Wikipedia defines White privilege as:
• Belief in the notion of a myriad of social advantages, benefits, and
courtesies that come with being a member of the dominant race (i.e. whites). A
clerk not following you around in a store or not having people cross the street
at night to avoid you, are two examples of white privilege.
Who can deny the reality of these two examples and the humiliation that blacks
have endured because of “racial profiling!”
How do we deal with this and the inevitable psychological stigma that this
treatment ingrains? The Bible teaches “speaking truth in love.” This is
necessary to counter the anger- and fear-driven narratives that have taken over
any discussion on the subject. Whites feel degraded and are fearful that they
will be called “racist” or even attacked by virtue-signaling whites. Meanwhile,
blacks use the victimization narrative as a weapon to legitimate black rage and
to silence the objections of whites. Therefore, such discussions have become a
minefield awaiting their next explosion.
Most of us have experienced one form of racism or the other. For example, a
black woman had cut in front of me in line, claiming she had a right to do so.
When I objected, she called me a racist. I countered, “You are the racist.”
Should I have granted her this privilege? Since whites had historically been
privileged, wasn’t it now her turn? As a Christian, I wondered, “What is the
best and most loving way to treat her - as an equal, entitled to the same privileges
as any other having also been created in the likeness of God, or as a degraded
person, a condescending racial attitude?” Wouldn’t this just perpetuate racial
divisions? Wouldn’t it instead be more dignifying and healing to treat her as
an equal, who has to live under the same moral standards as anyone else!
I think that we need both the courage and soul-searching honesty to discuss
these issues. Too much is at stake when we don’t. Jeffrey J. Pyle wrote in the
Boston College Law Review:
• Critical race theorists attack the very foundations of the [classical]
liberal legal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment
rationalism and neutral principles of constitutional law. These liberal values,
they allege, have no enduring basis in principle, but are mere social
constructs calculated to legitimate white supremacy.
To not discuss these issues lovingly and honestly is to surrender the necessary
underpinnings of our society and to allow the polarization to continue on its
dangerous course.
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