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

by Drew G. I. Hart

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. People move from identifying with a particular European people group—for example, the Irish—to identifying as a white person for a reason. This is a decision European immigrants made over and over again in America, such that the definition of and borders around who was white continuously expanded. In the seventeenth century, only Anglo–Saxon Protestants were considered white, but the definition eventually grew to include Irish Catholics, Italians, and other groups who were initially excluded. This was politically strategic. It formed a large enough collective power in society that continuously reproduced a system of advantage for whites at the direct expense of people of color. 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.