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**I originally wrote most of this post 3 years ago. We simply cannot ignore the fact that a race war is continually boiling under the surface of our “free” country. Not everyone feels equal. Not everyone feels free. People who are daily faced with the after affects of suspicion just because of the color of their skin, do not have the same rights that I have when I never face it. We don’t often experience the shame and humiliation of racism as white people, but we have all been in places and situations where we have seen it with our eyes and heard it with our ears. We can’t keep pretending that this isn’t a problem.**
Oppression is nothing new in the Church. We have been fighting that battle for centuries. Abortion, sex trafficking, international poverty, government over reach…when it comes to these things we are strong and loud advocates and fighters. So why is our country’s systematic racism such a different issue to the Church? Maybe because it hits close to home? Maybe because we are in denial that it is really an issue of oppression? Maybe because we just don’t know what we haven’t experienced? Maybe because if we admit it is an issue, we will actually have to change some things in our lives and not just paint a red X on our hand every year?
Stay with me here. I promise, I have had to look long and hard at my own heart to answer these questions and have had long nights of repenting for the answers I found. What is on my heart is truly not to shame people, but rather help with a better understanding of the demon that we are fighting here in racism. We need our eyes opened to the enemy’s oppressive tactics.
And let me just pause and make a point about how we all need a better understanding of each other. I think that some of this stuff becomes like speaking two different languages. The slogan fight over “Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter” is an example. Before “Black Lives Matter” was an organization, it was simply a slogan trying to bring attention to a system that often says to a black person “Your life doesn’t matter as much as a white person’s”. It was not an attempt to say “Our lives matter more”. It was an attempt to say “Our lives matter equally”. It was an attempt to draw attention to a gaping wound in the fabric of American society. So when people began responding in defense with “All Lives Matter”, black people once again felt the sting of being ignored and having their grievances silenced. This misunderstanding led to more organizations and activists to try to fight for equality because there wasn’t going to be a willing conversation about it.
Another example that I see causes all kinds of trouble is the words “White Privilege”. “White Privilege” is a way to describe what white people never have to experience in this country. White person, when is the last time you got pulled over or stopped by a police officer simply because you were “suspicious”? When is the last time you had to worry about putting your name on a job resume because the sound of it alone might take you out of the running? When is the last time you had to sit your kids down and teach them all the things they had to do to NOT get arrested while doing normal every day activities? These are all comforts that blacks cannot afford, but that simply because of the color of our skin we don’t even have to think about. Though the papers governing this country give them equal rights, the systems do not. If you don’t believe me, ask any of your friends of color what their experience has been. On the other hand, when white people hear the words “White Privilege” they think it means that black people are saying white lives are easy. They start to defend themselves with all the hard and horrible things that have ever happened to them. This misunderstanding leads to more division and leaves even the most sincere white people feeling like they are being blamed for a bunch of problems that they really don’t even know exist most of the time.
I am a woman who, in the past, at every raised racism issue has said, “What in the world is the problem here? Slavery has been dead for 100 years. Why are we still making issues over this? I would never in my life own a slave and haven’t and none of my friends have ever been slaves and won’t be. Why can’t people get past this?” And then I have gone about my life, only having to deal with race issues when they come up in the news. My darker skinned friends, however, deal with them every. single. day. My eyes are now opened to how those issues are embedded in our American culture.
For instance, in many African American communities education is still consider to be “the white’s system”. As a matter of fact, young people are sometimes viewed as traitorous when they leave their community to pursue higher education. Why? Because for hundreds of years, white people have told black people that education is for white people. As a matter of fact, schools in the South did not desegregate until the 1950’s and 60’s. We currently live among African Americans that were not allowed the same education as white people. With that lie in mind, why would African Americans that had barely received the right to integrate into normal American society (and had to fight hard for that) want to pursue something that belonged to the people who had just oppressed them for GENERATIONS? America released God created people from their chains in the 1860’s and then white people went on with their lives assuming they had done their “good deed” and now people, who were enslaved, beaten, raped, murdered and overall treated like animals, should be happy and move on with their lives. They should be happy with their “place” in society. We are still saying that today when we excuse instances of racism with “get over it”.
How do you “get over” that kind of lie sown deliberately into the fabric of your culture? How do you “get over” that kind of lie when the people who sowed it not only don’t take it back, but they fight to keep it? That’s what white supremacy did after slavery. If they couldn’t have slaves, they were going to fight for the lie that American success is for white people. The slaves could be free, but they couldn’t be equals. The slaves could be free, but they couldn’t believe that they were worthy of the same rooms as white people. The slaves could be free, but if they swam in a white designated public swimming pool, it would have to be drained and refilled because it had been “tainted”. The slaves could be free, but they wouldn’t get support or help from most white people…they would be free in a world that would fight them to hang onto the lie. This is the kind of racism we are still fighting today because knowledge is power, and there are wealthy and powerful white people all over this nation, hidden in every nook in cranny of it that are enjoying their prosperity too much to give up the system that gave it to them.
The other day I spoke into my son’s life. I told him that I had noticed something he was gifted with… I saw a strength in him given to him by the Lord. It was ONE conversation…ONE encouragement. I saw him almost instantly begin to grow in this area. He began to act as if he believed what I said was true. He had not seen this about himself before, but now he was aware of this gift of God. Recently I heard him respond to a question that someone asked him with almost my exact words about his strength in that area. And this morning it hit me square in the chest. We have a very hard time understanding the poverty and the crime that we use to define African American culture…we use the arguments of “if they would just do this…or do that…we wouldn’t have these problems” yet white supremacy told them for GENERATIONS that they were no better than animals and white systems confirmed it by segregating them. White supremacy told them that they were only good for menial labor and white systems built the American dream to be outside of their reach. White supremacy told them that as long as they stay in “their place”, they could be a part of America. White supremacy told them this for GENERATIONS.
White supremacy still tells them similar things. We have made progress, but we have not achieved equality. White supremacy still tells them that they are not smart enough to work the high paid positions or receive the higher pay for the positions they are in. White supremacy still tells them that they are likely criminals every time they have their lives interrupted by someone’s suspicion. White supremacy still tells them that if they make one wrong move…and even if they don’t…their body might end up laying in the street while we all publicize every wrong thing they ever did in their life. White supremacy may not say all of this out loud, but white supremacy still tells them that they don’t belong.
And yet, we expect a whole people group to lay down and take it. “This is America. Work hard and achieve your dreams. You have equal rights and equal opportunity.” They are working hard and they ARE achieving dreams, but on any given day they can board an airplane and be singled out in front of the other white passengers and asked to remove their hoodie so the police can make sure they aren’t the murderer they are looking for (yes, this just happened recently to the friend of a friend). On any given day, they can just be doing their job and be suspected of trying to steal something. On any given day, white people can talk to them and treat them like they are not upstanding, respectable citizens even if they are.
Or we tell them, “Jesus is the answer. There is unity in Him. Once you come to Christ you have to just forgive those people, the system, everyone…you have to have mercy and just let God deal with those experiences you are still having. We were promised persecution, you know.” We don’t say that to the unborn. We scream about their rights. We don’t say that about our own rights. We speak up for our own rights that we have been given in this country. How dare we use the Gospel to make people hide the pain and fear and trauma and oppression that Christ died to break! It is spiritual gaslighting to respond to another Christian’s reality and experience with a bunch of Scriptural instruction, particularly before we have not validated their grief by “weeping with those who weep” and especially if we are not willing to risk our own comfortable reputations to fight against the oppression of racism. Come on, Church. Do we want to just know a bunch about Jesus or do we actually want to be LIKE Him?!
“Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he has worldly wisdom, he should become a fool…” Galatians 6:3
“Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem the other better than himself.” Phil 2:3
“I say to every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly because every one of you has a God given measure of faith.” Romans 12:3
The attitude of superiority and privilege is alive and well in America today. I have seen it. I have experienced it in situations that have left me questioning if that really just happened. I have partaken in it unknowingly by tolerating it. I have also questioned it ALOT. I have walked into rooms and rooms of stay at home moms, homeschooling moms, moms able to be involved in their kids education because their home is economically sound…asking myself why very, very, very few of these women are ever African American. I have walked into schools where the overwhelming number of students are black, asking myself why most of the teachers are white. I used to live in a county that was majority African American while the one right next door was majority Caucasian. The financial and educational number differences were staggering. The property value differences were staggering.
Is any of this my fault because I am white? No it’s not. But I am now asking myself how it’s not my fault if I am complicit. If I fail to speak up and out about it. If I fail to see and cry with the pain and leftover trauma that my friends are carrying. If I fail to reach out my hand of fellowship to get to know the problem better and work toward solutions in every facet of life. I am so ashamed that I don’t know enough about black history to even be dangerous. I become at fault if I continue to benefit from the privileges my skin affords me without fighting for those same privileges for the people I love. Yes, prayer changes these things, but not without willing hands and feet.
And truly this is not written to garner “pity and sympathy” for anyone. Pity honestly just makes the situation worse. The African Americans that I know are infinitely strong and unarguably classy. They fight for their equality because they know their worth and value and how they beautifully contribute to a society that often snubs them. The surgeon who just removed the nodule from my breast was a black woman who is one of the best in her field. Her resume is one of the most impressive things my husband had ever read. I was shaking in terror in pre-op before my surgery. David was unable to go with me and it was all overwhelming and scary. That woman gracefully walked into the room and politely asked every one else to leave. She calmly asked me if I had any questions and when shook my head, she leaned down, grabbed my hand and said “Can we pray together?” She then prayed over everything that was to take place, wheeled me back to the ER, and effectively operated on my white body. I wonder what she had to fight through so that I could have such capable and loving hands caring for my health. This is not a woman who needs pity.
Rather what I hear my friends of color asking for from white people is empathy and unity. They want the pain and inequality that they are all experiencing to be heard and to be validated, so it can finally be healed and they want us to join them in the fight for equality for all American citizens. What I am calling for here is an end to the denial. What I am calling for here is an exposing of inequality and injustice. What I am calling for here is a purposeful eating of the elephant in the room one bite at a time. We are not fighting a surface problem here that will be eradicated overnight. We are fighting the demon of generational deception. We are fighting a racist demon that has effectively blinded the world with prejudice. We are fighting a demon whose lies must be exposed and conquered!
Our young people need our support and our encouragement to go and do better than we have. White young people need to be taught about the evils of slavery and its affects on America, not just the word. The wound needs to be uncovered so that our kids see the horrors of it and refuse to ever have any part in the lies of it. Black young people need to be taught by experience that they are equal. We, as a society, in all areas of life need to stop tolerating racism. If we aren’t racist then we need to be ANTI-RACISM… ACTIVELY seeking to break the deception whenever and wherever we have the opportunity. “No, you can’t filter those resumes by black sounding names. That is WRONG.” “No, you can’t pull that car over simply because you have a suspicion. That is WRONG.” “No, you can’t label or imply that all people of color are thugs and criminals. That is WRONG.” “No, you can’t ignore the cries of the people screaming I CAN’T BREATHE. That is WRONG” Those of us white people who care, often turn a blind eye to avoid conflict and that is WRONG. We are allowing injustice to continue.
Listen. We can keep putting a band-aid back over the problem and then wondering why the wound isn’t healing or we can uncover it completely, disinfect it, clean it out, and bandage it properly. It only heals if we are willing to put ourselves through the pain of purifying it. We can continue to act like there isn’t a problem, but we can’t then wonder why there is still a problem.
Friends of all colors, this kind of deception is only broken by the light. It must be exposed wherever it is encountered and the truth must be spoken and prevail. We, as children of the Light, are the leaders of this change. We must fight the darkness that is racism. We must do it by consciously speaking truth to our children and to our neighbors. We must do it by exposing and refuting the lies that still exist in our culture today. We must do it with an understanding of the demon that we are fighting here instead of an attitude that blames others and leaves them holding the responsibility. It is our privilege as children of God to experience redemption here on earth and nowhere greater is it needed than between the races.
Of all evil things in the Bible, oppressive superiority is spoken against the most. God hates pride. He especially hates the type of pride that leads to oppressing others. All His commands point to this. He destroyed the Israelites for becoming an oppressive people as if to say “I don’t put up with this from ANYONE.” Jesus, Himself, left His comfortable throne in heaven to come down into our dirt to free us from the enemy’s deception. In that He leaves us an example of what anyone with talent or beauty or position or wealth or personality or anything that this world considers superior should do with it if we are to truly be following Jesus. Oppression is OUR battle, Christians…because of Jesus, it’s always our battle too.
Everything Rides on Hope Now 