My indigenous friends experienced racism from Howard County police last year. It was very traumatic. The wife bravely shared this experience in a church setting as an example of when prayer helped her. A former police officer in the group stuck up for the police and denied there being any racism in the situation. I tried to meet up with this person later to hear her side and perhaps convince her to be more empathetic towards the indigenous person. She refused and shared a lot more racist thinking. There were people in the congregation that supported the racist side and some were sympathetic toward the indigenous family. It made me realize that my religious space was not as safe as I always imagined. It made me realize we had much more work to do, right here in our diverse, progressive county and in my larger church.
