Talking About Privilege - California Council of Churches

by the Rev. Dr. Rick Schlosser, Executive Director

“Being white means never having to think about it.” — James Baldwin

The uprisings in Baltimore, Ferguson, and across the country remind us in a powerful way that racism is America’s original sin. From the genocide of indigenous nations, to the immorality of the slave trade, to northern wealth built on cheap slave labor in the south, to the criminalization of God’s beloved children under our current immigration system, we know that privilege, power, and wealth is built on systemic, institutionalized racism.

Let those with eyes to see and ears to hear acknowledge this sin without excuse or defensiveness and commit ourselves to changing our culture until every child of God is treated with respect and dignity, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or gender identity, class, sexual orientation, age, ability, or any of the other “isms” we are so good at using to divide and discriminate.

We spend a lot of time talking about the injustice of racism, #blacklivesmatter, the New Jim Crow, and other issues that every person of faith should be actively working to dismantle. For those in the dominant culture, one primary focus needs to be on the issue of privilege, primarily because so many do not recognize its extent and are, therefore, powerless to change it. Until we recognize our privilege and are willing to actively work to give it up, very little will actually change. Let me say this very clearly: Racism is a white problem. It will not change until a critical mass of members of the dominant culture recognize their privilege and actively work to give up their privilege and challenge it in every way possible.

White privilege is a set of advantages and/or immunities that white people benefit from on a daily basis. White privilege can exist without white people’s conscious knowledge of its presence (one of the biggest obstacles to change) and it helps to maintain the racial hierarchy in this county.

This is a difficult subject for many well-meaning white people to talk about. But it is, nonetheless, absolutely essential that we facilitate conversations about this everywhere we can if we ever expect anything to change.

Sunday mornings are still the most segregated hour of the week in this country. I would love to recruit 100 congregations throughout California (to start) who would be willing to commit to actively engaging in study, self-reflection, respectful conversations, and direct action to challenge white privilege and racism. We have justice-seeking churches in every corner of the state. Churches are in a unique and powerful position to lead the way in this effort from a place of trust and respect in their communities. Any movement for justice requires the participation of the faith community to succeed.

It is not helpful to talk about it in such a way that folk go right to guilt or despair. One of the least threatening and accessible articles I have used for many years is by Wellesley professor Peggy McIntosh. If you are looking for a way to consider this issue yourself or start a discussion of it in your community of faith, I recommend it to you: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack by Peggy McIntosh.

I also recommend to you a pastoral letter from the United Church of Christ: A Pastoral Letter On Racism: A New Awakening.
You can download a PDF of the entire resource here.

The biggest problem with white privilege is the invisibility it maintains to those who benefit from it most. The inability to recognize that many of the advantages whites hold are a direct result of the disadvantages of other people, contributes to the unwillingness of white people, even those who are not overtly racist, to recognize their part in maintaining and benefiting from white supremacy.

White privilege is having the freedom and luxury to fight racism one day and ignore it the next. White privilege exists on an individual, cultural, and institutional level.

Racism is America’s original sin. Racism signifies power relations associated with skin color. Racism is more than personal prejudice. In the classic definition, it is prejudice plus power. To dismantle racism, a power analysis is necessary to identify its various institutional forms.

Are you interested and ready to help make a difference? Following is a listing of a very few articles and books to help you get started. There are so many more wonderful resources available and I will include a short list of resources in Justice Seekers on a regular basis.

What are you doing to end white privilege? How are you living out the gospel truth that #blacklivesmatter? What is your community of faith doing in your community? Is your congregation willing to join us in a statewide effort to dismantle white privilege and racism? I would love to include your suggested resources, your success stories and challenges, and anything else you are willing to share with others with others throughout California, so please send any and all feedback, resources, stories, suggestions, questions, and challenges to me at rick@calchurches.org.

“The nature of privilege is such that you cannot relinquish it but you can use it to the benefit of those who have none.”
— Kathleen Saadat

Resources
Here is a very short list of articles and books to help your congregation discuss white privilege and racism. Please send your suggestions to rick@calchurches.org so they can be included in future issues of Justice Seekers.

Articles

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack by Peggy McIntosh
https://www.isr.umich.edu/home/diversity/resources/white-privilege.pdf

See further: White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies by Peggy McIntosh
http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/diversity/white-privilege-and-male-privilege.pdf

T he Undergirding Factor is POWER: Toward an Understanding of Prejudice and Racism by Caleb Rosado, Department of Urban Studies, Eastern University, Philadelphia
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/caleb/racism.html

Reflections on My White Privilege and Understanding It: Thoughts from a Teacher Educator by Todd S. Cherner, Coastal Carolina University
http://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1068&context=catalyst

Young White Men: Scared, Entitled, and Cynical-A Deadly Combination by Paul Kivel
http://www.paulkivel.com/component/jdownloads/finish/1/4/0?Itemid=31

Books
If you purchase through Amazon.com, you can support our work by doing your shopping through smile.amazon.com and choosing the California Council of Churches as your designated charity! Click here now!

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by Michelle Alexander

Once in a great while a book comes along that changes the way we see the world and helps to fuel a nationwide social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book. Praised by Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier as “brave and bold,” this book directly challenges the notion that the election of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness. With dazzling candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control-relegating millions to a permanent second-class status-even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness. In the words of Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, this book is a “call to action.”

Called “stunning” by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Levering Lewis, “invaluable” by the Daily Kos, “explosive” by Kirkus, and “profoundly necessary” by the Miami Herald, this updated and revised paperback edition of The New Jim Crow, now with a foreword by Cornel West, is a must-read for all people of conscience.

The Cross and the Lynching Tree
by James H Cone

“They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.” Acts 10:39

The cross and the lynching tree are the two most emotionally charged symbols

in the history of the African American community. In this powerful new work, theologian James H. Cone explores these symbols and their interconnection in the history and souls of black folk. Both the cross and the lynching tree represent the worst in human beings and at the same time a thirst for life that refuses to let the worst determine our final meaning. While the lynching tree symbolized white power and black death, the cross symbolizes divine power and black life, God overcoming the power of sin and death. For African Americans, the image of Jesus, hung on a tree to die, powerfully grounded their faith that God was with them, even in the suffering of the lynching era.

In a work that spans social history, theology, and cultural studies, Cone explores the message of the spirituals and the power of the blues; the passion and the engaged vision of Martin Luther King, Jr.; he invokes the spirits of Billie Holiday and Langston Hughes, Fannie Lou Hamer and Ida B. Wells, and the witness of black artists, writers, preachers, and fighters for justice. And he remembers the victims, especially the 5,000 who perished during the lynching period. Through their witness he contemplates the greatest challenge of any Christian theology to explain how life can be made meaningful in the face of death and injustice.

Understanding White Privilege:
Creating Pathways to Authentic Relationships Across Race
by Frances E. Kendall
London: Routledge, 2006.

Knowingly and unknowingly we all grapple with race every day. Understanding White Privilege delves into the complex interplay between race, power, and privilege in both organizations and private life. It offers an unflinching look at how ignorance can perpetuate privilege, and offers practical and thoughtful insights into how people of all races can work to break this cycle. Based on thirty years of work in diversity and colleges, universities, and corporations, Frances Kendall candidly invites readers to think personally about how race – theirs and others’ – frames experiences and relationships, focusing squarely on white privilege and its implications for building authentic relationships across race.

This much-anticipated revised edition includes two full new chapters, one on white women and another extending the discussion on race. It continues the important work of the first, deepening our knowledge of the recurring history on which cross-race relationships issues exist. Kendall’s book provides readers with a more meaningful understanding of white privilege and equips them with strategies for making personal and organizational changes.

Pre-Post-Racial America: Spiritual Stories from the Front Lines
by Sandhya Rani Jha

Those people. Their issues. The day’s news and the ways we treat each other, overtly or subliminally, prove we are not yet living in post-racial America. It’s hard to talk about race in America without everyone very quickly becoming defensive and shutting down.

What makes talking race even harder is that so few of us actually know each other in the fullness of our stories. A recent Reuters poll found 40% of White people have no friends of other races, and 25% of people of color only have friends of the same race.

Sandhya Jha addresses the hot topic in a way that is grounded in real people’s stories and that offers solid biblical grounding for thinking about race relations in America, reminding us that God calls us to build Beloved Community.

Discussion questions at the end of each chapter provide starting points for reading groups.

Hardcover edition available through smile.amazon.com (be sure to designate the California Council of Churches!). Electronic versions are available from chalicepress.com

Sandhya Rani Jha is the director of the Oakland Peace Center, the East Bay Housing Organization, a former member of the California Council of Churches Board of Directors, and so much more!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply