Last Updated September 9, 2011Summer Story: Esther Chiang

Breaking Down Walls Through Relationships

Amy served with The Boston Project for a week as part of our Summer Missions Program. Her youth group is from a fairly homogenous town in Massachusetts, where her encounters with racial diversity primarily came from the media or history class. And as a true middleschool girl, she had no problem expressing her immediate thoughts to others, as blunt as they may sometimes seem.

During her week, the BP staff that led Amy's team were a very diverse group of young adults. As she grew to love each of us on staff, she became comfortable talking with us and speaking her mind. One evening, a fellow staff member came in wearing a du-rag (a head wrap often worn by African-American men). Before she could think about the racial undertones of her comment, she blurted out her feelings of fear connected with it. She told him that people who "rob banks and stuff" wear du-rags and he should take it off because he was scaring her.

Her comment, along with comments by others in her group, prompted our staff to lovingly confront them the next morning. During this time of frank discussion about stereotypes, perceptions, and actions, I saw her eyebrows tense behind her sunglasses.

When we arrived back at the church, she ran crying to the bathroom. She realized the brutality of her words, and felt remorse and guilt. She shared how she felt a deep pit in her
stomach that she knew would not go away until she apologized, which she committed
to do before the day was done.

That evening, she asked me to help her apologize. But when we couldn't find my fellow staff member, we decided to pray very specifically. Within the next 20 minutes, she told me breathlessly with a look of peace on her face that our prayers had been answered exactly as we had asked. She had the perfect opportunity to apologize for her ignorance, and because of this experience she will have a keen sensitivity to how her words and actions reflect the love of God.