White

 

 I am white. It's an important part of who I am and how I live in the world.

I've spent a decent amount of time in my life thinking about white skin as a part of identity, particularly what my white skin means for my life. My reflection has included being a student in college and graduate school courses that engaged the role of race in American history, religion, literature, politics, and culture; I have studied critical race theory. I have participated in white anti-racism training. I have lived and worked in communities where I was a racial minority. And, though I try not to use this as a shield for my own racism, I have black friends.

None of this has made it easy for me to talk about how being white forms my identity. Rarely have I met a white person who can talk clearly about what it means to be white. White people don't have to--being white is "normal."

But now is a time--the most important time in our nation since the civil rights upheaval in the 50s and 60s--when it's important for white people to talk clearly and plainly about their whiteness.

There are at least two kinds of whiteness distinguishing themselves in our national life:

1. The Unapologetic White: s/he is fatigued of the media and liberals perpetuating the story of persistent societal racism. Generally, the "unapologist" believes he or she is not a racist. S/he says that structural racism is over and done, equal opportunity for all races has been legally and functionally accomplished. People of color have only themselves to blame if they are poor or pregnant or unemployed or in prison. Affirmative action is a crime against whites.
2. The Sympathetic White: s/he feels a persistent burden of the history of white supremacy. The "sympathizer" believes that his/her white identity provides a social advantage--in school, in job applications, in social interactions--s/he is granted small, sometimes hidden benefits because of white skin. S/he feels that while legalized racism is over, the legacy of structural racism has persistent effects, in everything from criminal justice policies, to neighborhood development, to public education. The "sympathizer" believes he or she is not a racist, but is convinced that racism is still a real social issue.

I'm a sympathetic white. But I'm finding that sympathetic whites are plain bad at articulating our identity in the face of the unapologetic whites.

So I want to try and say, as plain as I can, why my whiteness matters.

I benefit by being white, mostly in two ways: 1) the legacy of wealth accumulation in our country benefits me; 2) racial biases continue to shape how America and its citizens perceive race, so that white (like me) is generally seen as good, trustworthy, and safe; black is seen as bad, untrustworthy, and dangerous. Let's look at each of those benefits in more detail:

Wealth:
White people like me benefit because our nation's laws and its informal business practices, from the first European settlements in the 1600s until today, systematically prevented nonwhites from accumulating wealth. Whites could access the basics required for the accumulation of wealth: education, land ownership, stock ownership, voting rights, and the protection of the law. Nonwhites could not claim any of these wealth-creating social benefits. Our cultural system prevented nonwhites from gaining and keeping wealth. Not all whites became wealthy under this system, but very few nonwhites could.

Would anyone dare argue the we are not still living out the implications of 400 years of enforced disparities in wealth? I don't come from wealth, but my ancestors have had generations to benefit from America's wealth-accumulation processes. Even my great-grandparent Ukranian immigrants were permitted to climb the wealth ladder--they could get it and they could keep it. If you are born white, there is a much greater chance that your ancestors had the ability to secure wealth and create a stable economic foundation to protect and preserve your health and welfare. If you are born black in America, you are far more likely to struggle with the effects of enforced poverty: residential segregation into poor communities, substandard schools, high unemployment, and poor health.

Whites like me still benefit today from a cultural system that allowed our families to become wealthy. Blacks, until only one or two generations ago, were prohibited from securing wealth. The effects of our racist past continue in wealth disparities today.

We can't pretend that because the majority of the policies that created structural inequality are not in place today that the effects of those policies don't continue to confer real advantages. Being white is economically advantageous.

Racial Bias:
This stuff is fuzzier and harder to empirically verify than the wealth and subsequent social disparities. But let's put a couple of truths out:

1. Racial bias exists: we judge the character of others based, in part, on the color of their skin. Racial bias is an expression of sub-conscious processes in your mind that render people of different races more difficult to "read" and, therefore, more difficult to trust.  
2. Racial bias is supported by racial stereotypes in the culture around you. Stereotypes are generalized beliefs about the characteristics of another group; they are often connected to prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory actions.  
3. The damaging effects of racial bias on individual psychological well-being are well-documented. 

I harbor racist attitudes. Specifically, I am infected by the disease of "reading" black people differently than I do white people. I did not grow up around black folks, and I did not personally know black families until I was in my 20s. Instead of first-person experience, my racial understanding was influenced by the goodwill of my parents ("all people are equal") and by cultural stereotypes (blacks are better athletes, blacks aren't as smart, blacks are violent). I don't think you can live in America and not be infected by racist--or at least highly racialized--thinking.

As I've grown up and grown closer and more intimate with people who are black, I have been able to recognize and name my own racial biases. I don't know if I will ever be able to free myself of my biases, but as a Christian, I regularly confess them, ask for forgiveness for them, and work on replacing them with perspectives formed through real relationships with people who are black.

If you'd like to read a bit more on the enduring complexities of racial bias, here's an engaging article from the Daily Beast from 2009. Toure explores some of the contemporary implications of racial bias in a 2012 article for Time. And for a look at how race is both genetic and socially-constructed, there may be no more entertaining source than Henry Louis Gates' PBS programs, African American Lives and Faces of America.

So, what's a sympathetic white to do?

I suggest a couple of things:

1. Acknowledge that you're a racist. If you are white, you are a racist if you live in this country and your perspective on race has been informed by the predominant racial stereotypes in our culture. It doesn't help to pretend that you are beyond seeing racial distinctions or that you are "color blind." I'm unconvinced that such an identity is possible, nor helpful.
2. Practice charity and patronize black-owned businesses. Support, through your own life, the redistribution of wealth into poor and/or historically disenfranchised communities. Buy a house in a poor community, live there, spend your dollars there, support the schools there.
3. Advocate politically for policies that broadly re-distribute wealth to poor communities. Such policies might include affirmative action, affordable housing, public education, criminal justice reform, and affordable community-based childcare. For communities and groups that literally had their wealth stolen from them, it is not too much to continue to intentionally put money back into those communities in the form of intentional investments in the foundations for long-term wealth accumulation.
4. Make a black friend. I don't see how you can ultimately beat back your own racism without  having meaningful long-term relationships with black people.

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