The Musings
2
Tuesday,
January 8
Read: Luke
4: 14-30
With the arrival
of I Phone, mobile phones became more than a phone. Now with mobile phones like
Samsung Note 2, one does not need even
to carry a laptop nor an I Pad and tablet, as these phones are known as Phablets-
combination of phone and tablet. What made mobile phone a multi tasking technological
wonder was the apps that was available for both the apple, the android and the
window phones. Apps are literally revolutionizing our life. From accessing our
bank accounts to booking flight tickets or even to have the route map for the
journey that we intend to travel, today there is an app for everything. With
the new and new apps coming every day, apps have been classified as games app,
utility apps, education, entertainment, book, finance, health and fitness to
name a few. But recently an app that came in the market has come in for a lot
of criticism. Google has come out with a so called fun app named "Make Me Asian",
where the makers of Google seems to think it is fun to make oneself look like
an Asian by changing the shape of one's eyes and sporting a Fu Manchu mustache
and a rice paddy hat. Thus with this app one can transform a person to a Chinese,
Japanese, Indian or Korean within few seconds.
Though Google thinks this is a fun app, the Asian American organizations
are not bemused. They have launched a petition to get Google to remove this app
since the app uses racist stereotypes of Asian. Along with these app of Make Me
Asian, Google has also come out with another so called fun app titled "
Make Me Indian", where one can make a native American with brown skin, war
paint and a feather headband. Thus the Asian
American organization claims that more than 18 million people have already
signed the petition to remove these apps since these apps tend to be racist and
is an offensive portrayal of Asians and Native Americans. Moreover this apps
also seems to be perpetuating a superiority complex of one ethnicity over
another. But Google still feels that the apps are not racist as these apps are
not in violation of the policies of the company, where hate speeches of any
sort are condemned. Apps were designed to make one life and living more easy
and less arduous, but one can tend to think that apps also now tend to be
misused and is becoming a tool of exploitation and suppression. All these forms
of exploitation comes with the mindset that my race, my ethnicity may be
superior than my neighbour. How does our faith and faith living help us to
comprehend and also to challenge racist overtone and beliefs that may tend to
dominate our thinking and our belief system, that may have even come in the
form of apps in our phones?.
When we look
at the Word of God one of the unique aspect of the life Jesus Christ is that,
the Son of God consciously limited himself not only to time and space but also
with regards to ethnicity and race. Jesus does his whole public ministry as a
Jew. In Luke 4: 14-30, we find how Jesus begins his pubic ministry, his focus
and the response of the people. In v: 14-18, we find that Jesus taught in synagogues
and one day when he went to the synagogue he stood up to read the scroll, and
it was the scroll of prophet Isaiah that was given to him and Jesus reads " The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor and to
proclaim freedom for prisoners and also sight for the blind and release the
oppressed". After reading this Jesus states that "today the scripture
is fulfilled in your hearing". But when Jesus makes this transformatory
and revolutionary statement how does the people respond. They respond by saying
that "Isn't that Joseph's son"?. Here is Jesus Christ bringing a new
identity to the people who did not have any identity those days, the poor, the
prisoners, the oppressed. An identify that
is not seen through the eyes of race, ethnicity nor the place where you were
born. But look at the response of the people. The people tend to belittle Jesus
Christ by saying that isn't the son of Joseph, the person who is a carpenter,
and how can that person who is lesser known Jew suddenly say that through him
prophecy is fulfilled?. When Jesus was trying to bring a new sense of identity
and a new consciousness about ones identity what the people were trying to do
was to emphasize once again the importance of one's identity as something to
condemn another person or use the issue of race to exploit another individual.
What Jesus does through his birth as Jew and as he preached the gospel of
liberation was the emphasis of two divine truths. The first truth that he emphasized
was that it is our faith identity which is more important than our race or ethnicity.
When Abraham hears the call of God he get a new name, a new identity, a faith identity[
Gen 12: 1-2]. When Paul states that "if any man is in Christ he is a new
creation" [2 Cor 5:17 ], what he stresses was the new faith identity in
Christ. It is this faith identity that we have in Christ that we should be
stressing more that our individual race or ethnicity. But does that mean our
race and ethnicity is not important. I believe No. This is the second truth
that Jesus teaches us. When Jesus grew up as Jew he affirmed his Jewish
identity and associated himself with all the Jewish cultural setting and ethnicity.
What is important along with the affirmation of our faith identity is also,
being comfortable and proud to proclaim who we are in terms of national, racial
and ethnic identity. I think we should be proud to say " I am an
Indian" or " I am an American". The problem happens when the
identity of one person is used to suppress another. We don't know what was the
intention of Google in creating apps whereby one could transform oneself to
another race, but let us not create in our life nor in our thinking that we
belong to a superior race or ethnicity rather that in Christ we are one and that
our faith identity is one and also in the process respecting and affirming that
in our faith identity there are diversities in race and ethnicity and these
diversities bring beauty and meaning to our faith living.
