Trust - a relationship builder - why? how?
All our lives we've been told who not to trust and who to trust (but in some cases more of the "not"). Sometimes we learn it at home, sometimes in the streets (our life experiences), sometimes in the books we read or the tv shows we watch or the music we listen to, and our friends and associations definitely influence our beliefs in who we can trust or not.
White people can't trust black people, black people can't trust white people. Rich people can't trust poor people. Poor people can't trust rich people. Business people can't trust anyone who's not a friend of a friend or someone highly recommended to them by someone they trust or someone they've done an extensive background check on (and they're still human so they also can't trust due to the previous reasons sometimes even with background checks).
Lack of trust keeps us from knowing each other. It keeps us from forming a close relationship. It keeps us from knowing people who are different from us. Sometimes it instills great fears of "the other".
Prince George's County has had a lot of crime reported in the paper. Reports of crime often make us fearful and it makes us hard to trust people we don't know, so then it makes it hard for us to get to know new people.
For many people, they go to church and hope that a similar belief system will help us trust each other and create a community that will allow us to get to know each other better. This community is also often not diverse. They say Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week.
When we meet new people, we often learn new things. When we can trust someone, we often can share in a deeper way and create a truer friendship and experience in life.
Besides a racial divide is a class divided. America is the land of opportunity and yet it is not that easy to move out of the class you're born in. Opportunities are not always equal, as the neighborhood and family we grew up in affects our ability to feel hope about what we can achieve.
It feels right to me to stretch my discomfort level to meet new people and try to get out of my box of fearfulness and distrust of "the other" and meet people who are very different than me. I belong to a multi-cultural church, but I also live in a diverse community where I'm trying to get to know my neighbors in a way that is truly understanding. When we feel trust to share more personally, things come out that we usually only tell close friends and family - sometimes racist remarks. I try not to react badly, though I do comment about how that makes me feel uncomfortable because I don't believe that, but to listen to them express how they feel, helps me be able to communicate back to them in a way they can listen. I do believe that in this small way, I can change the way people feel about "the other" and help people feel more comfortable with "them". In time, maybe there will be more "us" and our circle will get larger and leave fewer people out.
If people feel that someone is in their circle of trust and caring, will there be less hate? I think so. Will there be less violence? I hope so. Will it happen any time soon? No, it takes time and effort. Love your neighbor - whatever race or class.
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White people can't trust black people, black people can't trust white people. Rich people can't trust poor people. Poor people can't trust rich people. Business people can't trust anyone who's not a friend of a friend or someone highly recommended to them by someone they trust or someone they've done an extensive background check on (and they're still human so they also can't trust due to the previous reasons sometimes even with background checks).
Lack of trust keeps us from knowing each other. It keeps us from forming a close relationship. It keeps us from knowing people who are different from us. Sometimes it instills great fears of "the other".
Prince George's County has had a lot of crime reported in the paper. Reports of crime often make us fearful and it makes us hard to trust people we don't know, so then it makes it hard for us to get to know new people.
For many people, they go to church and hope that a similar belief system will help us trust each other and create a community that will allow us to get to know each other better. This community is also often not diverse. They say Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week.
When we meet new people, we often learn new things. When we can trust someone, we often can share in a deeper way and create a truer friendship and experience in life.
Besides a racial divide is a class divided. America is the land of opportunity and yet it is not that easy to move out of the class you're born in. Opportunities are not always equal, as the neighborhood and family we grew up in affects our ability to feel hope about what we can achieve.
It feels right to me to stretch my discomfort level to meet new people and try to get out of my box of fearfulness and distrust of "the other" and meet people who are very different than me. I belong to a multi-cultural church, but I also live in a diverse community where I'm trying to get to know my neighbors in a way that is truly understanding. When we feel trust to share more personally, things come out that we usually only tell close friends and family - sometimes racist remarks. I try not to react badly, though I do comment about how that makes me feel uncomfortable because I don't believe that, but to listen to them express how they feel, helps me be able to communicate back to them in a way they can listen. I do believe that in this small way, I can change the way people feel about "the other" and help people feel more comfortable with "them". In time, maybe there will be more "us" and our circle will get larger and leave fewer people out.
If people feel that someone is in their circle of trust and caring, will there be less hate? I think so. Will there be less violence? I hope so. Will it happen any time soon? No, it takes time and effort. Love your neighbor - whatever race or class.
x-post