Trouble I've Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism

by Drew G. I. Hart

This epistemological divide—that is, the partition between our different ways of knowing and perceiving—is an even greater reality in the church than among the rest of society.

White socialization claimed equality and justice at every stage while also shielding itself from its own oppressive practices and the perspectives of oppressed groups.

First, however, we need to acknowledge that most white Americans (Christians included) have been blind to the racism and oppression that has been so prevalent on this soil for the first 350 years, ever since Jamestown was formed.

Many white people have quickly dismissed black Americans’ experiences of racism in American society.

Given our history, do we really believe that a people group that benefited from the racial system—socially, economically, politically, or merely psychologically—and whose intuitions were repeatedly wrong for the first 350 years has now suddenly, 400 years in, gained an advantage in interpreting these moments over those whom have been historically oppressed?

Míguez Bonino asserts, “A social location determines a perspective. It conceals some things and reveals others. We have sometimes referred to this in terms of ‘the epistemological privilege of the poor.’ The poor are not morally or spiritually superior to others, but they do see reality from a different angle” than those in power do.

White American Christians in our society must do something seemingly absurd and unnatural, yet very Christian in orientation: they must move decisively toward a counterintuitive solidarity with those on the margins. They must allow the eyes of the violated of the land to lead and guide them, seeking to have renewed minds no longer conformed to the patterns of our world.

Discipleship is the cure for dominant cultural blinders that leave people’s intuition and vision impaired and unreliable.

There is a gap between how we use the term white and the way that whiteness functions on people’s behalf in society.

White is the pseudoscientific and socially constructed category used to centralize power among a certain portion of humanity and at the direct harm and cost of people of color, especially Native American and black life in America.

To be white is not only to be Euro–American; it is also to identify with, and participate in, the life of a sociopolitical collective that created this artificially constructed racial identity to accomplish something.

At the very minimum, being white has meant benefiting from and obtaining an ongoing preference and advantage in a nation and economy built on the stolen land of Native Americans and the stolen labor of African Americans. Being white usually means never having to think about it that way during one’s day–to–day life.

I wonder if this is more his perception than reality. This is a definition that seems to u I quell apply to Americans and not europeans

America is a thoroughly racialized society dominated and controlled by white people in a manner that advantages them because of their whiteness. Even poor whites, who are economically deprived, will find at critical moments that, all things being equal, being white is more socially advantageous than being black.

This is unfortunate if it’s generally true

What defined a white person several centuries ago is not what we mean by it now.

It is important to remember that there is no authentic, biological substance to the idea of race.2 Europeans constructed black and white categories for a reason. Whiteness mattered because it provided economic, social, and political benefits. For example, immigrants in the early twentieth century understood very well what white status meant if obtained, and therefore they went to court arguing to be recognized under the law as such.

Then white people who don’t identify with these politically oriented norms and advantages are guilty merely by association and not by outlook.

People can talk all they want about reverse racism, but when the rubber hits the road, most people know deep down that racial profiling, in all its different manifestations, would disadvantage them if they were black.

We have not fully taken account of the manner in which four hundred years of constant, persistent, and devastating antiblack ideology has crippled our ability to even understand the depth of what has happened in this land.

The white church has too often failed to see each and every black life as beloved by God, not reducible to static stereotypes like “thug” or “welfare queen.”

In the church, everyone from every background must recognize that black people ought to be loved and valued, because we too are made in the image of God.

Loving our neighbor, welcoming the excluded, and seeking first to listen and understand before speaking are basic Christian tenets that have often been ignored.

It is hard for all of us to affirm that each particular black life matters and has value before God. That’s right. It is not just difficult for white people, but it is hard even for black people to see and love other black people the way God does.

The task for us as a church is to allow the resurrected Jesus to be present with us, inspiring us toward risky and controversial love, even when society tells us that the recipients of our love are not worthy.

Too many in the American church have perpetuated the myth that this land was built on Christian principles rather than on stolen land and stolen labor.

as Christians, we must not only challenge racial hierarchy (though in America that is particularly important).

We must keep track of all forms of human–constructed hierarchies that exist in our communities.

Considering various people groups’ experiences within white supremacy (racialized hierarchy) is vital, as is confronting patriarchy (gendered hierarchy) and plutocracy (classed hierarchy).

“Do you see this woman?” Simon sees a sinner on the margins who could be disrespected, but Jesus sees a woman loved and created by God.

Despite how people often hear this language in dominant culture, decentralizing white male prestige is not an attack on white men. At its heart, it is the opposite: it is a humanizing project.

Instead, everyone is invited to sit around the table as equals. There is so much more we can learn about God in Christ Jesus when we dialogue together on level terms. The hierarchy has been flattened, and only Jesus is preeminent.

Ephesians 2 reminds us that the reconciliation Jesus inaugurated broke down the walls of hostility between Jews and Gentiles so that, through the cross of Jesus, such barriers could be overcome.

We need to come alongside good people already doing good work.

Once again, in refusing to be a puppet of racial socialization, the church must undermine any project that concentrates white power over others or that normalizes white values, experience, and perspectives as the objective and universally right way.

Instead, the church must subversively embrace the new humanity and the diverse gifts and varied perspectives that exist within it.

there is no transformation through the reading of Scripture without also yielding to the Holy Spirit in the world.

The truth is that everyone in America has a racial identity that has been socialized from living here. The greatest danger is when we are unaware or in denial of that socialization.

I have been persuaded that the church’s power is different from our society’s power, and it is released by God at the axis of human vulnerability.