.jpg)
*Perspective: A way of looking at a situation. I'm a daughter, sister, friend, wife, mom, aunt, and employee. I don't claim to be an expert on anything nor have all the answers to something. Please bear that in mind as you read my perspective. Chances are good it will differ from your own. It's okay to have different ones!
I grew up just outside of Detroit, Michigan. In my younger years I was unaware of color, everyone in my world was white even though Detroit was right down the road. Looking back on that now I think that's crazy. How did I not know about the black population? In my childhood years my Grandpa, whom I love, would tell stories of the days when he and his buddies would drive the streets of Detroit and harass black people. I remember feeling appalled when I was at an age to understand what he meant. I squirmed inside each time he said the n-word.
When I was seven my Daddy got a new job in Colorado. A very long ways away from Detroit, Michigan with its Motown (some of the best music EVER) and auto industry (Henry Ford is a big deal). I moved from my little all white world to another all white world but this new world was void of talk about black people so any bad taste that may have formed never had a real chance to plant roots. In its place grew a curiosity of this treatment I started to hear about over in Africa called apartheid. As I grew older, I studied it more. My understanding of it was elementary but my disgust of it was advanced. My heart physically hurt for "those black people in Africa" and then I started understanding the history in my own country and I felt sickened. I was in early junior high and this passion for equality had grown inside me. I remember, oh so clearly, watching speeches by Reverend Jesse Jackson and wishing I were black to fit in with the crowd so it wouldn't look so strange that I was, in my heart, linking arms with black people. My world had no black people. None. But I knew they existed and my heart felt outrage at the treatment of them. My intellect was disgusted with anyone who behaved as if skin color made a difference. My reports at school, when given free choice, were centered on equality and breaking the bondage of apartheid in South Africa. I was lily white but my heart beat for all skin colors. I remember singing the song we all know so well from Sunday School:
Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and Yellow
Black and White
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world
I wholeheartedly believed and embraced the truth of that song but found out that others didn't.
At some point I learned about the KKK. I was disgusted, appalled, outraged. I couldn't believe that such hatred could exist and all because someone had more Melanin in their chemistry make up than another. The arrogance of white people created within me a desire to see hellfire rain down upon the idiot white people, of which I was one. I was ashamed to be associated with those ignorant people. (I still am, just in case you might be wondering.)
At some point I learned about the KKK. I was disgusted, appalled, outraged. I couldn't believe that such hatred could exist and all because someone had more Melanin in their chemistry make up than another. The arrogance of white people created within me a desire to see hellfire rain down upon the idiot white people, of which I was one. I was ashamed to be associated with those ignorant people. (I still am, just in case you might be wondering.)
And THEN.
Then I discovered that a good majority of these arrogant, ignorant people sat in church every Sunday morning and sang that song about Jesus loving every child of every color in the world after they had spent the week before treating others that were a different color with a hatred that can only be attributed to the devil. I couldn't wrap my head around the hypocrisy, around the arrogance, around the hate. And I didn't want to. I didn't want to understand their justifications, their reasons, their excuses.
My husband also grew up in an all white world. When we had children we decided we didn't want our kids growing up in the white privilege bubble. We started attending a church that was extremely diverse from the pastor and staff and into the nursery. We wanted to make sure our kids were exposed to people of all different skin colors and backgrounds. It's paid off. They don't describe someone by their skin color but by their personality and other features. Our girls don't see color, they see people with value and worth. My husband and I don't see color either. In fact, I forget what color of skin my friends have. During the Ferguson protests a friend wondered out loud what another friend of ours might be thinking about the whole thing. It took me a minute to figure out why she was wondering. I had forgotten the person was black! I only think of people in reference to their characteristics, giftings, their personality. I only notice color when there is a lack of it.
As years have gone by and we've made steps forward as a nation, we've made steps backward as well. In the past couple of years alone there have been more racially charged crimes and provocations than I remember in a long time. I started writing this when word came through the media that the police officer in Ferguson, Missouri wouldn't be charged with a crime for shooting to kill, and succeeding, an unarmed black boy. I pick up writing it again as Baltimore has erupted in protests over yet another mistreatment and death of a black person at the hands of white people. And I finish writing it as weekly news reports come from all over the nation about white police officers treating black people unjustly. Seriously? After the recent events of Ferguson and Baltimore there are still caucasian police officers not toeing the line a little more closely? What is it going to take? Will we have to endure some sort of genocide, like the Jewish people did, to get people to wake up and see there is still a racial problem in America? What will it take to convince caucasians that they live under the umbrella of white privilege?
I hate living under the umbrella of white privilege. I don't try to, and I hope I'm not taking advantage of it, it disgusts me. I know, however, that despite my personal feelings and opinions on white privilege I do live under its umbrella. It's the default. My lily white skin is my automatic entry to white privilege. That reality is frustrating and wrong. I shouldn't be getting the benefit of the doubt in any kind of situation just because I have white skin. My word about something or someone shouldn't be accepted just because of my white skin. My white skin shouldn't give me the 'guilty until proven innocent' benefit while the skin color of others gives them the opposite. Regardless of skin color I should be getting the benefit of the doubt, or not, based on my character not on my skin color, as should anyone else.
It is not okay to treat a white person and a black person who have said or done something exactly alike differently. A few weeks ago a video was floating through social media and news sites that showed police officers in Baltimore telling a group of white protesters to go home. They were having this calm conversation with them, they gave them 15 minutes to depart from the premises, they were saying over and over, "I don't want to arrest you so please leave." Then there were a group of black protesters. Same as the white group - unarmed and orderly. There were no calm conversations, no 15 minute warning, no statements that indicated the officers didn't want to arrest them. They sprayed them with mace, pushed them down to the ground and handcuffed them. These black protesters were behaving no different than the white ones. There was one single difference between the two groups. Skin color. Don't or can't believe it? Watch this 3 minute video that gives statistics of white versus black arrests based on the same exact crime being performed.
It is past time. It's time to swallow our white pride, our white arrogance, and our white privilege. It's time to be honest with ourselves and others. We are getting privilege because we are white. We get the benefit of the doubt because we are white. We get treated kinder and more fairly through our justice system because we are white. And deep down we secretly think this is okay and the way it should be because it has always been this way. (Feel free to disagree with me, this is my perspective remember? *grin*) White people, when the topic of race and racism comes up, implode - they can't handle the truth. They sputter and protest and make excuses, they deny what is happening right before our eyes thanks to modern day media coverage. White family and friends, we cannot say that we aren't programmed to be racist when we look at black people and assume, from the color of their skin, that they only listen to one kind of music, like certain kinds of food, engage in only certain activities and much more. That's called racial profiling and we all, myself included, do it on a daily basis whether we are aware of it or not.* And while I have focused this perspective on white privilege regarding the black population, we also exercise it with other cultures/skin colors. The Native American Indians are another people group that has experienced inequality and racial profiling due to skin color and culture. The list of other cultures and/or skin colors that have had to bear the brunt of white privilege is embarrassing.
It's time to make a stand for true equality. Equality that is based on the merits of behaviors, words, talents, etc and not on the color of skin.
Then I discovered that a good majority of these arrogant, ignorant people sat in church every Sunday morning and sang that song about Jesus loving every child of every color in the world after they had spent the week before treating others that were a different color with a hatred that can only be attributed to the devil. I couldn't wrap my head around the hypocrisy, around the arrogance, around the hate. And I didn't want to. I didn't want to understand their justifications, their reasons, their excuses.
My husband also grew up in an all white world. When we had children we decided we didn't want our kids growing up in the white privilege bubble. We started attending a church that was extremely diverse from the pastor and staff and into the nursery. We wanted to make sure our kids were exposed to people of all different skin colors and backgrounds. It's paid off. They don't describe someone by their skin color but by their personality and other features. Our girls don't see color, they see people with value and worth. My husband and I don't see color either. In fact, I forget what color of skin my friends have. During the Ferguson protests a friend wondered out loud what another friend of ours might be thinking about the whole thing. It took me a minute to figure out why she was wondering. I had forgotten the person was black! I only think of people in reference to their characteristics, giftings, their personality. I only notice color when there is a lack of it.
As years have gone by and we've made steps forward as a nation, we've made steps backward as well. In the past couple of years alone there have been more racially charged crimes and provocations than I remember in a long time. I started writing this when word came through the media that the police officer in Ferguson, Missouri wouldn't be charged with a crime for shooting to kill, and succeeding, an unarmed black boy. I pick up writing it again as Baltimore has erupted in protests over yet another mistreatment and death of a black person at the hands of white people. And I finish writing it as weekly news reports come from all over the nation about white police officers treating black people unjustly. Seriously? After the recent events of Ferguson and Baltimore there are still caucasian police officers not toeing the line a little more closely? What is it going to take? Will we have to endure some sort of genocide, like the Jewish people did, to get people to wake up and see there is still a racial problem in America? What will it take to convince caucasians that they live under the umbrella of white privilege?
I hate living under the umbrella of white privilege. I don't try to, and I hope I'm not taking advantage of it, it disgusts me. I know, however, that despite my personal feelings and opinions on white privilege I do live under its umbrella. It's the default. My lily white skin is my automatic entry to white privilege. That reality is frustrating and wrong. I shouldn't be getting the benefit of the doubt in any kind of situation just because I have white skin. My word about something or someone shouldn't be accepted just because of my white skin. My white skin shouldn't give me the 'guilty until proven innocent' benefit while the skin color of others gives them the opposite. Regardless of skin color I should be getting the benefit of the doubt, or not, based on my character not on my skin color, as should anyone else.
It is not okay to treat a white person and a black person who have said or done something exactly alike differently. A few weeks ago a video was floating through social media and news sites that showed police officers in Baltimore telling a group of white protesters to go home. They were having this calm conversation with them, they gave them 15 minutes to depart from the premises, they were saying over and over, "I don't want to arrest you so please leave." Then there were a group of black protesters. Same as the white group - unarmed and orderly. There were no calm conversations, no 15 minute warning, no statements that indicated the officers didn't want to arrest them. They sprayed them with mace, pushed them down to the ground and handcuffed them. These black protesters were behaving no different than the white ones. There was one single difference between the two groups. Skin color. Don't or can't believe it? Watch this 3 minute video that gives statistics of white versus black arrests based on the same exact crime being performed.
It is past time. It's time to swallow our white pride, our white arrogance, and our white privilege. It's time to be honest with ourselves and others. We are getting privilege because we are white. We get the benefit of the doubt because we are white. We get treated kinder and more fairly through our justice system because we are white. And deep down we secretly think this is okay and the way it should be because it has always been this way. (Feel free to disagree with me, this is my perspective remember? *grin*) White people, when the topic of race and racism comes up, implode - they can't handle the truth. They sputter and protest and make excuses, they deny what is happening right before our eyes thanks to modern day media coverage. White family and friends, we cannot say that we aren't programmed to be racist when we look at black people and assume, from the color of their skin, that they only listen to one kind of music, like certain kinds of food, engage in only certain activities and much more. That's called racial profiling and we all, myself included, do it on a daily basis whether we are aware of it or not.* And while I have focused this perspective on white privilege regarding the black population, we also exercise it with other cultures/skin colors. The Native American Indians are another people group that has experienced inequality and racial profiling due to skin color and culture. The list of other cultures and/or skin colors that have had to bear the brunt of white privilege is embarrassing.
It's time to make a stand for true equality. Equality that is based on the merits of behaviors, words, talents, etc and not on the color of skin.
Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and Yellow
Black and White
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world
*Blame shifting not accepted. "But they racially profile us white people also." You bet they do, guess why? Us white people started it. Let's own up shall we?
No comments:
Post a Comment