Racial Wisdom from 'To Kill a Mockingbird' for Today

     That’s me at the Monroe, Alabama, courthouse that served as the inspiration for the setting of an appalling scene in the book and movie “To Kill a Mockingbird.” It’s where white lawyer Atticus Finch defended an innocent black man in 1930s Alabama. In that prejudiced culture, the man was found guilty of rape.     
     As we search our hearts about race these days, I’m drawn back to the wisdom of Atticus. When his young daughter wrestled with discrimination, he said, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”     
     That fits with the recent advice of African American pastor Marcus Doe from Providence Bible Church in Denver, Colorado. He says that the solution to eradicating systemic injustice is not found in gathering more voters in either major political party. “These avenues will NOT solve racism and systems of injustice in America. Political leaders are way too dull a scalpel to cut out systemic racism from the American body.”     
     It takes something much harder, Doe says. “Let me urge you to find friendships with African Americans.… I urge you to pursue knowledge through reading. Read authors who are black, both male and female.”     
​     That’s a challenge. No matter what our race, are we willing to reach beyond our cultural comfort zone into someone else’s? As Atticus Finch said, are we willing to “climb inside of his skin and walk around in it?”