Must be careful:
As I write this, I must be careful not to demean or minimize what has happened to Americans of African descent. I would not be a good Christian if I believed that no wrong has been done to the black community in this country.
The eyes told me everything I needed to know:
I have told as many people as possible, what I originally said about the police officer who murdered George Floyd. It wasn’t that he was a cop who killed a black man. It was a deranged lunatic with a vengeance who killed George Floyd.
The anger, animosity and hate filled eyes told it all. I hope he gets the full weight of punishment for his crime.
—Oscar Roca on George Floyd’s murderer.
If you also see those that call themselves Antifa, you will find the same empty eyes. It’s as if they have lost all hope of living. Their eyes are filled with hate…but more with dispair and hopelessness. We must reach the young people before they get to this point!
There’s a dangerous trend in this country!
|That being said, I have noticed a trend in this country. It’s not a good trend. The trend of intentional separation by ethnicities. Some Blacks want to separate from Whites & some Whites want to seprarate from all non-white people.
Diversity was & is achievable:
When I was growing up, there was diversity in the city of close to 100,000 people. Whites were the majority, hispanics were second, Samoans, Filipinos and blacks were also in our community, but it was not like today. The diversity in my original hometown is mostly Hispanic, White, Black, Filipino, and Samoan, in that order. I don’t live there anymore, but can’t imagine living without such diversity. I played with kids of all ethnicities. There was no ‘us’ versus ‘them’, at least in the area I was in…except, the Mexican American barrios.
I learned that people wanted to keep to their ethnicity on purpose:
In those neighborhoods, it was 99.99% Mexican American. It was so homogenized that only one point of view was ever perceived. The Mexican American kids were in essence, not in tune with all the communities of my city. The neighborhood was small and the people inside of it mainly socialized with each other. Very few Whites or Blacks or Asians entered it. When non-Hispanics moved in, they made the life of the kids miserable. I could not understand why the Barrio friends would not talk to non-Hispanic kids.
I was allowed to go in & out of this neighborhood because I was the same ethnicity & because I had been friends with the Barrio kids since grade school…
—Oscar Roca
What I learned:
Here’s what I learned from both worlds, yes, they were different worlds, and yes, I could tell as young as elementary school.
Let me rewind a bit:
In another small city before we moved to the one above, my family was one of the first Hispanic families to move in.
I was in 2nd grade & could hear the homogeneously white neighbors saying, “Hey mom, look at the taco people!”
—Oscar Roca
Funny because where we lived before this was in Compton, where I played with Black, Japanese and White kids. Yes, the ethnicities I mentioned were almost long gone from Compton, but I still remember playing with these kids. I did not know what race wars were, nor did I care. My small tiny world had been made up of all ethnicities, and one race.
All this to say, wherever I experienced or witnessed ‘racism’ it came when the area I was in, was homogenized into only a majority of one ethnicity.
When Racism takes hold of hearts:
You see, racism takes hold of, cements itself on, and spreads, when one group of people think, act, work with, live close to each other. Anytime kids grow up in 90% __________ (fill in the blank on ethnicity), they begin to think that the whole world is that way. Hispanic neighborhoods without Whites or Blacks or Asian, start to think that the whole world should act and think like that area they are living in.
The way the area thinks, acts, talks like, are intermingled within the community of people.
—Oscar Roca
The solution:
In my case, I was friends with all ethnicities, I did not see color or accents, because the kids around me were of many different ethnicities, financial backgrounds, and all of us got along, except, the kids in the Mexican Barrio. They would hang out, talk to, and walk around isolating themselves from all others.
Did I experience racism? Yes, but I did not let this define who I was, or who all people were, from a small percentage of their ethnicity! I would not be denied the freedom to interact will all people!
Fast Forwart to today:
We have Black Lives Matter, Brown Pride, White Power, etc. They have been around for a long time, but what was fought for in the 60s, by MLK and Chavez, seems so long ago. They were catalysts for inclusion, not separation or exclusion.
All my life I have seen and been witness to a small percentage of ignorant people from all ethnicities that were racists.
—Oscar Roca
Be Careful-Racism comes from all ethnicities:
This demeaning way of thinking is not owned by the White population only. We have to be careful to say this, because I have been called a Beaner, and Wetback in the past by Whites, and other Hispanics. My daughters have heard Blacks call Hispanics donkeys, a derogatory term meaning that Hispanics are the burros of the workforce.
Again, let’s be careful of separating ourselves from other ethnicities in our community. Because Christ warned us that this would happen in the late stages before He would come back. Jesus speaks of separation of ethnicities and warring of ethnicities in Matthew 24:7, you can click above scripture reference.
Nation against nation is not exactly what the Greek says. That verse should read—
|“for Ethnic Groups shall rise up against ethnic groups and leaders of people against leaders of people.”
—Oscar Roca on Matthew 24:7
We are seeing leaders of people paying destructive leaders of people, to cause destruction of other people’s properties. Antifa agitators paying protestors money to destroy properties.
AS CHRISTIANS WE ARE TO:
I am a testament to the power of committing my life to Christ. I have witnessed what transformation and renewal means. What I see in the agitators who have been arrested, is the same thing I have witnessed with the man who killed George Floyd— I call this Empty Eye hatred. There is such hate filled stares in these people, that you know what they are doing is just trying to destroy property, people’s dreams and business for the sake of shutting their rage within their hearts. They have hung around others who have the same mind, that it has become a homogenized way of thinking. They have not received or wanted to receive the other side’s thinking. What we need to do as Christians, is go throughout the world and bring them the Good News of the gospel.
This in turn will bring people the peace people crave but don’t have, can’t attain, or never reach without Jesus in their lives. They will never have peace, nor know it, until their hearts are transformed by & redeemed by Jesus’ saving work on the cross.
—Oscar Roca
Salvation only comes thru Jesus:
The salvation that only comes from a personal commitment and knowledge of what Christ did for them and their sins, dying on the cross. They need to know the love of God that brings redemption through His son’s sacrificial act of dying, taking away their sins through the blood shed on Calvary.
But, if we Christians are just on the TV or Computer screen and see what’s happening, shaking our heads in disgust, while only complaining, without reaching those that are lost, then we will also be at fault. Because by doing nothing about this division, we will be ushering in what Jesus told His disciples. We will be allowing people to war against each other, some dying to everlasting damnation.
Why Not:
Why not go & be the ones to bring change by ushering in Christ’s Love & Grace?
—Oscar Roca
Why not reach those filled with hate, and bring them peace?
Why not reach those that society deems lost and way past redemption in their eyes?
Let’s change that verse through Christ and say—
“For ethnic groups shall love unto another ethnic group, and leaders of people shall send help & love unto other leaders of ethnic groups!”
—Oscar Roca
Let us reach the world for Christ, so that those who are enraged, lost and have empty eyes syndrome be filled with peace, know their way to heaven and have the blessed hope filled eyes to reach others!
PleaseBeStillMoments by Oscar Roca 