Overdue reckoning with white supremacy

You reap what you sow, the Bible warns. Have we ever. America is amid an overdue reckoning for the systemic racism that has been a fundamental feature of our culture for 400 years. President Abraham Lincoln seemed to cast slavery as America’s original sin, and in his second inaugural address acknowledged that if “all the wealth piled by the bond man’s 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk,” that would be a fair judgment.

Yet here we are, a 150 years later, and America has failed to atone for this original sin while committing myriad others against people of color.

Now it feels like the world is spiraling out of control. We are experiencing the effects of ignoring, minimizing and rationalizing sin. If you are uncomfortable with the word sin, just use the word evil in its place. We have allowed evil to flourish.

What white people face

Yes, it’s a scary and chaotic historical moment, but, in the end, this might be what it takes for white people to finally face up to our failure to eradicate the white supremacy that infects our society. As my friend and anti-racism educator Lisa Sharon Harper says, “The only course of action for white people now is repentance and repair.”

I’ll start: I repent for my lack of action. I repent for my lack of urgency. I repent for not listening more. I repent for lacking humility. If the religious language of repentance alienates you, then just try saying, “I’m sorry.”

I urge all white people to really search their conscience and take responsibility for how they’ve benefited from not challenging white supremacy. Because we have all benefited. You think the term “white supremacy” goes too far? I get it, because I used to think the same thing. But it’s actually an accurate descriptive term for the systems of the United States. Against all historical pretensions to the contrary (exhibit A: “All men are created equal”), this country treats whiteness as the supreme value. It works to denigrate and erase any culture not white. It centers the feelings, cultural practices and experiences of white people above that of anyone who isn’t. This, quite simply, is white supremacy.

How many times have you heard a white person take offense at the notion that they may need to examine their racial biases say, “Calling me a racist is the worst thing you could possibly say!”

Perhaps. But there are worst things in life than being accused of racism. Being asphyxiated by a police officer’s knee on your neck is much worse. Having the police called on you for offending a white woman is much worse. Worrying that your child or husband might be murdered for the crime of jogging while black is much worse. Being discriminated against in the workplace is worse. Being discriminated against by the medical system is far worse.

From liberals to the Klan

But that’s white supremacy. White people feel like what’s happening to us is what’s most important. We’ve been taught that we are the soul definers of the American experience. Watch all the videos of white people treating police as their personal security guards when a black person dares to disagree with them. Hello, white supremacy.

Yes, the Ku Klux Klan and the “altright” are also white supremacy. But it’s a spectrum, and it stretches all the way from avowed racists to the most wellmeaning white person who would never use the “N-word,” who calls themselves liberal, who has black friends or black children or a black spouse.

After all, Amy Cooper — who had donated to Barack Obama — nearly got the birder Christian Cooper killed when she called police demanding protection from an “African American man.” The disregard for black bodies is not only found among white-hooded men.

White women, do you hear me? When you call the police on a black man who has upset your sense of privilege, you are risking his life. Whether you are conscious of this or not, on some level you know. Now would be the time to educate yourself about the history of white women getting black men and boys (see: Emmett Till) killed with false accusations and exaggerations. It’s also time for white people who call the police on black people whom they are mad at to get arrested and be charged with making a false police report.

A criminal justice system that has one set of standards for white people and one for everyone else is also a white supremacist organization. Yes, poor white people are mistreated by the criminal justice system, but all things being equal you will invariably be better off being white if you face down a police officer or find yourself accused of a crime. If you don’t believe me, then answer this question: Would you rather be treated the way white people or black people are treated in America? I already know your answer.

What does repair look like? Lincoln made clear it was not just the enslavement of black people, but also the wealth that was accumulated from their “unrequited toil” that was a stain on America. There can be no true repair without monetary reparations. This country would not exist in its current form without the free labor of black people. Even post-slavery, they have never been paid fairly, and they typically lack the generational wealth that benefits many white Americans.

Deal with yourself

For those who say reparations are impossible, I say, “Do your homework.” Reparations have worked in various other contexts, and they can work here. Working toward official reparations will take time, but in the meantime use your money to support the BIPOC Project (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) that’s doing the work of dismantling white supremacy.

Repair also looks like giving up the need to center your experience and your feelings. When you feel hurt by a criticism of white people, deal with that on your own. You do not ask BIPOC to help you feel better. Don’t go to them with your tears about how hard it is to face your own racism. (Believe it or not, this happens all the time.) You do not treat black and brown people as your unofficial pastor to confess your racist sins to. They have had enough trauma and don’t need you to unload yours on them.

Repair looks like privileging the experiences and perspectives of BIPOC over the white narrative. They actually know more about what it’s like to live their lives than you do. Listen to them. Repair looks like you interrogating your own privileges and biases and unlearning your own toxic behavior.

Repair means doing your own work. You do not ask BIPOC to educate you unless you’re paying them for their work. There are plenty of books to read, starting with Austin Channing Brown’s “I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness,” “How to Be Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi and “The Very Good Gospel” by Lisa Sharon Harper.

This is not exhaustive, but it’s a start. I’m still learning, and I won’t pretend to be an expert. I probably wrote more than one tone-deaf thing in this column for which I’ll have to apologize.

If so, I’ll keep repenting and keep learning and playing whatever small role I can in the repair of our broken country as we face this reckoning.