The Face of God?
What Jesus looked like will never be known, but how it is presented in America is almost certainly pretty off. Jesus was from the Middle East yet we depict him as fairly Caucasian in almost all cases. We are certainly not alone, though, there are Black and Hispanic visages in those cultures too. Given that we know Jesus was not Caucasian though, I find it interesting that He is so often represented as so in our culture.
I can only assume this this is a form of assimilation many cultures have done. To adopt the one being who is important above all else to their own look. There are certainly many benefits from this too. It is easy then to claim God as your own, to apply a territorial ownership to God, to claim him for our country over theirs. From this then there's even the sub-conscious idea that God is somehow tied to your country, that He is in your neighborhood, town, state more than He is somewhere else. I see the appeal of this for sure. As well, if Jesus looks like you then there is less doubt that He is not like you, not a part of you. I certainly feel a little bit of these things, and I do not even practice.
Despite the good I'm sure ownership gives an individual, I wonder if it doesn't hurt us as a whole. The main thought I have here is that if Americans worshiped a visage of Jesus that was Middle Eastern, would we still be so bigoted as a country? Would we have so easily turned on the Arab citizens in and of our country after 9/11 if they looked like the savior we worshiped as a nation?
I don't know that it would have attenuated it completely, but I can't help but believe it would have been better than what we saw. I can't help but think it might make us all a bit more tolerant, to those elsewhere in the world and to ourselves.
Being from the South I've seen my fair share of deep rooted Southerners being horribly discriminatory whilst being overlooked by their Lord. This is certainly not the churches fault or influence, but the external culture of those who believe with every cell in their body since they were little, such that they have never had to believe with their minds. I can't help but believe that they would not be a little different at their cores if the one they worshiped all their lives, the one they hung on their walls, the one they payed homage to on Christmas was different from them.
( Having lived in Boston, Texas and Seattle I also know that this is not a Southern thing, so no harping on the South. )