“Racism is a white problem, and a black condition.”
CT Vivian
By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org
“I have known [Pastor] JR [Pittman] for probably 15 years and I was really dumbfounded by the fact that I never really knew what he was going through,” said Wayne Ondersma, pastor of Pier Church.
Ondersma was one of about a dozen people who attended a June backyard gathering hosted by WKTV Journal Community Awareness host Donna Kidner-Smith. The purpose of the meeting, according to Kidner-Smith, was to create an open dialog about racism in the community and how individuals and organizations can help to eliminate it.
Kidner-Smith said she has discovered that for many who are white, it is an eye opening experience to hear what the interactions for those in the black community have been on a day-to-day basis and how those actions were impacting their lives.
JR Pittman, a pastor of Ignite Fellowship Church and host of Ignite Radio, moved to Grand Rapids from Canada in 1973. Pittman’s father would be given the task of planting a church in the area.
“When my dad planted a church here in 1973 in Grand Rapids, God was already designing us [Pittman and his siblings] for such a time as this right now,” Pittman told the group in attendance. “I am telling you it was just amazing because now I can backtrack and see my life and say that this is why I went through here and here and here and here.
“It opened us up to different races, different denominations. All of a sudden we are going to these different churches with white people and black people, you just name it and we were a denominational mutt that we could experience all these different experiences. But something was happening also at an early age. I began to experience West Michigan racism.”
While visiting those different churches, Pittman said he could remember being treated differently and sometimes even being denied entrance due to the color of his family’s skin. Racism would continue to impact Pittman throughout his life, even as he pursued becoming a pastor and was told he needed to fit his story to what was an acceptable narrative by the majority.
“Racism is taught. It is a learned behavior,” Pittman said. “It is modeled and that is how you pick it up or you have an experience in life that brings you to it. And because of what racism has done to the black community, it has conditioned us in a mind set and other areas in our lifestyle and how we go about life and how we see things and do things and that is pretty powerful.”
As Ondersma listened to Pittman’s story, he said he felt this stems to a bigger problem that has caused fractures in the community and especially in the church.
“I am seeing it in the church,” Ondersma said. “The same division and the same separation and I stated at our table meeting that they have said that by 2025 that if the churches continue the way they do, there will be 55,000 denominations in America. This whole separation, this whole individualism, this whole thing is a full race issue.”
Quoting Fred Rogers from the movie “A Beautiful Neighbor,” Ondesma said “You know what my philosophy is?…Every person I talk to matters. They are the most important person I am talking to at the time.
“I think we as a human race have to get the attitude that everyone we are talking to is of utmost importance and we should learn to love them and understand them and know them.”
Kidner-Smith said she hopes the backyard programs she is hosting will inspire others to do the same, hosting open conversations about racism and was pleased to learned that some in the attendance of the June event, such as Kent County Commissioner Betsy Melton, also were planning and have hosted similar programs at their homes.
“We ask you to elevate what you can do in your life, in you circle of influence, in your neighbor to eradicate racism,” Kidner-Smith said. “Let’s get the discussion moving forward, but more that simply just discussion, let’s take positive action.”
