“How would you feel if every time someone who shared your skin color and your history-one that is a history of oppression in this country – was killed, the reaction from the majority class was, ‘well, they must have deserved it’?”
This is a tweet I read recently and have been thinking about. Mainly because it addresses my own experience. When Mike Brown was killed, I started having conversations with other white friends to hear their thoughts on these killings and others like it. Their response was typically “Well, they must have deserved it.” Some whites say this because they believe the stereotype that all black people are thugs. However, I think many others are not intentionally meaning harm when they respond this way.
They do not say it to be derogatory towards black people. They say it because they think our justice system is perfect.
My fellow white people, it makes sense for us to believe that the system is perfect. Most of us have never experienced blatant injustice. Most of us have never felt slighted. And therefore, since the system has worked for us, we expect that it has been just for everyone.
But take a second to think about the gravity of your sin for a moment. Think about how deceptive you know your own heart is. Think about how you constantly want to do good and somehow always fail. Think about how filthy you would be if you came before God apart from Christ. This means you are a broken individual. Most Christians and even most people will not deny this. We know we are not perfect.
Now let’s think of our system– a structure set up by these sinful people. One of my professors, Dr. Fikkert, once said, “If a bunch of broken individuals come together to create a system, the system is going to be broken as well.” And so it is with our system in America.
Because this system prefers us (white people), we do not notice that the system does not prefer others. It is hard for us to see injustice because most of us have not experienced it firsthand. However, those who experience firsthand the injustice of our system cannot help but notice that they are treated worse than others. But when they cry out against the injustice towards them, their words are immediately pushed to the side because, we claim, “I am not a racist.” The problem is that white people and black people are working with two different definitions of “racism.” To whites, a racist is someone who uses racial slurs and vocally agrees with African American stereotypes. To blacks, a racist may be all of those things, but more importantly they are speaking of a racist system that gives preference to whites over minorities.
On The Liturgist Podcast someone clarified, “Just because you don’t use racial slurs doesn’t mean you’re not complicit in a system that is destroying people’s lives because of where they’re from or the color of their skin.”
Now before you exit out of this post, please listen to what I’m saying. Please, my white friends, consider that what you have believed about our justice system and racism may be wrong. I know that is hard, because it requires a complete shift in our thinking. We may have believed these things for 20, 40, or 60 years. They are deeply embedded in us.
But even David prayed, “But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults,” (Psalm 19:12). What we must remember is that many of our faults are hidden from our own eyes. Can we not, along with David, come to God and our brothers and sisters in Christ and say, “Who can discern their own errors? Help me see what I cannot see myself.” Does not the blood of Christ enable us to consider that our hearts and our systems may be more broken than we realize? Does not the gospel free us to search our hearts and the systems we are a part of for injustice, knowing that we will find grace and forgiveness at the cross?
God speaks of justice in Isaiah 10:1-2, “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.”
And again in Isaiah 1:17, “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
I could list many more verses that show the Lord is deeply concerned about injustice. My fellow white believers, if we hear an entire people group crying out that they feel justice is lacking and they are oppressed, should we not be absolutely sure that they are not telling the truth before we dismiss their viewpoints? If the heart of God cares so much about injustice and speaks so harshly about those that cause it, should we not be absolutely sure that we are not the cause, lest we sin against our God?
Would we be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Would we pray with David, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” (Psalm 139:23-24).
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