words of my very wise 10-year-old, we don’t have to agree with everything, “but it doesn’t mean we have to be disrespectful.”