An exercise in exploring White Privilege
When Whites hear the term White Privilege, they usually have one of two reactions. 1. They either deny that such a privilege exists for them or 2. They feel guilty and helpless to do anything about it. The end result is the same—nothing changes. Let me propose a third alternative.
First,
Choose to examine or reexamine the whole concept of WHITE PRIVILEGE as it applies to you personally. Your first step is to understand both the concept and its application to those Black neighbors or business people with whom you associate. Identify a specific hour of a particular day and Google the concept. Choose a couple of the articles available and spend some time both reading them and taking some notes about what it means to you. If you are honest with yourself, where have you received benefits because of your skin color?
Second,
with no more than one other White person, identify a restaurant oriented towards serving African-American food and choose to go there during a time of day or evening when they are likely to have good attendance. Examine the menu and perhaps consult with the server about what would be a particularly good selection. Did your presence draw any particular attention? In your journal, make note of your feelings before, during, and after the experience. Also, make note of what you think might be the experience of Blacks in White oriented restaurants? You might repeat the experience at least one more time during the month.
Third,
look through the papers and choose a couple of Black oriented entertainment opportunities. At least one of your choices should be to a Black nightclub. Don’t make an issue of your presence. Simply show up and keep aware of your experience. Did you receive some quizzical glances? Can you imagine how that might be so in certain White oriented venues?
Fourth,
attend a Black worship experience. Take notice of both the similarities and differences with White worship that you have attended. Some Blacks have mentioned that after having been part of a predominantly White society and the tensions that are experienced, it helps to be part of a clearly Black experience of worship. Do you see evidence of that being reflected in the worship experience?
Fifth,
as you participate in normal events that are part of your everyday life, be alert to and make note of any experience that you think might be different if your skin were black. Would being Black affect your business meetings, bank negotiations, attitude towards police or court encounters, visits to stores or school systems? As an emotional test, if you could choose the benefits of any race for your children, what would you choose for your child?
Finally,
near the end of the month, again set aside a couple of hours and write about what you have learned about the structural benefits of being White. It doesn’t make you a bad person. You may even be intentional about not being prejudiced in your relationships, but you live in a society structured to protect and benefit people with your skin color. Think about the fact that you rarely even think about your skin color, while Blacks will tell you that they are rarely ever allowed to forget their skin color. Why is that?
In response to what you have learned, engage in your own personal reparation act. When you join that with the biblical reference to the sins of the people being punished to the third and fourth generation, you begin to understand why you and I are currently paying the price for the sins of our great-grandfathers and their generation.
Both Leviticus 6:5 and Numbers 5:6-7 are examples of the biblical concept of making restitution when people are wronged. The restitution required is not only restoring what is wrong but adding one-fifth more. We see the concept illustrated in the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. Zacchaeus offers to not only restore any way he has wronged a person but pay four times more.
The concept of forgiveness in the Bible is not based on being good enough to earn forgiveness. Forgiveness is based on the love of God rather than our moral character. Now we experience the fleshed-out reality of God’s grace. Grace is not earned but received. However, even though we don’t buy confession, we are seriously affected by how clearly we reflect our God in being forgiven “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”
We do ourselves no favors by denying the reality of systemic racism. It is when we honestly face and confess our participation in the racism of our society that we begin to open ourselves to the cleansing power of God’s love. Whether it is an individual or a church, the power of confession of racism is what liberates us to begin to act against the racist structure on behalf of our neighbors, Black and White.
The irony of the impact of our racist structures is that we not only hurt the victims of racism, but we are also distorting God’s forgiving love. Steve McCutchan is author of
Hospitality for Alien Strangers to be published in the fall and recently revised
Shock and Awe: How the church could end racism in the United States.
All his publications can be found at www.smccutchan.com
Thank you.