Cheerios, the Church, and Diversity
Who would have thought a Cheerios commercial could spark racial rage? A recently released ad for the classic American cereal featured a White mother, a Black father, and an interracial child.
The Commercial and Its Comments
The child asks the mother if she’s sure Cheerios are good for the heart and when the mom replies that they are, the child trots away with a smile. The father, who is napping on the couch, awakens to a chest full of Cheerios piled near his heart.
To the credit of the advertisers, the ad doesn’t make a big deal about race. No one mentions color by name and the scenario isn’t presented in such a way that it highlights the bi-racial child or the different races of the parents. In all respects, this is a typical Cheerios commercial featuring a typical American family. The only problem for some is that they aren’t the same color.
The company eventually had to turn off the comments on Youtube where the video had been posted due to obscene and racist comments. An article on Adweek described some specifics by saying, “And then you have the YouTube comments section, which predictably has devolved into an endless flame war, with references to Nazis, ‘troglodytes’ and ‘racial genocide.'”
The Adweek article goes on to say, ” At what point will an ad like this just seem normal?”
The Increasing Popularity of Interracial Marriage
Their question is a valid once since interracial marriages have been sharply increasing over the last three decades. According to a Pew Research study released in 2012, “marrying out” has more than doubled since 1980. The executive summary states:
About 15% of all new marriages in the United States in 2010 were between spouses of a different race or ethnicity from one another, more than double the share in 1980 (6.7%). Among all newlyweds in 2010, 9% of whites, 17% of blacks, 26% of Hispanics and 28% of Asians married out. Looking at all married couples in 2010, regardless of when they married, the share of intermarriages reached an all-time high of 8.4%. In 1980, that share was just 3.2%.
A Problem as Old as America
Many states passed anti-miscegenation laws (rules against marrying outside of one’s own race) after the Civil War. These laws remained on the books until 1967 until the Loving v. Virginia case made all such laws unconstitutional. Still, reflecting wide ambivalence about the ruling, many states were slow to change their constitutions. Alabama was the last state to officially repeal its anti-miscegenation laws in 2000.
Two Racial Realizations
The Cheerios commercial featuring an interracial couple and a bi-racial child got me thinking about two racial realities. Number one, we still need to talk about race. And number two, racial and ethnic integration should be a priority for the church.
#1 We Still Need to Talk about Race
This Cheerios ad featuring an interracial couple and a bi-racial child is case-in-point of why we still need to talk about race. While some may dismiss the racist comments as the rantings of a small group of bigots, that solution is too easy. A flare up like this should remind us that America has endured a traumatic racial past and continues to feel its effects.
Even if overtly racist comments like those expressed in reaction to this commercial are relatively infrequent, the heart attitudes that lead to such sentiments are more common. Most of us are “politically correct” enough not to point out race in public or in an offensive way. But for too many of us, these racist comments bear a resemblance to our unspoken thoughts and feelings about mixing colors. And nowhere, it seems, does America more truly show its colors than when White and Black people intermarry.
#2 Racial and Ethnic Integration Should Be a Priority for the Church
The Cheerios ad reveals that America still has a race problem, and that is why the church should make racial and ethnic diversity a priority in the 21st century. I can think of no more visible display of the Gospel’s power to reconcile sinners to God and to each other than a congregation demonstrating worshipful unity in the midst of racial diversity.
Some Christians maintain that we are “post-racial” or that race is irrelevant these days. This is a false assumption and it slows down the solidarity we need to see, especially between Blacks and Whites. When a brand as innocent and American as Cheerios creates a firestorm ignited by race, let’s admit the topic is still relevant and start talking about ways to move forward.
The furor this family caused got me thinking about the church. Would a Youtube video of our church picnic raise as much ire as this Cheerios commercial? Would observers in our Sunday morning worship be similarly scandalized by the composition of our congregation?
The Family of God
Some may think the comparison between a fictional family in a commercial and the church is a stretch, but the Bible frequently refers to believers as a family. Christians are members of the household of faith (Gal. 6:10), God is our Father (Mt. 6:9), we are children of God (Jn. 1:12), and we are brothers and sisters of one another (Rm. 12:10).
Yet Christ’s family is united by much more than blood. Rather, we have a cosmically unique blood bond–the shed blood of our shared Savior, Jesus Christ. Through faith in Christ believers who are far more diverse than a mixed race couple come together in a far deeper relationship than an earthly marriage.
People of different races, ethnicities, languages, cultures, income, education, gender, and ages are inseparably bound together through the Holy Spirit because of their faith in Christ (Gal. 3:28). The unity and the diversity of the church is of a categorically higher degree than the diversity the family in the Cheerios commercial displayed. But far too few of our congregations reflect this reality.
Each church will have to examine its own context and come up with its own solutions guided by Scripture and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Not every local church body will have an array of skin colors, languages, and ethnicities. A church in Phoenix will have different demographics than a church in Idaho or a congregation in Mississippi. In some cases, due to certain geographic and community constraints, a body may be more or less diverse. But each church should strive to resemble the demographics of its local community and all churches should preach and teach the trans-racial, trans-ethnic reach of the Gospel.
The Church Before a Watching World
No single solution can adequately apply to all churches in all their different contexts. Volumes of work must be done to plot a path toward racial peace in the new millennium. But we can’t even begin walking down that path until we as believers in the U.S. accept that race is still an American dilemma.
We must stop treating questions about race as if they are peripheral to our witness in this country. Racial reconciliation is central to the church’s task of being salt, light, and a city on a hill (Mt. 5:13-16). In the sight of a watching world, they will know we are Christians by our love, especially our love for all the beautiful colors with which God has painted His people.
Adam
Why should the church make racial and ethnic integration a priority?
Brian Alexander
Im actually surprised that anyone would care or make a issue over a biracial child and his/her family. Not in 2013 this is not 1963. Sure many people might not believe or agree with mixed relationships, but nevertheless they accept it and move on. Most of us either have friends or family that are mixed or in a mixed relationship. some have even dated other ethic groups, in the past. I think somewhere around 5-10% have done this
David Mitchell
Great article Jemar. And not just a problem in the USA. I’m in Australia and I think we need to address this, especially between whites and Aborigines.
André McCarroll
Romans 3:23
English Standard Version (ESV)
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
When we lose sight of the grace of God in Christ on the cross, we can easily fall into the deception that comes in the form of pride. In this case, it’s the pride of assumed racial supremacy.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of churches in America seem to support segregation, rather than integration. As I often remind my friends, there is no White heaven or Black heaven. We could use a
Huge dose of true Christianity in America. Let’s get our “comfortable” butts out of the pews, and take the greatest news ever to those who need it. Starting with us!
Amy Bayliss
This is a very insightful and much needed article, Jemar. I am blessed to attend an equally mixed church here in the south (Bethany World Prayer Center) where there are a multitude of races represented. I even live in a neighborhood where we are frequently polled because of how diverse we are. We all welcome each other with open arms and smile with a genuine love but I sense there is still a problem. I think we’ve swung to far on the other side of the pendulum with the race issue. Before there was so much focus on race that it caused division. Now there is so little emphasis on it that it causes division.
I want to know more about the heritage and history of those in my community. Despite what others think not all black people are from Ethiopia, not all white people are from England, not all Asians are from China, and so on. There is great differences in each country even if the skin color is similar. That is where we fail.
I want us to overturn the whole “color blind” philosophy. The beauty lies within the color; the heritage. I’m of French Acadian (Cajun) descent. I grew up thinking my history was that of British or Northern European descent. We aren’t taught our own history here in most schools so it is long forgotten. It is lumped together with every other European’s history. Until I began to uncover my own family’s records I had no idea the beauty that it held or the fact that my people were originally from France but resided for hundreds of years in Canada before they were exiled. I was blown away by what I learned and I want to share it with everyone but yet, I’m just another white person.
My point is that we don’t know enough about each other to be completely comfortable. Sure, we have broken ground with many relationships and have many friends of many races but we’ve also taken the time to ask others about their culture. I’ve learned that what used to be unusual or off putting to us was simply unfamilar. We all have different traditions, languages (hardly anyone understands my Cajun dialect), fashion, names, history, strengths, weaknesses, and so much more. Until we embrace that about each other we will remain distant. That’s my two cents on the matter.
btw… I happen to think most of YouTube’s commenters are unmonitored children. I don’t give much thought to those comments although it really could be insight to what is going on in the home or media.
Guest
It is nice not to see color when it comes to interracial marriages, but I do. I also see gender. Why is there such a disparity in interracial marriages involving blacks and whites when it comes to the number of black males who marry white females in comparison to the number of black females who marry white males? The percentages are not even close. This is an important issue that RAAN should address, especially since it affects a number of godly single African American women.
David Hoffelmeyer
A church with a solid view of justification and union with Christ cannot allow attitudes that are hostile toward diversity in general or interracial marriage in particular. One of Paul’s main applications for both of these doctrines was to eliminate barriers to the unity of churches that served among Jews and Gentiles, males, females, Scythians, slaves, and freedpersons. If all are sinners before the Judge, pardoned only through faith in Christ’s sufficient merit, then no one can look down their noses at others as though they were somehow better. If Christ is all and in all then no person is a second class person, and no marriage is a second class marriage.
Trillia
Thanks for writing this, Jemar! I’m late to the party here but wanted to thank you for specifically addressing the church. Great job!
Robert Blackburn, Jr
Great article and deep truth! You are so right, and thank you for the insight. As Caucasian parents of Chinese daughters, we have had our share of questioning looks. I was not raised in a culture where this ad would have been accepted and I am so glad we have an awesome healing Abba Father God who is greater than any fleshly thought or feeling.
Micah Vanella
Honestly I didn’t think much about the commercial until this article… so I didn’t think twice about the interracial marriage. I saw a woman, her daughter, and the father/husband. Not a white woman, a mixed race child, and a black man.
Secondly… going to the YouTube comments section of any video is not a good meter for the racial atmosphere in this country. That’s like walking into the freezer to find out how hot it’s going to be outside that day. YouTube is full of the most vile, hateful, evil, debased commenters on the internet.
Mike Jewell
I am an American living in Brazil for 16 years now. I clicked on the Cheerios add. I watched it, waiting for the punchline. It wasn’t until I read the commentary that I realized that the BIG deal was a race one. I couldn’t believe it. Funny how that living in a mixed race society where black-white marriages are the norm has numbed me in a good way from the stupidity of racism.
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Billy Graham once said something to the effect that interracial marriage would be one key way that we would finally see racism removed from the church. I think he was on to something.