photo ©2007 David Joyce, Flickr
Fear is what we feel, denial is what we do, and defensiveness is how we do it.
I drove over to see my mom this morning and as she commented on the Christmas card I sent her (which mentioned every little hint of progressive awesomeness I could think up), she blatantly said, “I’m racist Greg! Get over it. I hate black people. But not all of them, you have some friends like Rony who act and talk white, I like him.”
After vomiting in my mouth and calling her out on such disgusting thoughts, it had me wondering about where the Church is in the race conversation.
I don’t think most churches are explicitly racist as my mom. I do think that dominant versions of Christianity promote Western Culture, one rooted in white privilege, to it’s extreme. Sunday morning is, after all, the most segregated hour of the week.
In my conversations with progressives, it is often assumed that simply because we don’t talk like Glen Beck, act like the KKK, or say things like Rush Limbaugh, that we ourselves are somehow free from racism.
When we can align all the “racist” people on one side of the spectrum, we can situate ourselves on the other side. When in reality, we aren’t on the “other side” we are simple sitting in the middle, passively getting by and not recognizing the problems of racial inequality.
Racism is not just some negative word spoken to another, racial privilege is a complex web of oppressive forces elevating white persons and segregating People of Color. Often denied, because it isn’t as “clear” as one might hope, we as white people cannot deny our racial privilege.
We tell ourselves we are not racist but that’s only because our understanding of privilege and race seem to be very limited – so limited that many folks really just mean, “I don’t say nigger, and I have a Mexican friend.” Recently in evangelical communities many have moved to the inner city and end up claiming they aren’t racists because, “I live in the hood, I get it.”
Before I continue, I think its important to explain what I mean by “racist”….it is, “race prejudice and privilege through social and institutional power, a system of advantage based on race, a system of oppression based on race – a white supremacy system.” Tema Okum says, the key to this type of definition is that racism is more than personal prejudice, to qualify as racism, thoughts, behaviors or acts must by systemically supported be institutional and cultural power.
Because someone claims no racist or privileged intent, they assume they are not racist, which in turn for them, means that racism is no longer happening. We ignore racism as a subject because we are terrified of dealing with the guilt and shame. Once we do uncover our participation in a racist society, we run and hide to never actually deal with the problems.
Fear is what we feel, denial is what we do, and defensiveness is how we do it.
We deny in order to benefit.
For use to recognize our white privilege, for us to recognize our white racism and for us not to run but to engage the subject will radically alter the orthopraxy of the Church.
So let me say it again, we need a serious conversation on race and privilege. We need to re-think our Western theologies. We need to rediscover marginalized voices. We need a more holistic understanding of race. We need to take what we learn and implement it into our churches.