Meet some of the African American employees of Giving Company. George Saffo, LaQuoya Robinson and Darryl Maxie evaluate the state of race relations in America, talk about their personal experiences with racism and how it might be healed.
Their histories are dotted with the in-your-face hostilities of the South, both Black and White. After moving from Los Angeles to Atlanta, Darryl remembers being pelted with Coke cans and beer bottles as a teen pedestrian, and White drivers swerving to drive him off the road in his own neighborhood, which transformed from a White community to a Black one in less than five years.
LaQuoya, or “Q” as she’s more affectionately known among her co-workers, came from a melting pot in Savannah, GA, and says she didn’t experience racism until moving to Alabama, which somehow still didn’t keep her from becoming a Crimson Tide alum.
And for George, a native Atlantan and a grandfather to two biracial boys, his first experience was an exercise in reverse racism. He stood up to defend minority Whites from being bullied in his predominantly Black elementary school. Standing up for what was White earned him a few beatings, but George has been Walking Through Samaria on the hurting side of the sidewalk most of his life.
They speak of the root causes of the problem — fear moreso than hatred — and the ways that America might begin to heal its original sin.
“Churches need to be more open to talking and talking about things that make them uncomfortable,” Q said. “Nobody wants to talk about things that make them uncomfortable. And then we’re back to square one and then we’re separated.”
They also give their evaluations of how Giving Company, the host of this podcast, is addressing racial situations. And they talk about the role of the Church in bringing about healing because there’s place we all aspire to, and racism is a major road block to getting there.
“Truly, when we all get to Heaven, there’s nowhere in the Bible that I’ve read where there’s a section for Blacks, a section for Whites, a section for Hispanics, a section for this or a section for that,” George said. “The Bible refers to Heaven as a place and we’re all going to be in that one place.”
