White Privilege Today
Movements rely on slogans. They express an essence, stating in one phrase a core conviction. In the 1930s, for example, many church leaders coined the phrase, “Never Again!” to voice their resistance to entering another global war. Eventually they changed their minds, though their support of the war effort was far more cautious.
We use slogans today, too. “Me too,” “Black Lives Matter,” and “Defund the Police” come to mind as recent examples.
“White Privilege” is another such slogan. There is an obvious truth behind it, too. Not that ALL white people enjoy privilege. But if they don’t, being white is not the reason why. Which is not the case for black people and other people of color in America.
Caste systems exist around the world. The problem is not unique to America. But in America caste is largely informed by color and race, which dates back to the arrival of the first slaves in the 17th century and has continued ever since. America is bedeviled by many sins. Racism is one of them. It could very well be the “original sin” of our nation.
For centuries white people in America have benefited from being white. Some, perhaps even many, succeed because of merit; but all enjoy the advantage of race. It is hard to separate the two.
The long history of racism in America has developed a kind of inevitability about it, as if it has always been this way, will always be this way, and perhaps is this way because it is how the world works. The narrative runs deep in our national psyche.
It is hard for white people to see it. Whiteness runs so deep in us that it makes it almost impossible to imagine what it would be like NOT to be white. As the old expression goes, if you want to know something about water, the last creature to ask is a fish because water is all they know. I have lived in a white world my whole life. That white world has created a pathway of expectations, opportunities, and power that has become the norm, like water to a fish. I can’t separate myself from it. I can’t un-white myself.
What can I do? What I propose here is modest and partial. I am only one voice, and then not a very authoritative one. Still, God calls me to be a responsible Christian.
First, I want to guard against self-righteousness. That I recognize white privilege and acknowledge it, even confess it, as a problem does not mean I have overcome racism. “Enlightenment” can be a form of power, as assertion of superiority. True enlightenment leads to humility, not conceit. There can be no pride in it.
I have spent most of my career in the world of higher education. It is a world I love. Still, it does have its weaknesses. One is the misapprehension of what true knowledge is from a Christian point of view. Paul warns, “If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.” Knowledge as information can be useful, as far as it goes. But it rarely changes anything. There is another kind of knowledge—knowledge that results in wisdom, goodness, humility, and sympathy. It is the better kind of knowledge.
Second, I am not sure that shame and guilt lead to change. They might be necessary, but they are not sufficient. Am I guilty? Well, yes, of course. I have benefited from a system that works to my advantage simply because I am white. I should admit as much, and repent. But I should also lament. The whole world is groaning under the weight of sin, including the sin of racism. It is not what God wills. I am both perpetrator and victim. God calls me to lament as well as to repent.
Third, I can choose to step out of the narrative that has promulgated racism for centuries and step into the narrative that judges the world’s fallen-ness but also promises to redeem and transform the world. There is risk and loss in this new narrative. The first shall be last, and the last first, as Jesus taught and modelled. The apostle Paul wrote, “Have this mind among yourselves, which you have in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant . . .” Jesus warned his disciples, “You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you . . . For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Rarely do people choose out of the goodness of their heart to yield power once they have it. If anything, they use their power to accumulate more. Even the best among us might be willing to share power, but only under our terms. This is not the way of Jesus.
Finally, we must aim for modest change that develops momentum over a long period of time. There are no quick fixes here, no magic bullets, no grand programs that guarantee instant success, no “big” person who can singlehandedly get the job done. The problem of racism and white privilege evolved over a long period of time. It will take time to change it, too. That is hard for the victims of racism to accept, I know. But history informs us that true and lasting change requires both prayer and persistence. We must stay at it, and never give up.
That only about 7% of public school teachers in America are black illustrates the point. Protest alone will not solve this problem; it will not put more black teachers in the classroom. That takes leadership, recruitment, and long-term planning.
I am trying, in fits and starts, to do my part. I have benefited from reading authors of color (like Jemar Tisby’s The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism), and I have learned a great deal from friends of color. I try to listen, and I resist saying, “I understand,” because I don’t and can’t.
But there is more, far more that I—and we—can do. There are a wide range of vocations to pursue to address the problem of racism, such as vocations in public housing, civil rights law, banking, education, and more. There are businesses, owned and operated by people of color, that would benefit from our patronage. There are people, perhaps our friends, who deserve a sharp rebuke for their overt racism. There are votes to be cast with racism in mind.
These actions might strike you as paltry, little more than the “widow’s mite” Jesus mentioned. Then again, Jesus commended her for giving the little that she had because it was much to her. An accumulation of lots of “little” leads to lots of change.