WHAT CAN WHITE PEOPLE DO?
I’m not black.
My neighbor that I grew up with was black. Some of my best friends in the world are black. Many of my sports teammates were black. Lots of people I work with are black. Many of my neighbors now are black.
Because of where I grew up, the friends I had, the sports I played, and the music I listened to I’m still more comfortable with black culture much of the time than I am with white culture.
I’m still not black.
One of my best friends in the world, who is black has been told, “You’re the whitest black guy I know”.
I absolutely hate that. I hate it because it perpetuates the misconception that blackness is determined by behavior.
Black is not a behavior. It’s a skin color. It’s not a choice, it’s a race. It’s not something someone learns to be, it's something they are born being.
No matter how I talk, what I wear, the music I listen to, or where I grew up I’m still not black.
I don’t know what it’s like to be a black person living in America. I don’t know what it felt like for my black friends when they heard about what happened to Ahmaud Arbery. I don’t know because I’m not black.
I’m white.
Because I’m white I understand that there’s a lot I don’t know. But there is one thing I do know. I want to help. I want the killing to stop. I want the racism to end. I want Justice.
But the question I’ve been asking myself for a while, and I’ve started asking my black friends is this, “What can white people do?” Like seriously. What can we do that will actually be meaningful and helpful instead of unhelpful and maybe even more hurtful.
If I’m honest any time the topic of race comes up there is always this voice in the back of my mind telling me to keep my mouth shut because I don’t want to say the wrong thing.
But after lots of thinking about this question and lots of time talking to my black friends about it. Here are the answers I’ve received about what white people can actually do in response to racism when it rears its ugly head and results in outrageous tragedy like what happened to Ahmaud.
1) Examine Ourselves
One of the most important things for white people to do is to take time and do a thorough inventory of our own souls. We need to meditate on the question of whether or not there is any racial prejudice lurking in our own hearts.
I don’t know anyone who considers themself a racist. Most racists would never say they are. I think it’s because the seeds of prejudice that give birth to racism are subtle and easy to dismiss and excuse.
I wonder if the men who have now been arrested for the killing of Ahmaud would consider themselves racist. Maybe they do. Maybe they are blatant and outright bigots.
But my guess is that it’s more likely they had an insidious prejudice residing in their hearts that went unchecked and caused them to project criminality onto an innocent man because they associate the color of his skin with criminal activity.
You’re probably not a racist. But is it possible that there is even a hint of that prejudice dwelling in an unexamined corner of your soul?
“A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.” Galatians 5:9
2) Speak Out
One of the most powerful quotes I’ve ever seen is on the wall at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. It comes from a German Pastor who reflects on what happens when people fail to speak out on behalf of others who are experiencing injustice.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
-Martin NiemollerNiemoller is a fascinating and instructive figure for us today because in his younger years he harbored a kind of culturally conditioned anit-semitism that actually lead him to support Hitler and his political party early on.
It was only once he began to personally experience the oppression of the nazi party and eventually ended up in a concentration camp for speaking out in opposition that his view was changed.
He shared this in a TV interview in the 1960’s:
“… it was not at all clear to me what only dawned upon me later in the concentration camp: that, as a Christian, I must conduct myself not according to my sympathies or antipathies, but must see in each human being, even if he is unsympathetic to me, the fellow human being for whom Jesus Christ hung His cross as much as for me. This simply precludes any form of rejection and action against a group of human beings of any race, any religion, any skin color.”
Niemoller felt such regret and remorse for his failure to stand up and speak out against evil and injustice that he wrote this in his memoir in 1946:
“Thus, whenever I chance to meet a Jew known to me before, then, as a Christian, I cannot but tell him: ‘Dear Friend, I stand in front of you, but we can not get together, for there is guilt between us. I have sinned and my people has sinned against thy people and against thyself.”
Let us not make the same mistakes and bear the same sins as Martin Niemoller. Let’s have the courage to speak out against injustice even before it personally impacts us.
“Cry loudly, do not hold back; Raise your voice like a trumpet, And declare to My people their transgression And to the house of Jacob their sins.” Isaiah 51:8
3) Seek to Understand
Some of the most genuinely eye opening experiences I have had in regards to issues of race have been sitting down and asking my black friends questions like,
“How do you feel about this?”
“How have you been affected by what happened?”
“What’s it like being black in America?”
“Tell me about a time you experienced racism.”
And here’s a really important one: “As a white person, what don’t I understand?”
The answers and stories I’ve heard, and the perspective I’ve received from listening to my black brothers and sisters, has changed me.
I’ve heard from a good friend about how he has experienced racism from people within our own church. I heard from a black father the fear his children experience when he leaves for work after yet another headline of a black man being shot to death. I’ve heard about the worry black mothers feel when their sons go out at night. I heard from a friend about how his family's house got egged because they were the first black family to move into an all white neighborhood and weren’t wanted there. I’ve heard multiple stories of terrifying incidents involving law enforcement and assumption of guilt associated with the color of their skin.
But here’s the operative statement in that last paragraph.
I HEARD.
And I only heard because I cared to ask and determined to listen.
I see FAR too many white people taking to social media to talk and tell instead of asking and listening. They are not speaking up against injustice, they are trying to inform people of color about racism.
Stop it.
We need to stop telling black people how we think they should feel and start listening to how they actually feel.
He who gives an answer before he hears, It is folly and shame to him. Proverbs 18:13
4) Pray
As a Christian I believe prayer is not a last resort but a first response. So prayer to me, is not actually a point on this list; it’s something that should saturate and motivate all of the other points.
We should prayerfully examine ourselves.
We should pray for the words to say when speaking out.
We should pray for empathy and compassion to understand our brothers and sisters.
We should pray for the families of victims of injustice. And we should pray against the evil of racism. We should pray for our law enforcement. We should pray for our leaders. We should pray for our country.
We should just pray. A lot.
I believe prayer changes things. And I believe that the first and most important thing prayer changes is me.
Prayer changes me because it keeps me connected to the God of justice and mercy. It reminds me that God hates racism and evil more than any of us. It keeps me from losing hope. It turns my heart towards the people that God’s heart is turned toward.
And sometimes..it’s all I can think to do.
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
And that is my list of what I believe and have heard white people can do. It’s certainly not exhaustive, but it’s a start.
There is one final thing I’ll add to that list of what white people can do and it’s this:
We can do better.
#AhmaudArbery