(This is installment 5 in my series discussing Critical Race Theory. From here on out, I will only provide the immediately preceding post. For all previous posts on this subject, see here, here, here, here, and here.)
Critical Race Theory has advanced three key concepts that help to identify and critique the ways in which racism works in society. They are the notions of White Privilege, Systemic Racism, and Intersectionality.
In this post, I will only talk about White Privilege. The other will have their turn.
Many Christians, like the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, have condemned all three of these ideas, for reasons will we explore as this series unfolds. Though I am not a sociologist, and am happy to be corrected by my readers, I suspect that only the idea of Intersectionality may be new – although that is probably debatable.
But what is most important is not whether these are new concepts, but how they are applied to illuminate (or to confuse, perhaps) how different people relate to each other in American society.
To put things simply, White Privilege identifies the fact that America is the product of (primarily) white, European culture and society.
Colonialism was a deeply embedded component of that European culture. As a result, having white skin as opposed to having dark skin became an encoded principle of Western, racial superiority.
After all, the white colonizers were always superior to the colonized, dark skinned natives.
Even though we now live (theoretically) in a post-colonial world – albeit with numerous exceptions, beginning with Jewish Israeli colonization of 5 million
native Palestinians – in which the majority of Caucasian (white-skinned) people would (probably) deny the idea of racial superiority linked to traits like skin color, ethnicity, or physical morphology, the social/cultural norms and structures (erected in order to enforce or “protect” those norms) generated by that white culture continue to exist.
Many researchers have demonstrated the reality of White Privilege today in such areas as business hiring practices, and mortgage approval or interest rates. Even now, white people continue to benefit in many ways that black people do not.
Numerous white folks have experienced this for themselves while temporarily “passing” for black.
More tellingly, there are profound historical reasons explaining why light-skinned, African Americans have sometimes chosen “to pass” as white.
While many white folks, especially conservatives, remain loath to admit this, White Privilege is a fact of life. And the sooner white America as a whole comes to grips with this fact, the better for everyone.
Frankly, for any segment of the Christian church, whether Southern Baptists or anybody else, to deny the reality of White Privilege is unconscionable. It reveals an area of life where Jesus’ call to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” has been in short supply.
In fact, the Christian church ought to be taking the lead in working creatively to identify, address and undo the practical effects of White Privilege in our world.
Our God is not a God of favoritism.
The Creator is a God of equality. He loves everyone equally. He values everyone equally. Everyone is equally sinful. Everyone is equally in need of Christ’s redemption. Salvation is equally available to everyone, and equally beneficial to all who will believe.
The kingdom of God is a realm of equality, which will be recognizable oh this earth where God’s multi-racial community of faith can be observed by all.
Ironically, the fact that no African-Americans were included on the Southern Baptist Convention committee, which wrote the document condemning Critical Race Theory is itself a rude example of White Privilege at work among Christian people.
In his letter to the Philippians, the apostle Paul tells us that the preexistent Son of God willingly set aside his divine privileges; in fact, “he made himself nothing, taking the very form of a servant” in order to elevate and to redeem people like you and me (Phil 2:7).
Every Caucasian who claims to follow Jesus Christ is obligated to live a Christ-like life, the life of a servant.
We need to acknowledge our privilege, identify it, and do whatever we can to share that privilege by rejecting it; to reconstruct a society where everyone of all colors stand on a level playing field – with some even being given an advantage where necessary – until our Creator’s vision of human equality is the norm.
One proviso: I suspect that the main reason the Southern Baptists rejected the principle of White Privilege was due to the way it has been misused by certain advocates of Critical Race Theory. (Another reason to remember that the abuse of an idea offers no necessary critique of the idea itself.)
Some intemperate anti-racist activists use the principle of White Privilege to define all white people as inherently racist. To be white is to be racist, no questions asked.
As a Christian, I must draw a line here and say that THIS application of the principle is wrong. It’s wrong morally and it’s wrong theologically.
Such a misuse of the White Privilege principle is, I believe, one of the reasons that certain older members of the Civil Rights movement (!) have also publicly denounced Critical Race Theory.
Regardless of their personal theologies, they too identify the moral problem at the root of any such blanket condemnation of an entire class of people.
Sadly, it is one more expression of human tribalism (and its many defects) which excels at taking good ideas and twisting them until they only shed light on my neighborhood.
Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream
anticipating a day when black children and white children will all be judged “not on the color of their skin but by the content of their character” continues to ring true for these pioneering Civil Rights activists, as it also does for me.
Perhaps it is true that a very high percentage of US Caucasians remain blind to their privilege while happily enjoying its benefits without giving any thought to the related (even consequential) difficulties and discrimination faced by our dark-skinned brothers and sisters.
No. What every Christian can and must say is that all people everywhere are guilty of being sinful. Consequently, all people everywhere are intensely tribal. Thus, all people everywhere think and act selfishly.
Meaning that all people everywhere need the redemption and personal transformation available through Jesus Christ – which can ONLY work properly in integrated communities of faith where men, women, and children of every color share themselves, their histories, their stories, their personal experiences, and their hopes with each other.
I have more say on this topic, but I think I have gone on too long already!
Until next time…
