Introducing Sherrinda Ketchersid, in her words:
When I applied to be a contributor to Alexis Goring’s new blog series, Sharing Our Stories: Being the Change We Seek, I did not expect to be chosen. I’m a 55-year-old white woman who has just started this journey of anti-racism—I have much to learn.
I come from a white conservative background where both grandfathers were preachers. While I was brought up in a home of love and acceptance, I grew up in America where laws were put into place that benefited me and my whiteness. My life was white-centered, and I thought nothing of it until this year with the death of George Floyd.
Floyd’s murder sparked a discussion between me and my niece, Courtney. Hearing her lament and outrage sparked a disquiet in me that I couldn’t push away. She began purchasing books to educate herself about racism, and so I followed her lead, buying up books by Latasha Morrison, Robin DiAngelo, Reni Eddo-Lodge, and Ibram X. Kendi, to name a few.
We ended up going through the daily exercises in the book, Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad, and I was floored at my own ignorance, white-centeredness, fragility, and bias. How could I have gone through life without realizing I am part of the problem? It has been the question that has spurred me to keep learning and has made me realize that this is a life-long journey, not a quick-fix.
In the short time I’ve been on this anti-racist journey, I’ve realized this path is also one of ministry. Racial reconciliation is a ministry that is God-approved.
We are God’s ambassadors, charged with telling the people of the world they can be reconciled to God through Christ. But as reconcilers in this world, we must love God and love others first and foremost. We cannot love others well if we have forced them into a place of oppression, as we have people of color in America (and around the globe).
We need to work to address this massive problem of institutional racism and free people of color from the challenges they face.
I want to be a voice to help educate white people like me who just don’t know what they haven’t been taught. I want to be a voice for good in the ministry of racial reconciliation.
While I am sure I will make mistakes, I am committed to racial reconciliation and speaking out again racism, blatant or not. I want to call out injustice and bias when I see it. I want to cultivate a heart that is brave when racial conversations are difficult. But most of all, I want to cultivate a heart that loves God and others, no matter the cost.
I’m so thankful for the opportunity to be a part of this blog, and I pray God used the words of each contributor to motivate others to be a voice of change in the journey of racial reconciliation.
~*~
Author Bio:
Sherrinda Ketchersid is an author of historical romance and a minister’s wife who loves to paint in her Bible.
She loves to read, spend time in her flower garden, and try her hand at new crafts. She likes to blog and is part of a group called The Writers Alley.
