Not long ago I posted a very brief history of how the Republican party devised its famous “Southern Strategy” for its election campaigns as well as its interminable “War on Drugs” model of policing (which quickly gained bipartisan support).
That history is another clear demonstration of the way white privilege and systemic racism continue to influence American society.
Lee Atwater (architect of the Southern Strategy) and John Ehrlichman (domestic policy advisor for Richard Nixon and creator of the War on Drugs policing strategy) were two white men who knew how to manipulate language as well as social systems (political campaigns and police departments) to target the white population’s fears of African Americans.
That fear is as real today as it was then.
By using language that they knew would heighten white folk’s apprehensions about the black community, they deliberately deepened the color divide between these communities.
The white community implicitly understood that their privileged status was being safeguarded by Atwater and Ehrlichman’s new political strategies.
The result was the establishment of new ways to systematically accomplish racist goals for the benefit of white society – which is exactly what both men had hoped to accomplish, by their own admission (reread that post!).
A person does not need to be a Marxist (a common, specious charge leveled against Critical Race theorists) or a devotee of any particular critical theory to figure these things out.
All it requires is a bit of critical thinking, which everyone should learn to do by the way, and some knowledge about American history and politics.
In fact, I will go so far as to insist that every thoughtful Christian (which should also be an obvious redundancy) needs to understand that white privilege and systemic racism are integral parts of this nation’s story, past AND present.
Coming to grips with these facts is crucial if the Body of Christ is ever to embody the multi-racial, multi-ethnic, harmonious ideal that God’s kingdom intends for us here and now.
In my next post, I will begin to flesh out what I believe a biblical perspective on these sorts of racial issues teaches us.
I don’t offer this as a “Christian alternative” to CRT, but as one man’s approach to sifting the wheat from the chaff in any conversation about what should be the church’s approach to racism in America today.
