John Biewen both delivered a Ted Talk and hosted a season for the Scene on Radio podcast series called “Seeing White” that I believe are very helpful in grasping the nuances of this topic.
For Christians, I recommend listening to The Gospel Coalition’s “As in Hvn” podcast – Season 2. These episodes focus on Race and Justice from a Biblical perspective.
In the video session below, Pastor Tim Keller speaks with Attorney Bryan Stephenson (Just mercy), founder of Equal Justice Initiative. “People may be silent on this but the Bible is NOT.”
“The Talk” – this will break your heart.
Below is a podcast series hosted by Tyler Byrns and Jemar Tisby
Wonderful discussion on differences between the White church and the Black church when it comes to the issues of racism.
White Privilege discussed.
Below is a blog post written by Phil Vischer, creator of the Veggie Tales series. This is a fascinating contrast that shows how we can view and tell our stories in different ways. He calls his post a Confession. Even so, it prompted quite a debate in the comments section under the article!
FABULOUS overview on Becoming Just Disciples in an Unjust World by Judy Wu Dominick. [click below]
1776: Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.– That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” – Now, we know that did not mean “all”.
1808 – 1844: Church denominations begin to wrestle with and split over slavery. Authority is deferred to local congregations in an effort to avoid having to take a position or take sides between the North (free states) and the South (slave holding states).
1845: Southern Baptist Convention is born as a reaction to the Baptist position against slavery.
1850: Fugitive Slave Act – Established even harder penalties for anyone who did not assist in returning an escaped slave. The secondary consequence was that it cast constant suspicion over every black person as to whether or not they were an escapee.
1854: Kansas Nebraska Act – A territorial organic act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska with the goal of opening up new lands to development and facilitating construction of a transcontinental railroad. But the Kansas–Nebraska Act is most notable for effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise, stoking national tensions over slavery, and contributing to a series of armed conflicts known as “Bleeding Kansas”. Southern leaders refused to allow the creation of territories that banned slavery; slavery would have been banned because the Missouri Compromise outlawed slavery in territory north of latitude 36°30′ north. To win the support of Southerners the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was included, with the status of slavery instead decided on the basis of “popular sovereignty.” Under popular sovereignty, the citizens of each territory, rather than Congress, would determine whether or not slavery would be allowed. Wikipedia
1857: Dred Scott Decision – A landmark decision of the US Supreme Court in which the Court held that the US Constitution was not meant to include American citizenship for black people, regardless of whether they were enslaved or free, and so the rights and privileges that the Constitution confers upon American citizens could not apply to them. The decision was made in the case of Dred Scott, an enslaved black man whose owners had taken him from Missouri, which was a slave-holding state, into Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, which were free areas where slavery was illegal. When his owners later brought him back to Missouri, Scott sued in court for his freedom and claimed that because he had been taken into “free” US territory, he had automatically been freed and was legally no longer a slave. Scott sued first in Missouri state court, which ruled that he was still a slave under its law. He then sued in US federal court, which ruled against him by deciding that it had to apply Missouri law to the case. He then appealed to the US Supreme Court. The Supreme Court issued a 7–2 decision against Dred Scott. In an opinion written by Chief Justice Roger Taney, the Court ruled that black people “are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States.” Wikipedia
1859: John Brown’s Raid – Referred to by some as a Dressed Rehearsal for the Civil War. Wikipedia
1860: Abraham Lincoln is elected – He was on duty during the abolition of slavery but he was not an advocate of equality.
1861: Gardner Spring Resolution – Presbyterian church resolutions that were adopted a few weeks after the Battle of Fort Sumter and had the effect of giving the Presbyterian Church’s assent to Abraham Lincoln’s attempts to keep the Union intact in the face of Southern secession. That was seen by the southern members as support for abolition and began the denominational split. Wikipedia
1861 – 1865: Civil War – Many will say this was about states’ rights but the underlying right in contention was the ability to own slaves. Sadly, Christians evolved into both pro and anti slavery theologies – each justifying their positions passionately and eloquently with scripture. Genesis 9:18-29 was used to justify slavery through the “Curse of Ham”. Positions calcified and justifications were polished over the years. Its no wonder why the watching world shakes its head at us.
1865: 13th Amendment – Abolished slavery
1868: 14th Amendment – Separate but Equal (NOT) Wikipedia
1870: 15th Amendment – Right to vote expanded unless incarcerated
1863 – 1877: Reconstruction and Ugly Responses – The beginning of what is now referred to as the “Jim Crow Era”. Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. The laws may have changed but the attitudes did not. The “Lost Cause” emerged as an ideology in the South and its narratives typically portray the Confederacy’s cause as noble and they also portray both its leaders and armies as exemplars of old-fashioned chivalry who were defeated by the Union armies a way of coping with their defeat in the Civil War. Wikipedia
1877: Rutherford B. Hayes is elected President in one of the most fiercely disputed elections in American history.
1896: Plessy v. Ferguson Decision – This was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. The case stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a car for blacks. Wikipedia
1898: Wilmington, NC Massacre – America’s only successful Coup d’Etat. This coup was the result of a group of the state’s white Southern Democrats conspiring and leading a mob of 2,000 white men to overthrow the legitimately elected local Fusionist biracial government in Wilmington. Wikipedia
1915: Birth of a Nation. This KKK narrative silent movie becomes our first “blockbuster”. President Woodrow Wilson hosts several viewings.
1915 – 1930: The KKK becomes disturbingly mainstream by merging Biblical doctrine with white supremacy.
1918: Mary Turner was lynched on May 19th after criticizing the people who lynched her husband the day before. Read More
1920: 19th Amendment – Women gain the right to vote
1921: Tulsa Race Massacre – The Tulsa race massacre (also called the Tulsa race riot, the Greenwood Massacre, or the Black Wall Street Massacre) took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents, many of them deputized and given weapons by city officials, attacked black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa. Wikipedia. Here is a second layer I have learned. People that look like me drove the indigenous people out of the Georgia and Carolinas. Those souls could not find peace until they reached the God-forsaken land which became Oklahoma. People that look like me also enslaved black image bearers in the South which resulted in the Underground Railroad and Great Migration. Both of these traumatized people groups settled in what was referred to as the Indian Territory. And, they thrived!!! Until, that area sought statehood. When it became Oklahoma… that designation brought with it Jim Crow laws 😢 and a cloud formed over the land. Eventually oil was discovered. Suddenly – the white folk decided they wanted that land too 🤬 So they came, they invaded, they killed and they took. Like they had before. Some would say “like they always do”. 💔 I feel the weight.
1954: Brown v. Board of Education – a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. Handed down on May 17, 1954, the Court’s unanimous (9–0) decision stated that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” Wikipedia
1955: Emmett Till is murdered in Money, MS (10 miles from my hometown of Greenwood, MS; his body was carried there when it was discovered in the Tallahatchee River.
1955: Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to move back on a bus to make room for a white man. This was the beginning of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Wikipedia
1963: “I have a Dream” Speech – Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech to a massive group of civil rights marchers gathered around the Lincoln memorial in Washington DC.
1965: Bloody Sunday – On March 7th, Civil Rights marchers attempt to march across the Pettit Bridge in Selma, AL. Alabama State Troopers violently confront them with dogs and billy clubs.
1965: Watts Riots – August 11th, Marquette Frye, an African-American motorist on parole for robbery, was pulled over for reckless driving. A minor roadside argument broke out, which then escalated into a fight with police. Rioting ensued for 5 days.
1968: Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, TN on April 4th.
1991: Rodney King Incident / 1992 Los Angeles Uprising – On March 3, 1991, King was beaten by LAPD officers after a high-speed chase during his arrest for drunk driving on I-210. A civilian, George Holliday, filmed the incident from his nearby balcony and sent the footage to local news station KTLA.[2]:85 The footage clearly showed an unarmed King on the ground being beaten after initially evading arrest. The incident was covered by news media around the world and caused a public furor. The officers’ acquittals in 1992 sparked the riots. Wikipedia
1994: Mississippi won the conviction of Byron de la Beckwith for the 1963 sniper killing of state NAACP leader Medgar Evers.
2002:Bobby Frank Cherry was convicted of killing four black girls in the bombing of a Birmingham church in 1963 – the deadliest attack of the civil rights era.
2020: Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd are killed – Here we are. In the midst of both a pandemic due to COVID-19 and heightened racial tensions.
Diving into History
Thoughts from B.J. Winfrey – shared by Bill Rawlings
George Washington’s dentures were NOT made from wood rather than the teeth of his slaves.
We know about slavery emancipation, but not 1860’s vagrancy laws targeting former slaves and perpetuating free labor via the prison system, in all but one former Confederate state and lasting 60 years with often harsher conditions than plantation life.
We know about Rosa Parks and the bus boycott, but not the practice of sharecropping in the Deep South where many black people didn’t realize they were free from slavery until the 1960’s.
We know about black ghettos, but not about Black Wall Street and the massacre in Tulsa which was buried for decades.
We may remember about the Watts and L.A. Riots, but not Tulsa or Wilmington.
We remember the New Deal, but not red lining.
We know about the G.I. Bill after WWII, but not that black people were excluded from the wealth building benefits impacting multiple generations.
After Nazi Germany was defeated, memorials of Hitler and the Third Reich were taken down, but Confederate memorials were erected well after the Civil War had ended.
We heard about the war on drugs, but not that federal grants were given to police departments based off of arrests and that profit incentives in the prison system fueled dramatic increases in prison populations.
We learned that crack was used mainly by lower income black people and carried stiff judicial penalties, but not that cocaine primarily used by wealthier white people carried a far lesser penalty…a 100-1 ratio meaning 5 grams of crack cocaine mandated the same minimum sentence as 500 grams of powder cocaine.
We heard about apartheid, but not that the U.S. has more black people incarcerated than South Africa ever did at the height of their struggle.
It happened because my husband needed to be closer to work. The drives were long, and the hours were getting late. And when our baby came, I pretty much became a single parent almost – and that was not part of our deal.
We found an area where the schools were great, the neighborhoods were clean, and the people were friendly. Or so I thought.
We got involved in our community and church in this “great area”, and I then began to see the true ugliness of where we live. Strangers feel the need to express how impressed they are with our well-behaved children. I guess they expect them to behave like animals.
Retailers feel comfortable reminding us not to steal with questions like, “Did you pay for that,” or statements like, “As long as you don’t steal it.” We encounter sales associates who are willing to offer daily deals and specials to the [peach] person behind us but remain silent once it’s our turn to save money.
Schools that award the privileged kids first and then fill in with color to complete a look and tell a lie to keep from having to address DEI.
Medical staff that dismisses your pain and ignores the sense of urgency when there’s an emergency.
It’s a place where other customers (unsolicited) find it necessary to remind us of how great America is and how we should appreciate the privileges we do have.
We’ve learned of neighbors who cancel Bible Study once a person of color joins the group and ones who give their children the impression that we’re poor even though we can afford to live right next to them.
What looked so right on the outside began to look so rotten on the inside. It began to test my ugliness.
Politics are a well-worn merry go round. I will admit that for most of my life I was on conservative cruise control. The means justified the ends. I wanted lower taxes and people to pull their own weight. I didn’t think about voting; I just did it – along party lines. No personal research needed. It was, in my view, the lesser of evils when I did not believe in either candidate. Sadly, I put in the neither the work nor the prayer I believe Christians should put in to seek God’s wisdom in such weighty matters.
I liken my philosophy to a traditional golf game where everyone is playing the course individually. In a tournament or even a friendly game, I am trying to do my best and, while I can’t affect your game directly, if you do poorly there is less pressure on me. The courses we play may change with the winds of Democrat and Republican, but the goal is always the same – get the ball in the hole with the fewest strokes. Its an individual thing.
The Problem…
Once I gave my life over to Christ back in high school, I had a Savior. I exchanged my life for eternal communion and salvation. That meant I also had a boss – not a genie in a bottle to grant my wishes.
What am I seeking?
Peace. Peace that I did the best I could with the information available and the decisions presented.
Who do I answer to?
This part should be clear but apparently not… Obviously, I can just go through the motions because I did when it comes to elections and voting for 40 years. I am a Follower of Jesus so I answer to Him. The Bible should be my guidebook for life and decisions.
You are around 12 in this photo. The good news is that you are going to care deeply about injustices resulting from the dehumanizing of people who are not considered white. The bad news is that it is going to take another 46 years for you to care enough to take action. In the meantime, you are going to live your life surrounded by white people with seemingly no need for friends of color.
The Room
The Room in this metaphor is our country ; The United States of America.
The Elephant
The Elephant in this metaphor is the reality that white men have done some very disturbing things in the name of Manifest Destiny to create what we now enjoy as America. If it was just a matter to survival of the fittest, I would say tough – there are always losers.
The problem for you will be this – you will become a Follower of Jesus Christ some time during your junior year of high school. At that point, you don’t get to shrug this off as “dog eat dog” rules… You won’t have that luxury. Everything “should” be run through a Biblical filter as a Believer.
The other problem? You will be missing a LOT of history and the history you have learned has been whitewashed and spun like well-oiled political campaign rhetoric.
Missing History
Everything for me hinges on the phrase Imago Dei – all people have been created in the image of God. This is a crucial cross-roads because race was created to elevate one group of people while dehumanizing most of the others.
It simply means that I know we can do better. We can be:
less fearful of history
more self aware of our tendencies
more open and humble in our discussions
more welcoming to those that don’t look like us
more flexible on style while holding to our theological fundamentals
clear in our communications
more community-minded and less individualistic
kinder and less bureaucratic
I have been in what I would call “white church” my entire life. It’s a cultural collection of unwritten rules and behaviors that many folks who look like me have settled into. My guess is that there is a similar way of describing most experiences people grow up with. We all have a cultural context.
For me, it comes down to a Kingdom question… Whose Kingdom are we most for and defending?
I am mindful to constantly reorient myself to who I ultimately serve. Rock, paper, scissors – the answer is Jesus; emulate what He did AND how he did it. But there is a huge problem for me… I have been marinating in a white normative American culture my entire life and Jesus was neither white nor American.
There is SO much history I do not know.
As a Christ follower I am expected to be different; I am compelled to not get confused about this. But it is so easy… This is where we as Christians have to wrestle with our primary allegiance to Biblical living – with wisdom, courage, grace and patience. Maturing in this as a white Christian should cause us to be able to handle discussions about “White Supremacy”, “the religion of whiteness”, “Christian Nationalism” and being a “true American” with grace. Our faith should be defensible or we are among the most to be pitied.
America is my country for all that it is. It was not founded on the principle of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Holiness though… Our country was actually founded on the premise of providing religious liberty in defiance of the Church of England and it’s ever evolving demands. The reality though is that our Declaration of Independence had more to do with independence than religious liberty. You’re not the boss of me anymore. That goes back to the Garden of Eden.
So, professing Christians across our country are divided and embattled on both sides of the political spectrum. It’s ugly and it is playing out in front of a watching world of non-Christians who have to be wondering what the hell is up with you people?!?!
Having the humility to be curious
Our “normal” gets created with how we grew up. It comes from our parents, our extended family, our hometown, our whole environment. For white people, we live in a country founded by white people. Most of us are fish who have never been out of the water – we don’t even know what water is because it is all we know. If you are not white, though, you definitely know there is a difference.
One of the terms we have to confront early on is “white supremacy”. This term is triggering for just about everyone. It is easy to immediately jump to the extremist definition and miss the subtle but widespread impact of the attitude of white being the standard of “normal”. Here is a summary I found very helpful.
White Culture is not the “Right” Culture
My use of adjective “right” here can actually go both ways. Right as in conservative OR right as in correct. Neither are monolithically true.
As practicing Christians we should never get to the point where we think White is the preferred “right” way to behave and worship. Historically that makes no sense! And yet, we have evidence that some people do. Here is a link to the 2021 letter to Pastor Dwight McKissic.
As the majority culture in a country founded by majority culture men, it is easy to see why an undercurrent reinforces the white way as the baseline. Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness is baked in to the formation of the U.S. So what is the problem??
The problem is that I do not believe cruising along this attitude regardless of the pain it causes lines up with scripture. If you are not a practicing Christian, there is no problem. Eat, drink and be merry. These rules don’t apply to you. If your ARE a practicing Christian, you are expected to see all humans as valuable like God does and love them well. Christians are commanded to love even their enemies. And, that is not optional. Sure, there is grace for being lazy or cautious or uninterested. But the fact remains – there ARE consequences. Moses is a great example. Below is my favorite image of Moses wearing his earthly consequences and sitting on the edge of the promised land. Favored but not allowed by God to cross over and enjoy the destination they sought for 40 years – even after all the good he had done.
Lately, I am learning that the black church culture is very different from my white church experience that it is impossible for me to ever know all the differences. Why? Because I have deepening friendships with black and brown brothers and sisters and it comes up in conversation as we do life together. Man, I missed out on so much by being content to stay within my own cultural spaces.
If we use the metaphor of spicy food, there is a progression. I cannot handle Thai Hot as a spice level for instance. Hattie B’s Shut the Cluck up highest heat level is too much for me. In the beginning of one’s journey into spicy food, the first step is just even wanting to go there. I am also not the type of thrill seeker to go all in from day one. Playing this out, I have to wade into the spicy heat levels gradually until there is more enjoyment than pain. I believe this is similar to worship styles other than the one I grew up with. Not wrong – just different. Admitting that I do not have a lock on the right style of worship would go a long way in the right direction. There’s that need for humility again.
Making an effort to do less harm
Lake Rule: Your wake is our responsibility. The implication here is that our unintended consequences are ours to own regardless of the original motive. And, consequences are ours to own if we live recklessly too. The easiest example of unintended consequences is someone rear ending my car because I had to slam on my brakes to avoid an object in the road. The car behind me did not ram me on purpose – but my car is still just as damaged as if it had been on purpose. That is why the law always cites the person initiating the collision for following too close. Your wake is your responsibility – ignorance is no excuse.
One of the best books I have read on how things can go sideways when one does decide to help others is Toxic Charity by Bob Lupton. This book was hugely enlightening on how impacts can be counter-intuitive when one first wades into these waters.
It’s also been helpful for me to listen to voices of fellow believers who are not white – to see my church experience from a black perspective.
Here is a podcast episode that is most particularly insightful. You can also listen on the Apple podcast app.
Making an effort to get to know people better
One of my first hard stops as a white guy is to face that neither God nor Adam look like this. White culture and non-white cultures have totally different art. This may prompt a geography lesson about where Christianity started but that is for another bullet point.
I have to lead off here with the phrase Image Bearer. As Followers of Christ we should all be able to agree that all humans on the planet were created in the image of God (imago dei) Genesis 1:27, wherein “God created man in his own image. . .” For me this translates that God made each and every one of us on purpose and the way we are – for His glory. Even our brokenness was allowed by his sovereign nature for a reason that may never be explained but most definitely can be redeemed.
Doing life together is life-changing. Proximity is the word I use today. This word was new to my vocabulary and initially a bit triggering (smh). But that is the case with a lot of words I am hearing that are not commonly used in my white culture and more conservative conversations. Irritating? Perhaps initially. Like learning a new language. But not wrong – just different.
Getting to know people that don’t look like me also revealed something else I had never thought of – the individualized nature of the white culture when contrasted to the more community-based nature of minority cultures. “It Takes a Village” takes on a whole new meaning when it takes safety in numbers and togetherness to provide for the most basic of human needs.
Building bridges rather than walls
Be the Bridge has become one of my most crucial resources and communities. It encapsulates the broader Biblical mission so well for me.
Contrary to the body language of many professing Christians and much of the chirping on social media, we did not get deputized by the Holy Spirit to enforce theology and police the morality in others when we chose to follow Jesus Christ. We began a personal journey of worship and sanctification within a world-wide community called the church. We need more bridges not more walls.
When it comes to living out my faith and choosing who to follow, I am typically very cautious – probably even cynical.
One such case with Josh Harris and his book “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” which exploded onto the scene right about the time our kids were in middle school.
Looking back, I am both sobered and saddened at how someone could seeming set out on what might seem like the noble cause – only to inflict accidental widespread damage. It must be devastating…
Here is a lengthy recap of Joshua Harris’ journey (https://albertmohler.com/2019/08/01/joshua-harris) and one I am pondering as I seek to lead and live my life based on my faith in Christ and convictions I am seeking from the Holy Spirit.
