I went to see the movie Hidden Figures this weekend.  It was a wonderfully told story of three brilliant black women fighting against racism and sexism in the workplace.  The tragedy of the story is that they had to fight for the opportunity to contribute their unique and considerable skill sets to a program that truly needed them.  I don’t want to spoil it for anyone so I won’t give details, but I can’t get one line from the movie out of my head:  “That’s just the way it is.”

Fortunately, I grew up in a family that gave me the freedom to try whatever I wanted. My parents bought me dolls and Matchbox cars.  I learned how to use power tools and makeup.  It wasn’t until I became an adult that someone told me I couldn’t do something because I am a woman.

Because I am white, I have never experienced the horribly unfair racial discrimination faced by the ladies in Hidden Figures which is still an undercurrent in our society today. The movie really brought this to life for me. I cried because it was so wrong. I couldn’t believe people just accepted it.  I certainly can’t imagine what it felt like to be made to feel like a second class citizen everywhere I went. I know the discrimination I experienced made me feel outraged and helpless at the same time.  Instead of looking at my skills, I wasn’t even given a chance because of a physical attribute I can’t change.  How sad is it that we hold our society back by not allowing each person to become what God created them to be?  Instead, we put them inside a man-made box.  We limit their potential based on our shallow judgments of how their physical attributes reflect their mind and spirit.

I challenge each person reading this to never accept “That’s just the way it is” as a valid answer. We should never accept the way things are now as an excuse for preventing someone from fulfilling their future potential. God calls us to treat everyone as part of our family in Jesus Christ. Instead of accepting the status quo, question why someone is not allowed to try something, especially if you feel in your heart that it is wrong to prevent them from doing it.  Sometimes, it takes just one person’s “why” to change the way it is.