A white person was nice to me today. That’s not uncommon. It’s not that unusual. But I hardly ever mention such human racial kindness. Hardly ever write about it. Yet in our world—with its sad profiling, race-baiting fist fights and worse—a human “nice” moment matters. So I’ll take a human moment to share what happened.
It wasn’t really a big deal. I made a grocery-store stop to pick up a few items. All of the small carts were taken. Struggling to untangle a stubborn larger cart, I turned as an older white man—dropping off the cart he’d used—offered me his.
“Here’s one,” he said, sliding his cart my way. “The wheels even work!” We both laughed. Nobody likes wonky wheels on a shopping cart. I thanked him. He said sure and off he went. And that was it.
A white person being nice.
But it felt, well, unusual? Even worth writing about?
I almost didn’t—write about it, that is.
It’s easier, if I’m honest, to write about the not-nice moments. The white driver who yelled the n-word and b-word at me when I switched lanes without using my signal. The white woman, on another shopping day, who yanked my grocery cart out of the aisle, snarling, “I’m trying to get by!”
People, in general, can be rude, mean and mocking. When race is involved, people can act downright possessed. (Yes, the recent Starbucks problem.)
I gave extra thought to such matters in recent weeks.
First, during Easter—while re-hearing the Passion Story—I was reminded of the many insults that Jesus endured over His life and ministry.
People laughed at Him when He declared a man’s “dead’s” daughter to be only asleep (Matthew 9:24 NIV).
People scoffed at His teaching. “Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son?” Then, said Mark 6: 3, “they took offense at him.
Roman soldiers beat Him, mocking Him—dressing Him up in a “royal” robe, a crown of thorns, and giving Him a mock scepter, sneering “Hail, king of the Jews!” (Matthew 27:29 NIV). (If you watched Jesus Christ Superstar Live recently on NBC, you’ll recall that scene.)
People taunted Him on the cross (Matthew 27:42 NIV). Even those “crucified with Him” (Mark 15:31-32 NIV) mocked Him with their insults.
At this point, says theologian Peter Leithart, “all humanity joins in a single chorus of blasphemy” against God.
So it’s easy to forget those human “nice” moments when people were kind to Christ. There was John, the son of Zebedee, the disciple whom Jesus loved.
And Mary, the sister of Lazarus, who sat in kind reverence at Jesus’ feet.
And the grateful woman “who was a sinner” who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, “dried them with her hair, kissing them many times and rubbing them with the perfume” (Luke 7:38 NCV).
And who can forget Simon of Cyrene? He carried Jesus’ cross when He no longer could bear its cruel weight. The moment is meaningful since Cyrene, an ancient city of Libya, Africa, suggests that Simon could’ve been a black man–or certainly not Roman, as were the soldiers who forced this Simon’s help (Luke 23:26 NIV).
The incident is notable, as was the time Jesus healed a leper, but first reached out to the diseased man, overlooking the man’s open and wretched sores–and Jesus touched him (Matthew 8:1-3 NIV).
In a world that has reviled blackness, I tasted such compassion when a white man in a grocery store reached out to me. His ordinary kindness felt noteworthy because it blessed me, acknowledging our mutual humanity and dignity.
I pray, as you read this, the man’s kindness blesses you, too. Then may God help us to respond with the kindness of Christ. And then? Let’s share Him.
Patricia Raybon is an award-winning author of books and essays on faith, race and grace.
To travel along on Patricia’s Faith Journey, please click here.
Any Scriptures quoted, unless noted otherwise, are the New Living Translation of the Holy Bible.
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Photo Credit: Joshua Rawson-Harris at unsplash.