Note from the Hunger and Justice Advocate: A history lesson about racist America may feel out of place during the Advent and Christmas season. Many Christians may feel like it's too terrible a story for a time that celebrates the arrival of Christ as a sign of God's love for humanity. This story of racist America may feel out of place even for many secular people, for whom Christmas still has a kind of "magic" in it that they don't find in other celebrations. But this is also true: when Jesus was born, he was born into a world in which millions of people had been enslaved by others. It might be good to remember that the majority of people living in the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus would have been enslaved people, considered the property of those wealthy enough to own other human beings. Slavery wasn't dependent on ideas about what skin color meant in the Roman Empire or other ancient empires, but it was nonetheless a destructive, dehumanizing system. When we remember that part of the story about Jesus' birth, maybe remembering our own ways of oppressing people at Christmastime isn't really out of place after all.
-DRB
400 years ago white people in America enslaved black people. And sold them. And raped them. And made it illegal to be taught how to read anything, even the Bible. And taught Christians in churches of all kinds, including Lutheran churches, that God had sanctioned this brutality and treatment of people as property, as less than human. This continued to be part of American history for 250 years, while white people started businesses and created laws and systems of government. This happened while generations of white families flourished and made choices that made their lives better.
150 years ago Americans killed each other in a
war so white people could "free" black people from slavery. But then
angry white people in many places created laws that made it impossible for black people to vote. Or to
own land. Or to marry white people. Or to have the same rights as white people.
Or to live in small towns throughout the country, but especially in the
Midwest, Northwest, and Southwest. White people created laws that made it
easier to imprison black people for even minor infractions, using them in
fields and factories as legally enslaved people. White people even erected
monuments glorifying men who had fought to keep black people
enslaved. And all of these things happened while generations of white families continued
to accumulate wealth and gain land and get an education.
60 years ago white people made it fully
"legal" for black people to vote, and to be "free" from
discrimination. But many angry white people still fought to keep schools
segregated. And neighborhoods segregated. And taxpayer subsidized suburbs
surrounding American cities segregated. White people demolished Black
communities in urban areas - like in Minneapolis - in order to build highways for white workers to commute
back and forth to their jobs from their suburban homes. And white people made it
harder for black people to get bank loans, get quality education, and health
care. And all of this was done while another few generations of white families passed
their wealth down to their children and their children's children.
And then we entered an age where people had the
technology to make PUBLIC many things that had been happening in PRIVATE – the harassment
of black people shopping in stores, the treatment of black people interviewing
for jobs, the use of stop and frisk laws, the profiling of black drivers when
seen driving the wrong kinds of cars or for driving in white neighborhoods, the
unequal application of justice during trials and sentencing, and police
brutality [Uncomfortable Historical Fact: Professional law enforcement started
out in America as patrols designed to catch runaway slaves].
And only now, only because what has been
invisible has become visible, only after 400+ years and 20+ generations of a head
start for white families, are white people STARTING to be ready to engage in a
dialogue about what it means to be black in America.
White privilege doesn't mean white people
haven't suffered or fought or worked hard. It doesn't mean that white people living
today are responsible for the sins of white ancestors. It doesn’t mean white people
can’t be proud of themselves as individuals and what they have achieved.
It DOES mean that white people need to
acknowledge that the system created by the founding fathers and their political
descendants was built FOR white people.
It DOES mean that white churches need to acknowledge that their theology and institutional practices directly support or indirectly tolerate systemic racism.
It DOES mean that black people are at a
disadvantage because of the color of their skin.
It DOES mean that white people need to
acknowledge all of this history when listening to neighbors – of all colors – in order
to find out what those neighbors need white people to do as anti-racist allies, so that walking and working together, we can make our country and our world more equitable.
Breathe deep. Have courage. Be bold, confident that we are all in God’s hands.
Deacon David Rask Behling, Hunger and Justice Advocate, NW Synod of Wisconsin
Adapted from a Facebook post by Anonymous
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