Chip and Joanna Gaines from the popular show “Fixer Upper” are a household name and when this beloved couple and their children sat down for a conversation about racial injustice it was so powerful.
The famous family sat down with Emmanuel Acho in an uncomfortable conversation with a Black Man about all the prejudices and police violence the black community has been facing.
Emmanuel Acho is a FOX Sports analyst and former NFL player and in the Summer of 2020, he began hosting a social media video series, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man. The reason it is called ‘uncomfortable’ is to provide a safe place to have the tough, sometimes uncomfortable conversations about race relations.
“I realized I could stand in the gap and bridge the gap and communicate the message that my black friends have to my white brothers and sisters who can help alleviate our problem in society,” he explained. “I felt called, I felt commissioned to deliver the message.”
Emmanuel’s first video resonated deeply and took off, then came a conversation with Matthew McConaughey. And after that, Chip and Joanna Gaines joined in with their entire family. Chip and Joanna Gaines decided to include their entire family in an “uncomfortable conversation” with Emmanuel Acho.
“When I saw your video… I mean, bottom line, our family wants to hear what you have to say,” Chip explained. He went on to expand upon his response to Emmanuel’s original Uncomfortable Conversation with a Black Man video. He said it was an eye- and heart-opening moment for him. “Something about your video… was almost like that light bulb moment,” he said.
Although Chip and Joanna Gaines and family may not have experienced this firsthand, they know that being celebrities and Christians they have a responsibility to play. As Chip spoke about how even though cancer hadn’t directly impacted anyone in his family, yet when he met a woman battling the disease and she shared her story with him, he and Joanna began to immerse themselves more in helping the victims of cancer. Today Chip and Joanna Gaines are speaking about and have become big cancer advocates.
“I don’t have a whole lot of personal experience with cancer and the challenges that people face in that way. But I’m telling you, once I learned about it and understood it and it affected my soul — I couldn’t unforget it,” Chip said. “And when I saw your video, I couldn’t unforget it… It was like a light bulb went off in my head and I was like, ‘I think I’ve been blind to this reality for maybe my whole life.’”
The “uncomfortable conversation” that the Gaines family and Emmanuel Acho had was for a desire to have a better future for this country. And the conversation they had was truly powerful and inspiring. “Do we still have a long way to go? No doubt about it. But I am hopeful to a degree because of this — because of interactions like this. And more importantly, because of you all,” Emmanuel said, gesturing toward the Chip and Joanna Gaines kids.
We all need to have a conversation about important issues with ourselves and our families because there is no other way out than to deal with the issues that are plaguing our country.
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