An Open Letter To White People
My recent blogs Racism Is A Pandemic and Riots And Injustice weren’t really controversial. I never claimed any “side” other than the side that white people need to engage more with their black friends, listen, and learn.
Yet, I received many messages and calls from well meaning white people. Some of the “concerns” were valid and right. Many of the responses completely missed the point. And all but one that messaged or called admitted to not yet engaging with their black friends about the topic.
That is heartbreaking.
For the record, reposting Candace Owens, the Hodgetwins, Morgan Freeman speaking on race nearly a decade ago, or any other black person just because they believe what you believe is not educating yourself. It either exposes your confirmation bias or exposes the fact that you don’t have any real life black friends. Both are a problem.
Brooke Hempell, the Senior Vice President of research at Barna Group released this statement recently, “Our research confirms the fear that the church (or the people in it) may be part of the problem in the hard work of racial reconciliation. If you’re a white, evangelical, Republican, you are less likely to think race is a problem, but more likely to think you are a victim of reverse racism. You are also less convinced that people of color are socially disadvantaged. Yet these same groups believe the church plays an important role in reconciliation. This dilemma demonstrates that those supposedly most equipped for reconciliation do not see the need for it.”
If the Gospel message is about reconciliation and restoration, how hypocritical is it for the white community to not carry the burdens of the black community as Galatians 6:2 challenges us to do? How hypocritical is it for white people to talk about and expose injustice in only the areas that affect us…in only the circumstances we care about? That is not restorative justice!
You can rebuttal a lot of things. You can’t rebuttal experience. You also can’t rebuttal history. It’s time to remove our own biases as white people and actually learn about experiences and history.
Of course all lives matter, but not all lives experience racial injustice. Therefore, all lives can’t matter until all black lives matter. Even the lives of those you don’t think deserve it because of their ‘record’. This does not mean I’m against police. My wife’s uncle works for LMPD, one of my closest friends is a local officer, and the chief of swat is an active member in our church. All three are great men! I’ve either spoken with them or seen their posts on Facebook and all of them believe what happened to George Floyd was wrong! My issue isn’t even with police brutality (even though I believe it exists, is an issue, and change is mandatory). My issue is with systemic racism, which I’m learning about. Police brutality is a bi-product of corrupt systems without the proper checks and balances. As Lecrae said, “We’re not saying (white people) are driving the boat that creates the waves of racism, we’re just asking (them) to admit there are waves.” That imagery is powerful. There’s a big difference between hating racism and condemning it.
I’ve also seen how some white people think this conversation only creates more division and how we just need to stay united. The irony with that statement is by telling people to stop dividing without addressing the real issues that divide actually creates more division; because you’re telling people groups that their experiences don’t matter. You’re blind to the racism that exists because it doesn’t apply to you. There is also a difference between the BLM organization and the phrase itself. As a Christian man, I do not agree with everything the BLM organization stands for but I do agree with the phrase. I do agree that I have a lot to learn. I also agree that my black friends have and will experience something I never will.
Therefore, I listen. I listen to my black friends experiences. I’ll never know what it feels like to be pulled over multiple times just because I “fit a description.” I learn. I learn about the events I never knew about prior to this past week…I learn about Tulsa in 1921. I learn about Rosewood in 1923. I read. I read about the mass incarceration and corrupt justice department as explained in detail in The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. I read about my own prejudice and how police and the minority communities can thrive together through relationship in The Third Option by Miles McPherson. I’m challenged about the experiences of Austin Channing Brown as I read her story in I’m Still Here. I watched movies and documentaries on this reality (Just Mercy, 13th, Time: The Kalief Browder Story, and I am not your negro). I look forward to reading many more books on this topic such as White Fragility, One Blood, Me and White Supremacy, How to be an Anti Racist, Divided by Faith, Woke Church, Insider Outsider, The Color of Compromise, Right Color Wrong Culture, Why are all the Black Kids sitting together in the Cafeteria?, How to be less stupid about race, How black is the Gospel?, White Awake, So you want to talk about race?…just to name a few.
If you can’t take the time to learn outside of your “side”, culture, or bias, you’ll never grow or change. As Pope Francis once said, “Stagnant water becomes putrid.”