White Awake Quotes

“Why does God ask traumatized people to look at the trauma they initiated through their sin and rebellion? For the same reason God asks us to: it is the truth, and we are free only when we lift up the truth.”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“It is particularly important for white Americans to approach this subject matter with the right goals in mind. Our goal must be sight, transformation, renewed consciousness.”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“Acknowledging that all our land was stolen from Native people feels like too great a burden, so we create an alternative reality that allows us to disengage emotionally from the truth.”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“This continues to be one of the classic combinations that come with early stages in the blindness-to-sight journey: an underestimation of how serious the problem is and an overestimation of our ability to effectively solve the problem.”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“who”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“conservative side argue that the solution involves personal responsibility: nurturing the family unit, teaching life skills, instilling morals, and so on. Those on the more liberal side argue that the solution falls more on the side of social justice: addressing root causes such as housing discrimination, failing schools, and the lack of economic opportunity in”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“Lament is a beautiful and needed resource because it has a unique way of remaining awake to sorrow without succumbing to it. Lament allows us to grieve injustice but not fall into despair. We can be awake to the pain of the world but still press forward in faith because of another beautiful word at the center of the gospel: hope.”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“The system of race, at its core, is a revaluation of human worth.”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“That’s why I so regularly and comfortably repent for the sins of white Christians—both for mine and for the sins of my community. It isn’t because I think I’m better than everybody else or that I’m trying to prove that some bad white Christians out there need to be chastised. No, I repent all the time because I believe I’m surrounded by the sickness of racism. I see the sickness in the ideology of white supremacy and have no doubt that it has infected me. I see the sickness in the narrative of racial difference and have no doubt it has infected me.”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“But as beautifully simple as repentance is—and it truly is—it can also be frustratingly complex. This is especially true when it comes to white Christians’ cultural identity journey. In many areas of life, repentance seems to come with relative ease, but there’s something different about repentance in regard to race and cultural identity.”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“American Christianity (particularly evangelicalism) has often lost sight of a holistic understanding of the gospel. There’s an emphasis on proclamation of the good news, but it tends to be theologically disconnected from demonstration of that good news. There’s an emphasis on loving God as expressed in the Great Commandment, but it’s theologically disconnected from loving neighbor. There’s an emphasis on being reconciled to God through Christ, but it’s theologically disconnected from being sent into the world by Christ as ambassadors of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:20).”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“In a PBS documentary on race, Bonilla-Silva memorably said it like this: “[The] melting pot never included people of color. Blacks, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, etcetera, could not melt into the pot. They could be used as wood to produce the fire for the pot, but they could not be used as material to be melted into the pot.”11”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“Colorblindness minimizes the incarnation of Christ.”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“The theology passed on to us from white forefathers is considered to be the normal, default standard for theology. It is the assumed cultural norm. Everyone else’s theology is defined in relation to whiteness.”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“I would suggest that first we must contend with the normalization of white culture. While that phrase may sound like a mouthful, it reflects a reality that powerfully shapes our daily interactions, so we must look at it carefully.”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“For King, halfhearted commitment was far more confusing than absolute rejection. He then added an important commentary: I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action.”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“As Charles points out, this quote gets to the heart of both nations’ problems with race: our citizens do not share a common memory. People of white European ancestry remember a history of discovery, open lands, manifest destiny, endless opportunity, and American exceptionalism. Yet communities of color, especially those with African and indigenous roots, remember a history of stolen lands, broken treaties, slavery, boarding schools, segregation, cultural genocide, internment camps, and mass incarceration.4 This is the choice that lies before us both as a nation and as individuals: Will we continue to live in denial and allow our home to be built on the weak foundation of myths and half-truths? Or will we have the courage to live up to the truth and allow God’s holy fire to burn down the old and erect a new home that can hold us all?”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“Discovery? Really? Can any thinking person say with a straight face that what Columbus did when he got to America was “discover”? How can one discover a nation that’s already inhabited by millions? Charles highlights how ludicrous this claim is by asking his listeners to consider leaving out their wallet, phone, or iPad so they can experience what it’s like to have their property “discovered.”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“The] melting pot never included people of color. Blacks, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, etcetera, could not melt into the pot. They could be used as wood to produce the fire for the pot, but they could not be used as material to be melted into the pot.”11”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“If we place too much emphasis on being politically correct or on the hope of avoiding mistakes, we miss the chance to learn humbly from moments of revelation.”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

“We need a contemplative mind in order to do compassionate action.”
― Daniel Hill, White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White