White Privilege – a definition

A set of advantages and/or immunities white people daily benefit from beyond those common to others. White privilege can exist without white people’s conscious knowledge of its presence and helps maintain the racial hierarchy in the U.S.

-Prof. Arlene Avakian (2003)

Owning up to white privilege

One person who formerly took the course shared their experience of white privilege:

“I can expect to be trusted in stores and by people I don’t know. I have never felt “watched” as I move around a store.

I can expect to be treated with respect and personal space by the police.

I do not feel “different” from everyone around me in majority white environments.

People do not assume I’m poor. Or seem surprised that I’m not.

I have never been denied a job because of the color of my skin.

If I am standing in a public space for no apparent reason, I am more likely to be offered help than to be questioned about why I am there.

I believe we are one family and my family is being hurt and divided. I don’t know how to fix it, but owning my unconscious role in it is my first step.”

On May 3^rd we opened Session 1 with the first four lines of a prayer –

When we do not see the gravity of racial injustice,

Shake us from our slumber and open our eyes.

When it becomes easier to point fingers outward,

Help us to examine our own hearts.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kaye Nash, a member of the Racial Justice Team

Judy Arnold, Will Burhans, Sara Gallop, Jonathan Goodell, Anne Hoenicke, Jerry Mechling, Kaye Nash, Julianne Zimmerman

Feb 17, 2022

Our white American Christian churches would do well to consider the prophetic black figures in our country’s religious history who have stood powerfully and faithfully for God’s justice.  A name few of us might know is Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), whose voice reached across a century to be posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize for journalism in 2020.  First and foremost a gifted journalist, she was also a fearless antilynching crusader, women’s rights advocate, democracy defender, community organizer, entrepreneur, mother, and devout Christian.

There is much to know about Ida B. Wells but for our consideration, note how her voice arises out of the prophetic tradition of our scriptures and speaks to American society in her time and in ours.

1. Prophetic voices speak clearly that God cares about the abused and oppressed among us and expects us to care as well. Wells witnessed the lynching of blacks in the late 19^th century and despite threats to self and family, wrote fiercely and faithfully against such evil. “The way to right wrongs,” she said “is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
2. Prophetic voices are more focused on this world than the next. Wells not only called out American society for the oppression of black people but she called out the church too as being far too idle in the face of such injustice. “Our American Christians,” she minced no words, “are too busy saving the souls of white Christians from burning in Hell-fire to save the lives of black ones from present burning in fires kindled by white Christians.”
3. Prophetic voices are focused on the systemic sin of society more than individual sin, the remedy being less about personal forgiveness than societal transformation. Wells believed that the best way to stop lynching was to ensure black people’s right to vote. “With no sacredness of the ballot, there can be no sacredness of human life itself….” Wells voice rings from her age to ours: “For if the strong can take the weak man’s ballot, when it suits his purpose to do so, he will take his life also.”*
4. Prophetic voices call people into community and partnership with God to work towards justice. Wells organized the first suffragist organization for black women and started the first kindergarten for black children in Chicago. She began the Negro Fellowship league and was instrumental in the formation of NAACP and the National Alliance of Colored People among other organizations for social uplift and racial justice.

These same prophetic qualities mark another figure upon whom our church has its foundation and that is Jesus Christ himself. Jesus was as much an agitator for justice as he was a peacemaker.  His spirit spoke through the mind and pen of Ida B. Wells.  Can both Jesus and Ida inspire us American Christians to address injustice in our nation still dis-eased with racism?

Rev. Will Burhans (on behalf of the Racial Justice Team)

*(read Wells’ entire piece here – https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/ead/pdf/ibwells-0008-008-05.pdf)

In response to an open invitation, several volunteers formed a Racial Justice Working Group with a charge to: “Provide opportunities for the congregation and community to talk, learn, and act to promote greater racial justice and equity in our society.” (See below for RJWG participants.)

The group proposes a variety of activities for 2021 and beyond. We will start by discussing the book Trouble the Water during Lent. We also plan to observe Juneteenth, 2021 (an important date in Black culture).

In the fall, to more deeply explore why and how racial justice issues are critically important, we plan to offer White Privilege — Let’s Talk, a course designed to invite church members to engage in safe, meaningful, substantive, and bold conversations on race, and to learn to see White Privilege in the world around them.

Based on what we learn, we expect to organize other projects to support work and action by individuals, small groups, and larger groups both internally and externally.

Here are three resources for those interested in learning more about and/or participating directly in our activities going forward:

• FCCW on Racial Justice: Talk, Learn, Act — Plans for 2021 and Beyond.
• Ideas Bank — action-oriented ideas assembled from discussions to date.
• Anti-Racist Resources 2020/2021 — an extensive and varied list.

Thanks to all who have — and will — help us in this work.

The FCCW Racial Justice Working Group:

Rev. Burhans, Rev. Arnold, Sarah Gallop, Jonathan Goodell, Anne Hoenicke, Jessica McArdle (environmental justice liaison), Jerry Mechling, and Kaye Nash.