It is not “White Blessing ,” it is a White Sin

By Yenny Delgado

As a result of the largely peaceful protest throughout the globe as a result of the murder of George Floyd, Christian leaders are being forced to address the issues of anti-black racism and white supremacy in the church. For many congregations, the response has done one or all of the following actions:

  1. Placing a Black Lives Matter banner in front of the sanctuary;
  2. Books Club from authors including Robin D’Angelo, Ibram X. Kendi, and Michelle Alexander 
  3. Develop spaces, albeit virtually, to honestly discuss history, current events, and hopefully a future way forward.  

In one discussion, European American Pastor Louie Giglio from the Atlanta Megachurch Passion City had a conversation with the African American rapper Lecrae Moor and the European American Chick-fil-A chief executive Dan Cathy. In this discussion, he said the following words:  

“But I want to flip that upside down because I think the other side of it is true with our nation’s history. We understand the curse that was slavery, white people do, and we say, ‘that was bad,’ but we miss the blessing of slavery that built up the framework for the world that white people live in.”

In this one phrase, the Pastor’s theology is made clear. He connected the dehumanization of others through chattel slavery as a blessing; Pastor Giglio reminded his audience of the real attention of many churches and Christian leaders when it comes to deal with the sins of the past. Moreover, his framing of slavery as a blessing is not a new concept but harkens to Europeans’ original views that arrived on this continent. Upon arrival, they viewed the land as a new start and an opportunity to live out their faith and truth. In the early 1500s, the majority of people living in Europe were poor farmers, uneducated, and living under fear as such America represented an opportunity to restart in “virgin land”.

“Every activity, personal and communal, was irreducibly part of the holy war against Satan and the infidels. The aristocracy of saints had to work ceaselessly at this critical moment to make the present world as solemnly and gloriously Christian as it could be. One result was to put great emphasis on the purity of the community, on always determining who was inside and outside, on eliminating deviance.”  

Christians had constructed an image of God who blessed them to maintain purity and not intermingle with others. After removing the native populations through an orchestrated genocide, Europeans began enslaving Africans to work the land. The enslaved primarily formed the nation’s economic backbone and led to the development of modern capitalism and wealth around the cotton trade. As explained by Sven Beckert, this business increased wealth and resources. Due to economic growth, churches began to flourish, and new denominations arrived and grew along with the growth of slavery.  

Growing denominations throughout the country were linked with the objectification of Africans through chattel slavery. As an audit of the Princeton Theological Seminary and its interaction with slavery reported in 2019, “several of its founders and prominent leaders were entangled with slavery and even employed slave labor themselves.” Enslavement of people with dark skin was a regulation encoded by the law and supported by theological text from some verses from the Old Testament where slavery was practiced.

After independence, some denominations, such as the Quakers, spoke out against slavery, but most churches chose to address only “spiritual matters” and concentrated on maintaining the system. Dr. Yolanda Pierce, Dean of Divinity School at Howard University, states, “So much of early American Christian identity is predicated on a proslavery theology. From the naming of the slave ships to who sponsored some of these journeys including some churches, to the fact that so much of these journeys including some churches.” 

Now in June 2020, a Christian Pastor once again proposes to formulate that idea of slavery as overall beneficial to “white people.” Indeed, he is right – through dehumanization and murder, one can become extremely wealthy and build an unequal society; this is the story of European descendants in the United States. 

However, as Christians, we need not mince words with blessing or privilege. The way the church helped to support and construct a white supremacist country based on anti-black racism is WHITE SIN. When did the Christian church in the United States change and repent for this sin? In the imagination of the church, everyone is welcomed, but on paper, the theology is trapped in the past. Just as Pastor Giglio is saying, it is not a white privilege but is a white blessing.

If churches and congregations genuinely hope to have a real conversation about the ongoing protest on the street, it will take more than a few books, rallies, and the framing of slavery as a white benefit. As a first step, the church needs to truly rebuke the sinful actions of this country and the forefathers in actions that are in complete opposition to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is done through the hard work of reading the history and then seeking dialog and repentance from those communities that have continually been negatively affected by policies and laws after the Civil War only to benefit white people. 

For the church and Christians, these hard truths should lead to change systemically, and if not, then perhaps these places are not churches but social clubs where white people enjoy gathering on Sunday morning. 

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Yenny Delgado (she/her/ Ella)  Social psychologist and contextual theologian. She writes about the intersections between politics, faith, and resistance.

 Follow me on twitter @yennydc

Publica

“I Can’t Breathe – A Pentecost Reflection”

By Patrick Jackson

Do you have any idea how many times in a day that you breathe? According to one account, the average person takes 23,040 breaths a day.

Preacher Barbara Brown Taylor drew upon this daily life rhythm to portray the power of breath at Pentecost. “We breathe air that circulated in the rain forests of Kenya and in the air that turned yellow with sulfur over Mexico City. We breathe the same air that Plato breathed, and Mozart and Michelangelo . . . Every time we breathe, we take in what was once some baby’s first breath, or some dying person’s last.” And then she imagined the last breath of Christ, which was unleashed around the earth, and filled that upper room on Pentecost.


The breath of God, this Holy Spirit, has been loosed over the world ever since the first moments of creation when a “wind . . . swept over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:1) and then “the Lord God formed man . . . and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Gen. 2:7). And so it is, and ever has been, that the breath of God is the source of life – the source of our individual lives, and the lifeblood of the church which we re-christened on Pentecost. And yet as we celebrate the inhaling and exhaling power of the Holy Spirit, we are haunted by those desperate, gasping words from George Floyd as he lay pinned on the concrete: “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.” Words spoken until George Floyd could speak no more.


Perhaps it’s a measure of God’s grace that shortly after George Floyd’s life was wrung from his lungs that congregations the world over gathered (virtually) to mark Pentecost. After the month we have had as a nation, we needed to be reminded that the church was not just born by the breath power of the Holy Spirit; the church was also unified by the power of the Holy Spirit. “All of them, the apostles, were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability” (Acts 2:4). It didn’t have to unfold that way.

The Spirit could have given all who gathered that day in Jerusalem, assembled from all the nations, the ability to hear and understand the single language that the apostles spoke. But no. The miracle of Pentecost was that the Apostles spoke the Good News in the native languages of all those assembled. It was a dramatic demonstration of how the church was forged out of such a rich multitude. It was a unity born out of diversity, not uniformity.


The Apostle Paul conveys this unity in diversity to the fractious community in Corinth through his brilliant metaphor of the church as a human body. “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members . . . though many, are one body, so it is with Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12). The power of Paul’s imagery of the body, with each member offering their unique gifts enabled by the Spirit, is that it makes clear that this diversity is essential. The diversity found in the body is not simply decorative; it is functional and integral to the church. The body of Christ cannot exist in its fullness unless everyone is honored, needed, loved.

Inhale. Exhale.
Inhale the life-giving Spirit.
Exhale the toxins of bias and racism.
Inhale the blessing of God’s intentionally diverse creation.
Exhale apathy and inaction in the face of injustice and suffering.
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

Patrick Jackson is Co-Executive Director on Interwoven Congregations and Parish Associate at Bethesda Presbyterian Church.

Publica

Who lives, who dies, who tells your story: Princeton Seminary and Slavery

By Yenny Delgado

I arrived at my friend house in Princeton, New Jersey a day before attending a conference organized by Princeton Theological Seminary in order to spend time catching up and to share experiences. His 4-year-old daughter Aura, welcomed me with an amazing hug as her face lit up with joy.  She had been told of the time when I had previously visited when she was only 10 months old and this story had been relayed by her parents; so, she knew it occurred, knew my name and she had been shown pictures. One photo had special significance because in it we were all present. Together we looked at the photo and reminisced of times gone by, and she asked who took the photo?  We looked at each other and for a moment and did not remember.  Did someone stop by and take the seems or was it simply the timer function of the camera?  Aura asked a very perceptive question for a child, who took this photo?  Her question persisted in my conscious as I attended the conference the following two-days.

The conference I attended was entitled Legacy and Mission: Theological Education and the History of Slavery (link to report). The one-and-a-half-day program was organized as part of the recommendations of a historical audit on the institution of slavery at the Seminary. The opening of the conference was highlighted by a group of professors that reflected on the experiences from other institutions (Georgetown University, William and Mary University, and PrincetonUniversity) in their own audits related to their participation in slavery, and only one of the participants was African-American. 

Credit: Image from Princeton Seminary report

After hearing from historians from Georgetown and William and Mary Universities regarding their legacy and use of enslaved people in their founding and early years I expected that Princeton University would have a similar history. Thus,  it came as a surprise that the historian from Princeton boldly proclaimed “Princeton did not enslave anybody” according to its own historical record.  However, several of the Universities founders, first Presidents, leaders and a plurality of its students owned and enslaved people.  If a university, for that matter any organization, is defined by the people who make up its community it is seems disingenuous to proclaim the Institution did not enslave individuals?  Finally, a Professor from Princeton Theological Seminary (a separate entity from Princeton University) spoke quickly about the report and focused his remarks about the historical references and potential paths forward one of which was hosting the present conference.  

The intervening panels and presenters highlighted different aspects of the historical implications as well as many of the issues that are still present on the campus of the Princeton Theological Seminary and society today.  All of the sessions were videocast and recorded to ensure there was a historical record of the presentations, questions, and discussions. However, at the end of the program on the second day, there was a panel composed of current students plus seminary faculty.  In the first session that actually prioritized the voice of current African-American students, the cameras were removed, and the discussions were not recorded. 

The discussion and reflections of the students drove to the heart of the matter of the history of slavery and the institution. Ideas of atonement and reparations were discussed as well as dispelling myths that still abound on the campus and in academia. As the program drew to a conclusion both participants, current students and alumni became ever more concerned that the conference and presentations represented more of an exercise on a checklist than an act of addressing historical wrongs.  

The students are watching and want a real commitment from Princeton Seminary. The Association of Black Seminarians (ABS) have proposed that the seminary should commit at least 15% percent of its endowment as reparations to address historical wrongs and to ensure more diverse voices in academia. (To find out the exact request visit the ABS petition )

Returning back to the beginning and my friend’s daughter Aura’s question, I am sure that the timer function was used based on all the other photographic evidence. Reflecting on the conference with the eyes of a 4-year-old Aura, it appears as if the institution was basically saying that a horrible thing has happened in the past, but you know, what can we do about it now, reparations for what or even to who?  Even though she had not heard the Hamilton soundtrackher question bears a resemblance to the familiar refrain – who lives, who dies, who tells your story and most importantly to me how it is passed on to future generations.  The story of Princeton Theological Seminary is far from complete and completing the historical audit is only a first step.  

My hope is that the audit and conference will not be the end of the story, but that the history of how people of faith purposely dehumanized others for their own gain is reflected upon and corrected.  If we do not take these steps forward, we will be doomed to live a painful future. A 4-year-old asked a very important question that we should all consider and examine in-depth when it comes to the news and stories we hear on a daily basis. Who is taking the picture and how should we evaluate it in the context of equality, tradition, and justice? 

 

Yenny Delgado (she/her/ Ella)  Social psychologist and contextual theologian. She writes about the intersections between politics, faith, and resistance.

Publica

Is white supremacy ideology implemented in “Latin” America?

By Yenny Delgado 

Starting with the arrival of Columbus in 1492, European Kingdoms terrorized the American Continent, reducing and controlling the original population through murder and the spread of diseases new to the continent. The continent was divided by a few kingdoms – Spain, Portugal, France, and England – as if it were cake. 

The terrorization, expropriation, and colonization of America came in part with an ideology of white supremacy and to start a new life. Millions of European immigrants traveled to America and brought their thinking with them, primarily the superiority of their religion and skin color. Even though the vast majority of migrants were escaping poverty and oppression in their own countries/kingdoms upon arrival in America, they assumed a mantle of superiority. 

This ideology was based on their Christian faith. They viewed their God as superior and built theological rhetoric of permissible murder, genocide, and development of chattel slavery under the concept that non-white individuals were pagans. Throughout the continent, Europeans forcefully kidnapped and enslaved Africans for centuries producing an unprecedented amount of wealth to transform Europe into one of the most advanced and prosperous regions on the globe while at the same building new governments in America. This history is the same in the United States, Canada, Dominican, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, and other countries. 

African descendants across the Continent experience racism just as the native population. However, for the descendants of the Native Population as opposed to joining forces and rising against oppression, many have accepted the term “Latino” and placed their heads in the sand akin to an ostrich when racial discrimination occurs. 

However, we need to honestly recognize that in our communities, we have also been impacted by white supremacist ideologies in the ways we have been taught to seek European roots and prefer lighter skin. Even today, as we use the term Latino under the auspices of building a new community in the United States, white people who speak Spanish or Portuguese still receive structural benefits from the same white supremacist ideology. Specifically, they receive police protections, better schools, and better jobs, just like white people who speak English in Canada and the United States.

Just because someone’s first language is Spanish or Portuguese, it does not mean that the individual does not practice or benefit from white supremacist ideologies. We live in the same system, and it is time to reveal the same structure of power that oppresses and impoverishes African-descendants and the native population in the continent. 

Knowing this history helps us to understand that:

– The ideology of white supremacy is imposed and was implemented in all European colonies, and despite independence and republics, the same laws continued to regulate life-based on color.

-The African-descendant population’s struggle since they were captured in Africa and later enslaved and sold as a property in American colonies.

-The native Americans and their descendants struggle from the expropriation of their land and are treated at second class citizens. 

-The European descendants who immigrated to America believe, just as in the English-speaking countries, that they are superior to the native population and African-descendant population.

-The homage to the color of the skin is rooted for centuries and still causes pain.

It is necessary to fight against white supremacy ideology that was installed since 1492, and this fight must be continental as it is worldwide.

It is time to remove the statue of “conquest” and dismantle white supremacist ideology from the root. As the world woke up from the colony’s time, we must also use this moment of reflection to complete our liberation and call out systemic oppression and racial discrimination based on ideologies of white supremacy.

Whether a European who immigrated and got off the boat in New York, Kingston, Vera Cruz, or São Leopoldo, they came with ideologies of supremacy and governmental/societal structures that benefitted them. Let’s acknowledge this and begin building a more equitable and inclusive future where all have the opportunity of a better life. There should be no discrimination based on skin color, and past wrongs based on this need to be rectified. 

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Yenny Delgado (she/her/ Ella)  Social psychologist and contextual theologian. She writes about the intersections between politics, faith, and resistance.

Publica

Visualization of Inequality in the United States

By Yenny Delgado

In addressing COVID-19, governments around the world began to close borders, stop flights, and placed militaries on the street to force individuals to shelter in place. These efforts were not sufficient in the United States because the virus had already arrived – no amount of military or police force could stop its spread. Coronavirus had already reached the continent, crossed the vast oceans, and it did not come from impoverished immigrants or refugees, but from individuals who had traveled the world on vacation or for business in planes and cruise ships.

Currently, in the United States, more people have died from the pandemic than were killed in the Vietnam War, the attacks on September 11th, and Afghanistan War combined. As of May 26, 2020, 1,680,625 individuals have been infected, and the virus had claimed the lives of over 100,000 thousand people according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. 

Virus Exposing Inequality in the Country

The media narrative at the start of the outbreak was that the virus did not discriminate. Everyone embraced the idea of single humanity and how everyone is susceptible to the infection regardless of gender or ethnicity. We were all scared together; without being aware that was not the full truth. However, individuals living in poverty first began to notice everything was not the same. Though everyone was on the same ship, all the people were not on the same level.

The impoverished, as well as African American, Native American, and immigrants’ communities, were beginning to see the impacts of death face to face just as the elderly had. Reporters and citizens began to notice the disparities in deaths. Data emerged from the epicenter of the virus in New York City showing an overrepresentation of African-descendants in the number of people being hospitalized as a result of the illness, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease exacerbated critical situations in minority populations and communities that are still suffering from the financial impacts of U.S. government policy in terms of providing housing loans to individuals who were not of European descent.

COVID-19 showed its face of death, focusing primarily on the elderly and on communities that were considered “essential workers.” Instantly the doctors and nurses who treated patients were hailed as heroes while, slowly, the country began to see that all individuals forced to work were not necessarily heroes but were being sacrificed so that the country could continue “open.”  Bus drivers, grocery store workers, gas attendants, farmworkers, meat processors, factory workers, and fast-food employees make up some of the least paid individuals in the U.S. economy. However, individuals in these professions were on the front line in terms of exposure to the virus and risk.  In the capitalist society, the same people who work 12 to 14 hours are the same who live check to check; they do not make what they need to pay the rent, food, supplies, etc.

Prioritizing Wealth over Health

With the absolute number of individuals infected in the country growing daily, the strain on the health care infrastructure has been profound. The shortages of personal protective equipment, ventilators, and necessary materials have pointed a spotlight directly at the severe underfunding and mixed public/private nature of health coverage in the country. What is unclear, however, is whether people understand that there is no unified public health care system in the United States.

So, we have millions of people losing employment and healthcare attached to private employers, but the first thing the Federal government looked to do was to save the economy. Bills began to be signed, but the injections were more of money to corporations than of COVID-19 testing for citizens. Meanwhile, every 12 minutes in New York City, a person with COVID-19 dies.

Racism Emerges Once Again

While the majority of the world’s countries were under orders to shelter in place with mandatory quarantines to control the virus, a small segment of the Euro-American population claimed these measures impinged on their freedoms and rights.  The primarily white protesters adorned with “Make America Great Again” paraphernalia and weaponry protested orders that were designed mainly to ensure their and others’ safety. 

To portray control and authority, President Trump began to take over the daily Federal COVID-19 press briefings.  The briefings provided some information to the press and public but often devolved into the meandering thoughts. These musings notably portray a lack of understanding at best and a callous disregard for life at the worst:

  • “We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.”
  • “Vaccine or no vaccine, we’re back. And we’re starting the process.”
  • “We did the right thing. Everything we did was right.”

We must look at the current inequalities by reflecting on what is happening right now during this pandemic. The quarantine is providing opportunities for individuals to realize they are in a position of privilege. Many millions of households are unable to telework in their jobs, and not working is equivalent to hunger due to the inability to pay bills, rent, or health coverage.  Some people may think it is because the system is broken or rigged. However, the system works well for the privileged few, while the remainder of society is sacrificed for the economy. Indeed, the wealthy are becoming more prosperous as a result of this pandemic – while the poor are becoming poorer.

Theological Responses in the Age of COVID-19

“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?”  This refrain from the musical Hamilton is apt to how we respond and consider the impact of COVID-19 theologically. As Christians, we have to work to ensure that the deaths from the virus are not in vain, and no one else suffers the consequences of systems not designed for the benefit of people but only for corporations.  Consoling those who have lost someone is critical; but we are missing our calling to speak the truth in times of crisis if that is all we do.

There is no one correct response that churches, and theologians should have to repeat in the face of the death and destruction of the ongoing pandemic. However, we must encourage congregations and leaders to avoid the trap of once again going to an “end of world” mindset as a result of the pandemic.  In this line of thinking, the current pandemic is the latest sign of the “end of the world.” The death and suffering is God’s “punishment” for individuals not praying enough, reading the Bible enough, and not donating enough money to churches.  

Using the pandemic to spark fear and obedience to empty, fatalistic, and irresponsible messages will not prepare the church and the believers of Christ to be the salt of the earth needed.  I believe that churches and lay leaders must read God’s word but also re-consider the reflections of theologians of solidarity like Gustavo Gutierrez to help orient our response to the ongoing pandemic and guide how we must work to reconstruct communities of faith.  In response to this situation, the dialogue with liberation theologies emerges as an act of resistance. Where is God to the impoverished of the world who look abandoned? Gutierrez writes that “Material poverty is a scandalous condition to human dignity” and, therefore, contrary to the will of God. Before COVID-19, there was surprisingly little attention to the experiences of poor people carrying the brunt of economic hardship, until many were forced to serve as essential workers to keep the country afloat.

If, as Christians, we believe in “Love your neighbor” as reflected in James 2:8, there is no way we can condone governmental policies that so obviously treat human beings not as individuals but commodities of the market.  Upon recognizing this, how can we defend a government that does not value the lives of citizens because they are impoverished or because they are not white? Why is this evil pattern not causing more moral outrage? Christians are called to fight for equality, help reduce poverty, and defend justice, and this should be as important and as crucial as anything else we argue or fight for in the public sphere. 

Under these circumstances, a believer might rightly ask, what is the church doing? It is possible if we ensure that all human life is valued, that those who get rich at the cost of the lives of the most impoverished are not celebrated but are condemed. Could this pandemic make visible the inequality that many of them already knew, but could this same pandemic promote change and repentance?

This pandemic is real, and as well as the impoverishment and inequality that millions of people experience day by day. If this situation does not mobilize us to serve those in need and show solidarity with them in terms of justice, resources, attention, what else can they do to make the church fulfill its mission? Just as we find in Luke 19:40, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

Publica

I can’t Breathe: Systematic Police Brutality

By Yenny Delgado

George Floyd, a 46 year old African American man, was lynched by a police officer of European descent. His execution was transmitted live on Facebook and has led to a global movement fighting against police brutality and ongoing impacts of policies and laws designed to protect only white people.

George Floyd was handcuffed and lying on the street with his head to one side. The police officer, Derek Chauvin, had his knee on his neck, and two other officers were holding him by the waist and legs for over eight minutes. George Floyd’s final words were, “Please, please, please, I can’t breathe.” “My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Please, please. I can’t breathe.” The police officers continued to hold him until the ambulance arrived to verify his death. This murder comes amid multiple news reports of other African Americans also killed by police in the United States. 

To understand the current situation of what is happening in the United States is necessary to understand the country from a historical perspective, not just from the sanctioned press or Hollywood. The real story of this country is how American society has been built on the grounds of a white supremacist ideology. The murder of George Floyd is part of systematic and institutionalized violence against the African and Native American population based on this same ideology.

This ideology goes back to the arrival of Europeans in America. The colonizers saw the land as a new beginning; the land was fertile, extensive, and opened the possibility of wealth. In the early 1500s, most people living in Europe were poor, landless, and uneducated farmers. The United States represented an opportunity to build a new life. During the colonial period under English rule, new settlers on the mainland had only one problem to face: 
“… the Puritans were not initially sure about the planned extent of the New Canaan and were inclined anyway to see the land beyond as a horrible and desolate desert, full of beasts and wild men.” 

The first to arrive began a process of dehumanizing the original population of America. “Every activity, personal and communal, was irreducibly part of the holy war against Satan and the infidels.” As a result of an exclusive theology, the emphasis was placed on the purity of the European community install in the new continent. In such, the white community was the only one that could determine who was inside or outside. No dark-skinned person could be treated as equal.

The enslavement of people with dark skin, descendants of African and native populations had survived the genocide executed in the early centuries, was regulated under the law and supported by a theological text based on the Old Testament curses accepted and practiced the slavery. Europeans translate these texts for their benefit, and the new earth, the skin color, determines each person’s position in society. In this construction, some were considered children of God, while others were a simple part of the creation that had to be submitted. 

The independence of the United States in 1776 did not change the established slavery and racism regime; it was decided to maintain the separation laws because its theology, culture, and politics were built on the basis of exclusion. After the Civil War and the struggle for the abolition of slavery, African Americans began to live in peripheral areas of the town, where they did not have services. Other communities decide to stay in rural areas, where they had to work as misused paid, without land or possession; they remained the most impoverished population in the country. 

As supremacy theology continued to flourish in all sectors of society, a priesthood soon re-emerged. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in white robes and faces covered with much of the pomp and circumstances of the Christian church. The organization began to serve as executors of white superiority through terrorist violence against African Americans and native communities. American. These extrajudicial killings, fires, rapes, and lynching’s forced beliefs and, because they were done anonymously, they were rarely prosecuted. The KKK hid in the shadows when it was decided to create the local police who publicly adopted the job of safeguarding white communities. 

The role of the Protestant church, which continued to practice Puritanism, especially at the turn of the century, is incredibly revealing and complicit. The church decided not to address the segregation laws, massacres, Lynchings, persecution, and impoverishment experienced by the new African American communities freed from slavery. While most white Protestants remained silent, a group of African American pastors, activists, and theologians rose to denounce discrimination in society. Leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, who wrote in 1958:

“Segregation, both rationally inexplicable and morally unjustifiable … I had never been able to accept the fact of having to go to the back of the bus … I could never adapt. separation of schools, hospitals, bathrooms, separated between whites and people of color, partly because the separate was always unequal.”

In his peaceful protest, Dr. King showed resistance by taking to the streets and displaying a living gospel message that said, “There is a creative power that works to break down mountains of evil and level the peaks of injustice. God still works through history”. Although preaches by protest s nonviolent, it suffered firsthand violence; l and torched his house, received threats of death, received criticals white pastors who told him to leave everything in the hands of justice, not preach against Segregation. He continued to denounce Segregation and racism. He was arrested and attacked by the police throughout his ministry until he was finally assassinated in 1968.

In this long history of inequality, four centuries of white supremacy now weigh on the shoulders of young people who continue to experience institutionalized violence in the country. For decades, the economic system has continued to widen the gap between rich and poor, between the privileged and the oppressed. Understanding the historical journey of the United States places in better context the current protest that we see on the ground. The idea of police reform and black lives matter movement is direct from a historical and theological dehumanization due to a white supremacist ideology. The protest is encapsulated very succinctly in the words of activist Tamika Mallory as some people complain about some violence associated with the protest:

“Don’t talk to us about looting. You all are the looters. America has looted Black people. America looted the Native Americans when they first came here, so looting is what you do. We learned it from you. We learned violence from you. We learned violence from you. The violence was what we learned from you. So if you want us to do better, then, damn it, you do better.”

The 8 minutes and 46 seconds in which George Floyd said, “Please, please, please, I can’t breathe” are not just George’s words; they are the words and feelings of thousands of people killed for their skin color and institutionalized violence in the country. Young people who are on the street around the country and around the world cannot breathe either under the stains of systematic oppression. The pueblo has decided to go out into the streets and march and protest for a drastic change in policies, and this new generation has no way back.

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Yenny Delgado (she/her/ Ella)  Social psychologist and contextual theologian. She writes about the intersections between politics, faith, and resistance.

Publica

Understanding white privilege versus white supremacy​

By Yenny Delgado

Last year, I attended a conference at Princeton Theological Seminary, a major educational institution founded by members of the Presbyterian Church. The conference focused on the audit of the Seminary’s history, founding, and legacy with regard to the enslavement of Africans (for a review of the report, click here). During the proceedings, a female professor from the seminary stood up and introduced herself; informing the audience that she cared about this audit. Additionally, she added that she was born in a middle-class family and also that she is a woman with white privilege in the society, saying “it is coming in a box, something I did not ask for.”

To be honest, we have all heard it. When a person of European descent in the United States in an extremely “woke” or educated audience stands up and shares from the bottom of their heart that they have been “privileged” in the current society. What do you think? What are the motivations behind this introduction?

  • Is it an admission of guilt for their ancestor’s past wrongs?
  • An expression of pride done with the purpose of disarming an audience?
  • Is it the first step for individuals in the transformation from a racist to anti-racist working to make a more just world for everyone?
  • Or, is it just coded language to show that the person is not a white supremacist?

I am sure many individuals use the term as part of the first step towards greater enlightenment regarding the many negative social and political effects individuals of European descent have wrought through the ideology of white supremacy. However, the indications of liberalism fail to recognize that this privilege by default comes at a particularly high price for people of color historically and to this day.

This introduction at the Seminary and others of this nature force us to further consider the construct of white normativity and the line that separate ideas of white privilege and white supremacy, more fully. As defined by the dictionary privilege is a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group. Moreover, the origins of the word come from middle English “private” combined with the idea of law, thus the idea and term are tantamount to “private law.”

Thus, to better understand this privilege or private law it requires the society to do a better job of unpacking the history and see what ideologies built the foundations for these privileges to existing. In the United States from the Constitution of 1787 until The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the framework of laws and institutions were established expressly to benefit white people. The completeness of laws expressly designed to benefit white people (in the mid-20thCentury) are laid out clearly by the historian Ira Katznelson in his book When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America which walks through all the numerous benefits individuals of European descent was given.

Through the application of favorable laws that were fully grounded in an ideology of white supremacy individuals of European descent controlled all aspects of the society and commerce through mistreating individuals that were not white. Over the course of time the de-facto laws whether enslavement or segregation have been demolished through the courageous actions of committed people focused on freedom and equality from Frederick Douglas to Martin Luther King Jr.

However, as these laws that directly benefit only European-descents have subsided, the accumulated benefits from the dehumanization have maintained as well as the metamorphoses of overtly white supremacist ideologies to more covert and palatable forms of the same ideas today. When we consider the term “white privilege” what we are essentially seeing is a different form of white supremacy, as it is based on the laboring and suffering of others to gain a better standing in society.

From interacting in wide groups of organizations and throughout the country it has become clear to me over time that white privilege is really on a continuum and a result of a white supremacist ideology.

The same privileges that provide certain groups greater opportunities are based in the same ideologies that suggest that individuals of European descent are inherently superior to all other groups. From these ideologies, certain individuals have greatly benefitted and received favorable laws, court decision, and accumulated wealth. These types of privileges/ benefits are not good for the well-being of our pluralistic and diverse society and it is far from equitable.

So, before you consider using the term “white privilege” as part of your introduction you need to reconsider what you really believe and through actions show your true values:

  • Educate yourself, learn about the history of the country during genocide, enslavement, segregation, mass incarceration, deportation and other moments of our shared history, you will realize what your means “privilege” in terms of a pain to your neighbor.
  • Work to help build a society in which all human beings regardless of their skin color have equal opportunities.
  • Recognize your ancestors’ actions enslaving people and taking advantage of blood labor to create financial capital and wealth.
  • Take actions to be part of the process to rebuild and address these injustices. Promote in your own circle true history of the country and start a reconciliation process.

To that end, someone invocating white privilege is supporting and believing the ideology of white supremacy.

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