The Tragedy of Whiteness

Throughout the entire history of the United States of America, and even before, to the very first time Europeans set foot on the continent, its existence has been based on a simple idea: that white people are superior to all other human beings. This notion arose from ignorance and greed and continued because of the need to morally justify the institution of slavery. As Bryan Stevenson puts it, we became a “slave society”: “[T]his narrative of racial difference has done really destructive things in our society. Lots of countries had slaves, but they were mostly societies with slaves. We became something different, we became a slave society. We created a narrative of racial difference to maintain slavery.” Because nothing was ever done to deal with the narrative that allowed slavery to remain morally upright in White America, but only with the institution of slavery itself, Stevenson continues, “I don’t believe slavery  ended in 1865, I believe it just evolved.”[1]

Whiteness does not exist. It was simply a social construction built to distinguish those who were allowed full rights in the world (both in America and in Europe) from those were not. Yes, people have different color skin, but that is only because of the region of the world one’s ancestors lived in, not some deep-seated difference. We are all human, and there are biologically no sub-groups of humans. The only existing sub-groups are culturally created ones. The social idea that is whiteness is tragic. It began under tragic circumstances, as those who created whiteness for themselves did so to assert superiority over other humans. Like slavery in America, whiteness has evolved, but today is no less tragic than it was in 1776, or 1860, or 1953, or 1963.[2]

I believe that the great tragedy of whiteness today is ignorance. Being white means being able to ignore the racial injustices that continue, and accepting that ignorance. It means learning a whitewashed (pun intended) version of our nation’s history taught in schools. It means living in suburbia to avoid having to confront segregation face-to-face. It means the re-segregation of schools so that white children can learn about the triumph that was Brown v Board without having to experience it. It means being able to not be consciously racist and feel “reverse racism” from affirmative action because of a lack of knowledge of how difficult it continues to be for non-white Americans to achieve true equality. It means believing that free-market capitalism is completely meritocratic and therefore cannot be a remotely racist practice, despite a historic legacy of insuring that it is. It means believing that the American Dream is alive and well for all, despite the fact that it was only ever intended for white people.

Not all white people are ignorant of their privilege, but many are. Due to continued segregation, income inequality, and other injustices that exist today as a direct result of blatantly racist policies of the past, I believe that each white person who ignores the present inequality actively helps to perpetuate it. While this reality is not the fault of individual white people, it is a reality that has been intentionally created by other white people. White people have worked extremely hard for centuries to ensure that any white person who does not consider themselves racist but does not know the realities of the racial climate actually perpetuates racial injustice. It is not an accident. White people must fight their own ignorance in order to begin to deal truthfully with the realities of the United States of America, both past and present.

I will end on a hopeful note: perhaps change is actually happening. In an article about a recent poll that showed a substantial drop in the number of white Americans who believe that race relations are good in America, author David Graham said this: “This theory—that what’s driving ... bleak impressions about race relations is whites awakening to realities that were always extant but had been invisible to them—suggests that the results may actually be cause for optimism. Actively grappling with racial tensions is crucial to solving them; ignoring them may obscure the wounds, but it won’t heal them.”[3] If this is the case, let us continue to become more aware. If not, let us begin.

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[1] https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/06/24/bryan-stevenson-on-charleston-and-our-real-problem-with-race

Ta-Nehisi Coates also refers to America as a “slave society” and details what that means to him in this article: http://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2011/09/the-slave-society-defined/244581/

[2] The founding of our nation, the eve of the Civil War, the year before Brown v Board, and the year before the landmark civil rights legislation of the 1960s, respectively.

[3] http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/are-americans-more-pessimistic-about-raceor-more-realistic/399569/?utm_source=atl-daily-newsletter

The Danger of Islamophobia

Stereotyping, oversimplification, and over-generalization are dangerous things. When people fall into these traps, the best-case scenario is that they are simply ignorant and wrong. The worst-case scenario involves much worse: hate, alienation, and even killing. The mistakes of stereotyping, oversimplification, and over-generalization have the potential to turn humans into monsters, and to blind them to reality. In America and other Western countries, one prevalent, pernicious mistake today is Islamophobia—the fear of Muslims. To fall into the trap of Islamophobia is to be similar to the likely reason for the phobia—radical Islamic terrorist groups.

It may seem ridiculous to say that the American public and the leaders of al-Qaeda and ISIS are similar. It is ridiculous. But I believe that it is nonetheless true. Islamophobia involves the stereotyping, oversimplification, and over-generalization of Muslims and even non-Muslim Arabs. It leads people to fear and hate all Muslims. While Americans have good reason to fear and hate the perpetrators of such calamities as the 9/11 attacks, they often make the mistake of transferring that fear and hate to a more widespread group—all 1 billion-plus Muslims in the world—who had nothing to do with those attacks.

This is the exact same mistake the leaders of extremist terrorists groups make. These people fear and hate America and Western civilization. They have good reason to—Western nations have waged numerous wars in the Middle East for not-so-good reasons. But they make the mistake of transferring that fear and hate to a more widespread group—all 300 million-plus American citizens—who had very little or nothing to do with the wars and attacks their nation carried out.

When Americans judge and discriminate against Muslims, they are falling into the same trap Osama bin Laden fell into—stereotyping, oversimplifying, and overgeneralizing based on their justified fear, anger, and sometimes hate. We must fight to keep from falling victim to Islamophobia. To fight requires becoming informed about the reasons many Islamic radicals hate America, and to realize that those are indeed radicals and do not remotely represent the over 1 billion people who ascribe to more orthodox versions of Islam. When we let our fear blind us, we are doing the same thing as the people who caused our fear.  

American Exceptionalism Part III: Strive for a Better America

This is the final part of a three-part post. This post begins with a continuation of a non-comprehensive list of American shortcomings.

3. Continued mistreatment of immigrants

The last two points I will share in this post contain a common thread: hypocrisy. In this case, the hypocrisy comes as America simultaneously claims to be a nation of immigrants and mistreats and dehumanizes whoever happens to be the current wave. In the past this has been variously Eastern Europeans, Catholics, and East Asians. Now it is Latinos. At almost no point in the history of the nation that prides itself on being a nation of immigrants (which it only is because it wiped out nearly the entire native population, as chronicled in the previous point) has there been a time when the current wave of immigrants has been welcomed with open arms. This hypocrisy needs to be addressed because it is very much in existence today.

4. Failed meddlings in other countries’ business

While most Americans are at least aware of the first two issues, and possibly the third, even if they push them to the corners of their minds, this is an important issue that I am afraid many people are ignorant of. The CIA has confirmed involvement in 7 coup d’etats in other countries between 1953 and 1973. Here is a chart and a map chronicling these overthrows:[i]

Year	Country	Leader	How Leader Came to Power	Succeeded By
1953	Iran	Mohammed Mosaddegh	Democratically elected	Dictatorial Shah
1954	Guatemala	Jacobo Arbenz	Democratically elected	Military junta
1960	Congo	Patrice Lumumba	Democratically elected	Dictator
1961	Dominican Republic	Rafael Trujillo	Military power	US-directed elections
1963	South Vietnam	Ngo Dinh Diem	Democratically elected	Military junta
1964	Brazil	João Goulart	Democratically elected	Military junta
1973	Chile	Salvador Allende	Democratically elected	Military dictatorship

The 7 officially confirmed CIA-assisted coups

This, again, is only the list of countries the CIA has officially admitted involvement in. This list does not count, for example, the many failed attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro in Cuba or the (illegal) arming of the Contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s. Some of these stories, however, are even more disturbing upon an investigation of the details.

Iran

This story is incredibly important as it explains why Iran hates us so much, and probably deserves its own blog post considering its import to current foreign policy. Here are the basics: Mohammed Mosaddegh was elected Prime Minister of Iran in 1951. At the time, BP (British Petroleum) was a major presence in Iran (along with other foreign oil companies), drilling Iran’s oil and making its own profit. Mosaddegh made the mistake of nationalizing Iran’s oil in order to keep Iran’s wealth in Iran, upon which the British MI6 asked their American counterparts to get rid of the popular Mosaddegh. They complied, returning power back to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah (monarch). The Shah was pro-US and was a ruthless dictator to his own people. The US continued to prop the Shah up until his dictatorial regime came crashing down in the revolution of 1979 (depicted in the movie Argo). One of the main reasons Iran hates the US is that the CIA overthrew their incredibly popular leader and replaced him with a ruthless dictator.

Guatemala

Jacobo Arbenz was elected President of Guatemala after a revolution that overthrew a US-supported dictator. At the time, United Fruit Company, an American corporation, owned large portions of Guatemalan land and underpaid Guatemalan workers, to the point where United Fruit made twice as much money as the government of Guatemala. Arbenz instituted land reforms, which hurt United Fruit and benefited Guatemalan businesses, thus prompting United Fruit to ask the American government to support a coup. Although Arbenz’s reforms helped most of his own people, the American corporation was successful in its lobbying and the CIA overthrew Arbenz and installed a military government instead. Today the United Fruit Company is known as Chiquita International.

Congo

After being terrorized first by King Leopold II of Belgium from 1885 to 1908, and then by Belgian parliament from 1908 to 1960, Congo finally overthrew its colonial overlords and gained independence. The Congo Free State, as it was called under Leopold’s singlehanded rule, could also easily be the topic of its own blog post, but to make an extremely long and sad story short, the King of Belgium ran the Congo as his own personal colony for 23 years, during which he made ridiculous sums of money by using the native population as slave labor. During those 23 years the population of the territory decreased by half. When he was finally forced out of power, Leopold had to give it up to the country of which he was king. Upon gaining independence, the Congolese elected Patrice Lumumba, an extremely popular Prime Minister. After being rejected by the American government, Lumumba sought help for his fledgling nation from the other great world power: the Soviet Union. Because of this, the CIA helped overthrow Lumumba and eventually installed Joseph Mobutu, a corrupt dictator.[ii]

These are just a few of the times the American government has stepped in to ostensibly “spread the cause of democracy” and utterly failed to do so. In addition to the overthrows of multiple popular, democratically elected officials, almost every venture into the Middle East, driven largely by the American dependence on oil, has been a complete failure, only increasing by steps the hatred most in the region feel (I would argue that it is a justified hatred) for the United States.

I will grant Ben Carson this: if the only events taught in APUSH were those I just outlined and other similarly terrible things, ISIS might actually seem like a viable alternative to what could be construed as a 250-year terrorist regime. There needs to be a balance of the good and the bad. To me the biggest good is this: America is a work in progress. There have been positive events as well, and I believe those are important to teach, but the idea that this country can be improved is what makes living here worth it. It is what makes learning about the negative aspects of America’s history important. We can avoid repeating some of the same mistakes, but only if we acknowledge that they happened. America was not created perfect—the Constitution’s 27 amendments alone can attest to that. I believe, however, that it is better now than it has been at most points in our history. Sometimes we take a “one step forward, one step back” approach, but things are getting better. I think awareness of continued racial strife is growing, and change follows awareness—not always as fast as we want, but eventually. If APUSH is taught well, it should leave students not wanting to join ISIS, but rather desiring to make their country better. I will conclude with a poignant excerpt from President Obama’s speech on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, commemorating the 50^th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday”:

What could be more American than what happened in this place? What could more profoundly vindicate the idea of America than plain and humble people -- the unsung, the downtrodden, the dreamers not of high station, not born to wealth or privilege, not of one religious tradition but many -- coming together to shape their country's course?

What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this; what greater form of patriotism is there; than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals?[iii]

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[i] http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/20/mapped-the-7-governments-the-u-s-has-overthrown/

[ii] Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible gives an inside look at these events and is an incredibly powerful work of historical fiction.

[iii] The complete text of the speech can be found at this link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-reifowitz/the-selma-speech-obamas-a_b_6846610.html and this is the video of the speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SoG4KZOvRc

American Exceptionalism Part II: Without it We'll All Join ISIS

This is the second part in a three-part piece about the idea of American exceptionalism. I will post part III later this week.

I want to come back to the particular narrative, or myth, that has been particularly strong, and also newsworthy, lately: American exceptionalism. It is one of those ideas that has become so ingrained that it has been unwittingly (and occasionally intentionally) perpetuated as propaganda by countless teachers, politicians, and media personalities. I won’t go into detail here about where the idea came from, but Foreign Policy has a nice piece from 2012 recounting the history of both the idea and the phrase itself, which I would recommend.[i] I want to briefly discuss the controversy over American exceptionalism brought on by the new AP US History (APUSH) curriculum, provide some counterexamples to American exceptionalism, and suggest a more well-rounded view of America.

American exceptionalism says that America is a unique country and has an obligation to spread its values around the world. It seems to me that, for most Americans who ascribe to the myth, it includes, in addition to the mandate to spread its values worldwide, the idea that America is great because of domestic ideas related to the American Dream as well—as political sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset says, “liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism, and laissez faire.”[ii] College Board recently changed its curriculum framework for APUSH to one that led students to question the American exceptionalism narrative more than the previous framework had. The new framework is based on themes, which are, according to the College Board website, Identity; Work, Exchange, and Technology; Peopling; Politics and Power; America in the World; Environment and Geography—Physical and Human; and Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture.[iii] Dr. Ben Carson, now a Republican Presidential candidate, said that this framework of themes would cause “most people when they finish that course, [to] be ready to sign up for ISIS.”[iv]

First of all, the course is only a framework and it is up to individual teachers to flesh out that framework. Second, the accusation brought by Carson, as well as the Republican National Committee, is that the course emphasizes the negative aspects of American history while skimming over the positive ones. If there are enough parts of American history that are negative enough that any APUSH student would actually want to sign up for ISIS upon completing the class, then I think that rather than condemn the class designers, we should take a long hard look in our country’s historical mirror. In addition to this, if focusing on solely the negative aspects of American history is unacceptable, then surely focusing solely on the positives would be equally egregious, right? 

I think Dr. Carson’s words point out a gaping hole in the American mentality. If we are unable to examine our past ills as a country, how are we going to learn from our mistakes? Dr. Carson continued in the same speech, saying, “We have got to stop this silliness. We have to stop crucifying ourselves. Have we made mistakes as a nation? Of course we have. Why? Because we are people and all people make mistakes.” I agree that people make mistakes, but I also believe that ignoring those mistakes would be even worse than making them in the first place.

I think that in light of this fear of self-examination, Americans need to confront the fear by acknowledging the country’s past mistakes in order to learn from them. Here are some that I think are especially important in consideration of their affect on the world now:

1. Treatment of Native Americans

Below its more famous sections, the Declaration of Independence
refers to Native Americans as "the merciless Indian Savages."
Photo credit to Mark Charles at wirelesshogan.com

Christopher Columbus did not discover America. Millions of people already lived there. While the United States is not alone in the mistreatment of Native Americans, it is still a dark mark in the history of the country that cannot be pushed aside (but too often is). In the 1820s Andrew Jackson defied the Supreme Court and forced multiple tribes off their land in the southeast and forced them to march to what is now Oklahoma, resulting in thousands of deaths along the way. Long before the not-so-subtly named Indian Removal Act that authorized the Trail of Tears, however, the founding fathers wrote a document that labeled these people as “merciless Indian savages.” Earlier in this same document is found the much more well-known line, “all men are created equal.” Even after the Trail of Tears the nation was not done mistreating those who had occupied their land for centuries: throughout the 19^th century, the United States army carried out a genocide of native tribes in the Great Plains. The few times where this genocide faltered due to opposition by those who, understandably, did not want to be killed, were given romanticized names like “Custer’s Last Stand.” Associated with this series of battles meant to steal the natives’ land was what is known as the Trail of Broken Treaties. Lakota chief Red Cloud put it well: “They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they kept only one; they promised to take our land, and they did.”

2. Treatment of African Americans

American failures in this area are innumerable. Beginning with slavery and continuing through the Jim Crow south, white Americans have, to this day, maintained an ideological, economic, and social superiority to non-white Americans, and specifically African Americans. The gradual gains African Americans have been able to make in the face of white opposition should be praised, but in most cases the changes achieved were quite small compared to what was needed, and the changes were always too late. We cannot gloss over the historical mistreatment of African Americans because the mistreatment and inequality continues today. Despite Brown v Board of Education in 1954 (61 years ago!), schools today are still incredibly segregated. There is still an enormous income gap, and segregation is alive and well in American cities. In order to continue pressing for change and equality, the past and present sins of white America must be addressed.

In Part III I will explore two more parts of American history and conclude with my idea of what American exceptionalism should be.

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[i] http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/06/18/american-exceptionalism-a-short-history/

[ii] I found this quoted in a Washington Post article about American Exceptionalism: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/09/12/american-exceptionalism-explained

[iii] For more details on what College Board means by these themes, see the course framework here: http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-us-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf

The description of the themes begins on page 20.

[iv] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/29/ben-carson-new-ap-u-s-history-course-will-make-kids-want-to-sign-up-for-isis/

American Exceptionalism Part I: How Myths Perpetuate

This is the first part in a three-part piece about the idea of American exceptionalism. I will post parts II and III later this week.

The American Dream. Rags-to-riches. Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. The “arsenal of democracy.” A global force for good. The world’s policeman. ‘Murica. The land of opportunity. All of these ideas stem from one persistent myth: American exceptionalism.[i] American exceptionalism is, self-explanatorily, the idea that the United States of America is exceptional. While America is generally a good country to live in (more so for white people), I believe the myth of American exceptionalism often goes too far, leaving people who buy into it unable to see the ills we face as a country, and, therefore, unable to strive to actually make this country exceptional.

I think there are a couple of reasons why propagation of this myth continues. The first is simply that it is much easier to ignore deep-rooted problems than it is to confront them. There definitely are good aspects of America’s history, but these have been exaggerated within the myth of American exceptionalism through the second reason for its perpetuation: propaganda. When people hear about propaganda, they usually think about Nazi Germany or maybe North Korea, but American history has seen its fair share of propaganda, too. While much of the obvious propaganda appeared during the two World Wars, propaganda is much more prevalent than most people realize.

Nazi propaganda poster

American WWII propaganda poster

Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley recently published a book called How Propaganda Works. In an interview about this book with the New Books Network, Stanley gave an overview of his findings about propaganda in democratic societies.[ii] He said he divided propaganda into two types: “supporting” propaganda, which “increases an ideal without a good reason,” and “undermining” propaganda, which is “when you appeal to an ideal in the service of a goal that tends to erode that very ideal.” Supporting propaganda seems to be everywhere in America. It simply adds to ideas and feelings already in existence, such as patriotism. An example Stanley gives of supporting propaganda is “waving the flag to increase patriotism.” While supporting propaganda is dangerous on its own, as it is not backed up by reason, evidence, or reality, it is even more dangerous when paired with undermining propaganda.

Stanley’s definition of undermining propaganda, while confusing on the surface, makes sense through looking at examples. One such example Stanley gives is the Bush administration’s “appeal to stability in invading Iraq, when invading Iraq made us less stable.” This is undermining propaganda at work: claiming that stability is the reason for invasion, while that invasion simultaneously erodes stability. Another example is that of the War on Drugs, which appealed to law and order, while in practice it was actually incredibly racist, undermining the ideal of equality under law, and also the ideal of safety and order. The War on Drugs was supposed to keep streets safer, but inequitable laws and unfair enforcement ended up tearing apart the families they were supposed to protect. Stanley shows the danger of undermining propaganda through the example of the Iraq War:

Ideology comes in to lead us to fail to see the conflict between the ideal and the goal. So why did the Iraq War work? Why did saying that 69% of Americans in February 2003 believed that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11? Well because of the ideology that Muslims or Arabs are terrorists, so people just found it very plausible that he was involved. That blinded them to the conflict between stability and invading Iraq.... The reason we don’t see the contradiction is because we have an ideology.... The idea is that flawed ideological belief, flawed conceptual schemes, will bar you from seeing social reality.

When propaganda becomes so ingrained in both public and individual consciousness, it becomes impossible to distinguish fictitious ideas from reality. It is even more dangerous because people do not even have to know that they have bought in to propaganda in order to perpetuate it: “You can be sincere and not think you’re doing propaganda, and still be delivering propaganda because you’re under the grips of a flawed ideology.” While democratic societies find it hard to maintain a dedicated ministry of propaganda like those of Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Communist China, or George Orwell’s 1984 “Big Brother” government, once the ball gets rolling on a certain narrative on propaganda, a dedicated ministry is really no longer necessary.[iii]

In Part II I will return to the myth of American exceptionalism and some of the controversy surrounding it.

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[i] There is a book on the topic: The Myth of American Exceptionalism by Godfrey Hodgson. I have not read it yet, but it is currently in the mail from Amazon.

[ii] New Books Network (NBN) is a series of podcasts in which hosts interview authors of recent books in various scholarly disciplines. I have found them to be excellently done and very informative. All of the following quotes are from Stanley’s interview with NBN, not from his book itself. The entire network’s website is http://newbooksnetwork.com/, and Stanley’s particular interview is at http://newbooksinphilosophy.com/2015/05/01/jason-stanley-how-propaganda-works-princeton-up-2015/. NBN podcasts can also be downloaded on iTunes and other media.

[iii] The United States has had dedicated government departments for propaganda in the past, although without the word “propaganda” explicitly in the title. In addition, while Wikipedia is far from the most reliable source, the Wikipedia page for “Ministry of Propaganda” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_propaganda) lists the current Broadcasting Board of Governors alongside the more notorious Joseph Goebbels and the other totalitarian regimes I listed as an example of a ministry of propaganda. Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman’s 1988 book, Manufacturing Consent, also accuses the American mass media of propaganda.

A Season for Lament

This morning the sermon at church called for American Christians to engage in a season of lament following the tragic shootings in Charleston. I have thought about putting some of my thoughts into written words a few times in the aftermath of Charleston, but this finally gave me a framework with which to collect my thoughts. I agree with Pastor Harrison that it is high time Americans took seriously both the nation’s history and its present reality, rather than celebrating blind patriotism and ignoring the problems. Unfortunately for many American Christians, engaging in lamentation over the country’s problems also requires confronting some deeply-held myths that have been perpetuated—some for decades, some for even longer—about what it means to be an American, and about what it means to be a Christian.

Most dangerous among these myths is the two-headed monster that claims that Christianity and patriotism are one and the same and that America is a Christian nation. This myth is dangerous because it causes many Christians to find any questioning of America’s greatness borderline heretical, and it is impossible to lament our nation’s history and difficult present if we refuse to acknowledge America’s propensity for failure. I do not know exactly when and where this idea began, but I would guess that it could be traced back at least to the idea of Manifest Destiny[i] in the mid-19^th century, if not to the landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock in 1620. This myth is not a unique American phenomenon, and has been around since Constantine’s conversion. As Pastor Brian Zahnd says, “We’ve seen this phenomenon in all the so-called Christian empires of the West—Rome, Byzantium, Russia, France, Spain, Portugal, Britain, Germany, America—and often with disastrous results. Instead of being a prophetic witness to the kingdom of Christ and challenging the arrogant assertions of economic and military superpowers, a compromised church perpetuates the shopworn myth that ‘God has raised up our nation.’” 

Just because America is the most powerful nation in the world does not mean that God is on our side, or that we are actually “one nation under God.” Rome was the most powerful nation in the world during Jesus’ ministry but by no means did that mean it was blessed by God. When American Christians buy into the myth that their faith and their patriotism are the same thing, there is a danger (and often a reality) that nationalism can supersede a true commitment to Jesus. As Zahnd continues, “when nationalism subverts a radical commitment to the kingdom of Christ, the church is prone to salute the flag and turn a blind eye to sins like colonial conquest, imperial expansion, aggressive militarism, economic injustice, and racial oppression.” It is exactly these sins that I believe American Christians today should lament, but before we can lament them we must throw off the “patriotism-is-faith” myth.[ii]

Another myth (one that is definitely not limited to Christians but definitely includes them) is that racism no longer exists in America (or that only very few Americans are racist). I think this view was summed up in South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s reaction to the issue. Speaking about racism in a gubernatorial debate last fall (obviously before the Charleston shooting, but after the beginnings of the Ferguson protests), Governor Haley said, “But we really kind of fixed all that when you elected the first Indian-American female governor. When we appointed the first African-American U.S. senator, that sent a huge message.” Apparently, according to the Governor, electing a non-white person to public office “fixes” racism. Unfortunately, Governor Haley is not alone among Americans in this belief. Too many Americans think that racism ended with the end of slavery at the end of the Civil War[iii] (this may seem ridiculous considering the early-to-mid-20^th century resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and the Jim Crow-era South, but this belief still exists), or that it ended with the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act of the mid-1960s. To believe either of these things is to ignore the continuing racial disparity in the United States. 

This disparity shows itself through socioeconomic status, housing, and education. The gaps between white people and African-Americans and Hispanics in these areas have their roots in historically racist policies that, while no longer in effect, leave their legacies quite clearly.[iv] Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer who fights against mass incarceration and racial injustice for the Equal Justice Initiative, said in an interview, “I don’t believe slavery ended in 1865, I believe it just evolved.”[v]This evolution of slavery, rooted in history, rears its ugly head in the form of events such as the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the subsequent protests, Freddie Gray’s death in police custody in Baltimore and the ensuing riots, and the Charleston shooting,[vi] among others. It’s one thing to lament these events, but I really think we need to lament the underlying structural racism that leads to these events—a prerequisite of which is recognizing that racism, structural as well as overt, is still rampant in our society.

Today's racial distribution in Grand Rapids, MI almost exactly reflects HOLC's 1937 map that told buyers which properties were more "desirable". The higher-ranked zones from 1937 (in green and blue on the top map) are predominantly white today (green on the bottom map), and the lower-ranked zones (yellow and red on the top map) are predominantly populated by minorities today.

If American Christians can manage to cast aside these myths, I think that only then can we truly lament in the way David lamented after his friend Jonathan died, the example Pastor Harrison used in his sermon this morning. We need to lament with the families of those killed in Charleston. We need to lament both that they were killed out of hate, and that Dylann Roof was able to grow up in a community that fostered such hate. We need to lament the half-dozen African-American churches that have been burned, some likely by the KKK or other related groups, in the short interval since the Charleston shooting, and the lack of media attention they have received.[vii] We need to lament the Trail of Tears, the taking of Native American lands, and the fact that the Declaration of Independence itself, which we revere as a nation on the 4^th of July, refers to those from whom America has stolen this country as “merciless Indian savages.”[viii] These things and many others deserve to be lamented. What if, instead of blind patriotism, the 4^th of July inspired thoughtful lament about our country’s troubles? What if, instead of celebrating our country’s past, which, on closer inspection, leaves much to be desired, we looked at what our country could be like if all of our nation’s Christians lamented our troubles and set to work bringing the Kingdom of God here and now? What if we spent more time showing the love and forgiveness the families in Charleston have shown and less time trying to convince ourselves that nothing is wrong? If we truly give up the myths and lament our country’s pains and wrongs, maybe some true change can arise.[ix]

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[i] For those a little foggy on this part of American history beyond the Little House on the Prairie and the Oregon Trail game, Manifest Destiny was the idea that Americans (the white ones, anyway) had a God-given mandate to stretch America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, ignoring any Natives already living on the land.

[ii] The full interview with Brian Zahnd can be found here: (http://www.redletterchristians.org/the-american-way-and-the-jesus-way-in-conflict/). I would highly recommend reading it as it goes into more detail about the myth and also highlights some of Pastor Zahnd’s ministry.

[iii] Still called “The War of Northern Aggression” by many Southerners and even in some textbooks used in the South.

[iv] One such policy is shown in the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) map of Grand Rapids, MI, from 1937 (http://www.historygrandrapids.org/tilemap/2596/the-holc-map). Looking at the descriptions of the different grades for areas and also at some of the individual areas’ evaluations gives an idea of what was going on in cities around the country. Looking at the HOLC map and other maps and policies from around the country in comparison with maps that show where people of different races live today (the maps at http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html and http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer are my favorites) shows clearly both modern-day segregation and its historical roots.

[v] I would strongly recommend reading the interview in its entirety: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/06/24/bryan-stevenson-on-charleston-and-our-real-problem-with-race

[vi] The radical forgiveness and love shown by the church family of the victims in Charleston was a refreshing reaction and embodies what I think Christians should look like to outsiders, but that is the topic for another post.

[vii] A few articles that actually talk about the burnings: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/when-churches-burn/2015/07/02/cee0d4b0-2023-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html and http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/02/us-church-burnings-race-south-carolina

[viii] Mark Charles is an incredible advocate for Native Americans and works tirelessly to inform Americans, especially American Christians, about America’s scarred past, and his article about the 4^th of July from a Native American perspective (http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-dilemma-of-fourth-of-july_11.html) is something that I think all Americans should read. He is also on Twitter @wirelesshogan. I would also recommend his other writings, which can be found on his website, wirelesshogan.com.

[ix] A couple other articles on similar topics to what I wrote about: http://www.redletterchristians.org/getting-church-right-on-the-4th-of-july/ and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/good-men-project/why-its-so-hard-to-talk-to-white-people-about-racism_b_7183710.html