White Folks and Racism

Can I suggest that most of us “white people” have a problem with history. There, I have said it. Now if you are still listening or reading let me explain.

I don’t know of any, any, Caucasian who lives like Colonists did before the War for Independence. That is to say, they continued to give their allegiance to King George and the British Empire. I don’t know of any Caucasian who freely surrenders the rights articulated in the Bill of Rights. The point is we have absolutely no problem with reveling in the freedom secured, enumerated, and protected down through the years by law and blood. It never occurred to us to say, “Well, because I didn’t do anything but be born in America I am not going to enjoy the freedom handed down to me and those I love.” We don’t really feel like we have to secure our own freedom. We just live the privilege and think little about it.

However, when it comes to our racist past, our oppression of African Americans, our history of tolerating slavery not just in the South but literally throughout the United States, we sing a different song. We say, I did not do that. I did not have slaves. I did not oppress or discriminate. Those are not my sins, and I refuse to have anything to do with the idea that I am a bearer of the sins of the American past. We could for good measure throw in the Native Americans. I didn’t wage war on them, or move them into reservations, or slaughter the tribes. It was not my doing. I refuse to accept responsibility.

So, we can accept the liberty purchased by the will, determination and blood of our founding fathers without hesitation or remorse. What is not to like about where many Caucasian folks find themselves. Freedom, opportunity, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We could even update our liberty by living in the security after a war called WWII for which most of us were not even born.

See this is the problem. We pick and choose what we will welcome and take responsibility for. And because of that, we shall never really end this deep poison of racism which has diminished us from the beginning.

I work with some teens and one of the features of their struggle is trying to break free and enjoy their emerging adulthood. So they are in conflict with their parents. They don’t do their best in school, they are angry and really not enjoyable to be around. Each seems to be trapped in a web from which they cannot free themselves.

It is there I begin to cast a different perspective for them. William Glasser’s “Reality Therapy” was actually tested in the juvenile detention centers of California. Most of all it works. What does it do? It give the person a chance to take responsibility and from that make positive plans, with positive attitudes, supported by positive behaviors.

That is the therapy which is needed for our time and for us Caucasians who are so helpless and unsympathetic for our brothers and sisters who are tired of a life which from birth is stacked against them every day even today.

We have to take responsibility and say that racism as is practiced covertly or overtly by Caucasian institutions and systems fostering structural racism has got to end. It has to end now. We are willing to see the problem and as it is within our power, end it now. Church houses, State Houses, and National government institutions which turn a blind eye to racism will be called to account by those who have the power to change it. The problem with African Americans changing these institutions is simply the inability to amass the power to do so. However, if we Caucasians, who day in and day out control these institutions would see, repent, and change existing forms of ongoing oppression, it will happen. However, we must humble ourselves and be schooled by our People of Color about the problem and how it is entrenched in our culture and society.

We must also grieve over the way criminal justice works for Caucasians but not people of color. In a short conversation with my oldest son, I told him my experience working in prison was an awakening of sorts for me. 70% of our 3,000 offenders were Black. I told him, “There is no way you can tell me that crime in America is done by only blacks. However, Whites well, we get the best lawyers, and they get public defenders who are overworked and unprepared.

I also believe that law enforcement in America has to come to terms with the racial issues (especially in the South) where law enforcement was the face of keeping slaves in their place and later keeping them scared and oppressed. In the same way law enforcement today did not do that, we still have to look at ourselves with a humility searching for the components which suppress the rights of some while respecting the rights of others. I support and deeply appreciate law enforcement and not just those in my family who have made that commitment. However, we cannot move forward unless and until we are willing to see what People of Color see inherent in the threat of law enforcement toward them. Frankly, I do not remember a time with the presence of a uniformed officer of the law has given me the slightest concern. But, I don’t see what a person of color sees.

I believe White Churches should step up and help a culture sift through the issues, the unseen barriers, the pride that would not allow for equality, and most of all the Gospel of change that is our greatest contribution to life today. I was outside our small home this afternoon doing my “yard therapy” and found myself thinking about anything I might change from my past leadership as a pastor if I were leading today. I smiled at the difficult task I inherited at all the churches I served where we were organized into too many committees which did too little work. The silliest committee I found was in my third church where they had a “host committee.” I kept throwing them opportunities to “host” and they would throw them back. “Not our job.” After about four refusals, I got the bylaws down and started reading them. Yep, there was the Host committee. Seven couples(14) people with a simple responsibility: clean the oven in the kitchen. It was a continuous cleaning oven. And it was dirty!

If I were leading today, I believe I might consider a “Racial Response Team” which would monitor events, activities and the area news for opportunities to help bring progress to the never ending fight for equality. This team would lead the church in an appropriate, compassionate response which would honor the heart of God and His love for all His Children. Tragically, so many evangelical churches have been captured by Christian nationalism that has placed America over God. However, not every knee has bowed to Caesar or been swept up in panic created by a false fear of losing something America never was.

All I know is inequality between races in this country have gone on too long. We have passed on the malignant hatred however subtle, however covered for far too long. Let’s end this in our time.

Wash your hands, please wear your mask, mind the gap, and be kind. We have a distance yet to go with COVID