God's Justice when Whiteness Stands Its Ground

God dwells in you let us pray I was totally in loving God thank you thank you for your unyielding presence with us thank you for loving us so much that you refused to let us go thank you for being among us as a spirit of courage a spirit of wisdom a spirit of challenge thank you for your call to us to be Church in powerful ways and to follow Christ in powerful ways and thank you for the love that you have for each of us and all of us and all of your children that gives us the fuel to get the job done welcome it is phenomenal to be here this morning everyone turned a wave at the camera welcome to everyone streaming online if you're new and all saints are visiting us this morning we hope that you sign one of the green contact sheets near the doors pick up a red welcome bag which are on the lawn fill out the Welcome cards that are in there I don't want to spend a lot of time talking because I want to make sure that we have as much time as possible for our speaker for the Reverend dr. Kelly Brown Douglas she is a scholar and activist a theologian a seminary Dean a Canon at National Cathedral and an amazing author and a prolific author we have only two of her books she has many more available but I recommend both of them to you one is sexuality in the black church a womanist perspective the other is stand your ground black bodies and the justice of God both of these are available over at the book table on there for those of you who are watching around the country they're available online but they're also available I'm sure at your local independent bookseller and so please patronize your local independent bookseller and really I want to just say it is just such an honor and a privilege to have you here and just ask you to welcome the Reverend dr. Kelly Brown Douglas Thank You Reverend Kinmen and thank all of you all for being here today and as I said earlier I am really happy to be here and grateful for your what has been very warm hospitality but I have to confess the truth I am even more grateful for being here because of your very warm weather given from where I have come in New York so this is paradise I want to spend most of this time this morning in conversation and in dialogue with you but let me try to set the table a little bit for the things that I hope we will engage in our conversation together this forum was titled God's justice when whiteness stands its ground right so my hmm anybody ready to get off the plane yet so what does that mean hmm when whiteness stands its ground what do I mean by whiteness as I look out and there are many of you who happen to look like white Americans mmm or is there a difference between happening to look like a white American and acting like one hmm fine line and this is what I want to talk about when I'm talking about whiteness standing its ground what it means to not simply look like a white American but to act like one so in order to understand that it seems to me that we have to understand something very fundamental about our country in this nation of ours and that is is that this country really has now her decide as yet I should say yet to decide whether or not it is going to be when I will explain it in a few moments an anglo-saxon nation where whiteness indeed stands its ground or whether or not it's truly going to be a nation for the huddled masses who yearn to be free that decision has not yet been made it we going to be a nation that lives into the legacy of slavery or not w eb de bois once described the african-american as one with a warring soul whether to be African or American well this nation can be described in such ways as well a nation with a warring soul so when I talk about this nation as a anglo-saxon nation here's what we just have to be clear when we're talking about who we are as a nation when it was founded indeed when it's pilgrim and Puritan forebears crossed the ocean they truly believed that they were carrying forth the legacy of a ancient anglo-saxon people from the ancient woods of Germany they believed that they believed that they were called to carry forth what they thought was this people's distinctive in love for freedom as well as their unique moral conscience and so they intended to build a nation that was culturally the was politically if not demographically a reflection of their anglo-saxon forbearers and here's the thing our very founding fathers believed the same I won't go into all of the details I invite you to read further about that too not to try to sell my book and look at stuff on live you don't to buy it but I go into much further detail about that for which we don't have time today but give the thing to know is that the city on the hill that our founding fathers and Puritan and pilgrim forebears intended to build was a city that was to be a monument to anglo-saxon exceptionalism period American exceptionalism was equivalent to anglo-saxon exceptionalism the Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison puts it this way she says deep within the understanding of America is race it's at the center of who we are that's who we intended to be this nation was intended to be a nation that carried forth anglo-saxon ways Qatar and was comprised of anglo-saxons themselves but now you might think hmm but everybody that looks like an anglo-saxon isn't an anglo-saxon it's true there is a vexing problem in this country from its very beginnings this is an immigrant country from its very beginnings those pure didn't pilgrims or even roots then that's being nice to say who they were when they came to this land it's fundamentally an immigrant REE which means this that even those many of those who came from Europe we're not a gross accent and we know that right and so what to do about this what to do and we know that those particularly in this flood of persons that would come to Europe in the early part of the 20th century latter part of the 19th century that were coming in particular from eastern and southern Europe you know that they weren't welcome right if they were welcoming that they were marginalized arrogated denigrated in so many ways so what do you do there were many solutions that were offered to this problem one was a the the solution of course it's nothing new that we're hearing today sort of how many you gonna let in the 1924 Johnson Reed Act was a watershed period said we weren't gonna let in any more than 2% of what's already here of any particular nationality for instance others said well you know President Coolidge he he wrote this article that said whose country is it anyway and and they suggested and Theodore Roosevelt is and others said well you know maybe we can convert them assimilate them into anglo-saxon culture and customs right I mean someone like go way back to good old founding father Benjamin Franklin he was so worried get that pencil his beloved Pennsylvania was going to be taken over by swarthy Germans true so let me move quickly cuz I'm gonna get to today but so so so they said oh so what do we do we can assimilate them but whose assimilate able who can pass as anglo-saxon whose shows that they have the stuff that they can adapt right and still protect anglo-saxon exceptionalism what's the criteria well there's a story of an Italian who was running down the street and he was being chased by a mob of the old stop those that came from western and northern Europe and they were chasing him and calling him all kind of names and he's hollering out as he's running down the street but I'm white ah white culture is born whiteness becomes that passport into the American space whiteness becomes that thing that's just enough that in which one can graft an anglo-saxon identity and if you act like an anglo-saxon and look like an anglo-saxon maybe no one will know that you ain't an anglo-saxon but it was enough in all seriousness it was enough to continue the myth of anglo-saxon exceptionalism and then a culture of whiteness is born and when we talk about a culture of whiteness I'm talking about that in all aspects of what that means and it's artifacts ideologically systemically structurally and so forth this is what we mean and short about the various ways in which whiteness stands its ground the whiteness becomes that protective culture of American sense of us American exceptionalism has historically and traditionally in its in our D in a ment anglo-saxon exceptionalism be clear and so what we see emerging today is nothing new it's really about the truth of who we are and it is a reflection of the fact that we haven't decided really who we want to be what's the real myth anglo-saxon exceptionalism or that weird democracy for freedom and liberty and justice for all gotta decide that so what we see now are the various ways in which whiteness has stood its ground you're protecting this myth of this anglo-saxon city on the hill and it always transforms itself in ways that look appropriate to the times and so even when people are talking about race doesn't mean it they aren't talking about race you don't have to mention whiteness to know that you're protecting whiteness right we don't have to talk about anglo-saxon exceptionalism to know that that's what we're trying to live into as a nation so what are some of those ways well I I don't have to really I'm not introducing you to them they're things you know but it's always bears repeating when we can look at something like the prison industrial complex Michelle Alexander the wonderful author and lawyer of the new Jim Crow clothes at the new Jim Crow and it is because the laws that of course allow for the thriving of the prison industrial complex aren't much different from Jim Crow laws but I like to call the press systems the new plantation we know that african-american males are six times more likely to be incarcerated than white males and 2.5 times more likely than Latino males however Latino one in every six latino males compared to one in every 17 white males are likely to be incarcerated and 1 out of every 3 african-american males born today can expect to go to prison in their life two one and out yeah I see the whoa that's true one in every three african-american males born today can expect to go to prison in their lifetime and we know it's not because one and out of every three African American males grow up saying I can't wait to go to prison something about whiteness standing its ground legally structurally an extra legally that creates the conditions give that come that forces them into such a life against their will the numbers are just as disconcerting even more so when it comes to women right African American women are twice as likely as their white or Latino counterparts to go to prison now how does this happen we create the conditions one of the conditions that allow for this that that nurtures I like to say that we force people to live in realities that nurture death not life right we create for them a culture of death and then we are surprised when indeed the ways in which we have compelled them to live they live into it why are we so shocked when we look in certain situations and cities that are riddled with poverty the conditions of poverty the culture of poverty that is inadequate housing and adequate job opportunities and adequate educational opportunities and adequate health care in adequate recreational opportunities then in adequate opportunities to thrive in then we're this is a culture of death then you're surprised because we say oh my goodness all of that gun violence all of those homicides look at them over there what now you've just creeks we should be surprised when people live not when they die poverty is violent when violence fall finds its way onto the streets my friend's desk of violence that violence created we have created a cycle of violence for which people are trapped right when we want to talk about the school to Prison Pipeline start with the conditions of poverty in which we force people to live because those conditions lead to the death that is prison or the death that is death all right so so by the way we know that disproportionately people of color live in these death-defying conditions we know this so I won't go through the numbers but this again is the way in which whiteness stands its ground we create conditions for people of color to die not to live we also create conditions that allow us to then live to say well see I told you that they justify the stereotypes and caricatures of a people we create the conditions to fulfill the myth of anglo-saxon white exceptionalism so now what do we gonna do about it first let me say this there's another way which brings us here particularly today that whiteness stands its ground here's what I want to say that even as we sit here and we can say and we see things and we hear things that people from the highest levels of power in this country say and believe they just don't say it they believe it and we say I don't believe that I would never say that I think of everyone is equal but we don't recognize or the ways in which this culture of whiteness has been insinuated into our collective consciousness that not only has it become a part of the nation's DNA because it is a part of the nation's DNA it is a part of our DNA right and so it's really I'm not talking to the folk that would demonstrative lycée see yep yep yep I believe that they are who they are I'm talking about the good folk who don't recognize the way in which they indeed are fostering or nurturing this culture of whiteness and allowing it to stand its ground so let me point out a couple of things and the ways in which this manifests itself and then will ask you about this recent studies some of you may be familiar with this study have told us that three-quarters of white Americans three-quarters 5% don't have any non-white persons in their intimate circle 75% of white Americans don't have any I didn't say black people's non white people in their circle of friends and of those who do ninety one out of a hundred of those folks are white right in the quarter that do still only nine of those folks are non-white think about that in their whole circle of friends and only one of those is typically black Oh different spin on this I got a best friend who's black that might be the only friend you got this black glad they're your best one so you say oh okay that that doesn't make a big difference in the way I see my life and conduct my life you know this just happens to be where I live or whatever but it does make a big difference it does make a big difference because it makes a big difference in the way we indeed engage the world see the world and recognize what's going on around us so for instance by large measures black adults are more likely than white adults if black folks aren't treated fairly now I know you think there have been these are Buffy you know there's some unfairness of racial unfairness mmm-hmm 64% of black adults say that and only 22% of white folks say that can you imagine 47% of Blackfoot black people have said that people have acted suspicious persons or that people have treated them as if they weren't smart less than 10% of white people say that about their treatment black people say that they are more likely than what black people are more likely to whites than say that they have been unfairly stopped by the police and that they have been treated unfairly in hiring or job promotion here's startling statistic about four and ten black Americans are doubtful that the country will ever make the changes needed for blacks and other people of color to be to have equal whites as whites only 11% of white Americans share this view are we living in the same America remember three quarters of white Americans have no people of color in their intimate social circle so it is no wonder that we see the world differently right one less whole thing then I'll talk about what we are looking at the clock what we might be able to do about it sitting here you know I don't want you all leaving depressed and saying that I am relegated to not only looking like a white American but acting like one because you aren't because as long as there's a god there's hope the difference in a recent study as well 67% of white Americans believe protesting against government unfair practice are good for the nation I don't agree with that right it's good good thing you know I always got a but however when a several separate sample of white Americans were asked the exact same question but the word black was added to it black protests that 67% dwindled down to 47% all right this is whiteness standing its ground in ways that we don't even think about and we might think about our our own views on things that we just never thought about before the ways in which the privileges of whiteness have indeed insinuated themselves into our very consciousness so that say for instance when we hear about protests who say then when we see black protests mmm aren't they grateful to be in this country oh serious just in those little ways those little ways and you don't even realize it don't even realize it so what do we do what is the we're supposed to we're here in a church and we're supposed to talk about we all believe that there's a God I suppose and that we're connected to God and we want to live into what that means and that's what spirituality is all about that that connection to something transcendent something greater than ourselves right here's something very disconcerning forget that 81% of white evangelical Protestants voted for the vision to make America great again and we know what that vision really means and if we didn't know before we should up but if we didn't know before we know now because vision is trying to be put in place to make America white again it's a vision to protect anglo-saxon exceptionalism be clear we have to tell the truth about that so forget that 81% of white evangelical Protestants voted for that vision take them out so too did 58 I think percent of white Catholics and 56% of non-white evangelical Protestants the majority of white American Christians voted for that vision period what set me we got to ask the question what is the spirituality the the infrastructure perseverance of spirituality that sustains that and what is an infrastructure of spirituality that can overcome that that sustains a vision of God's justice all right well let me quickly go through this and then what I say then we can maybe have a little bit of time maybe a minute or two for a question let me quickly go through this spirituality then we'll get a question I just want to say that three things are essential it seems to me the spirituality that will sustain the kind of world that God calls us into one is I'm going to use a couple theological words here the imago Dei that is recognizing yes that everyone is created in the image of God but it goes beyond it says this if we are to know come anywhere close to understanding the fullness of who God is then we have to understand that through God's very rich and diverse creation every single human being is a piece of the puzzle that reflects in some way who God is - and no piece of that puzzle is expendable you ever tried to work out a crossword puzzle and you got a missing piece it's not complete until you find the piece the imago days you want to know God you got to know every body that is reflected in God's that reflects God's image first I'll just say that because we did have a little bit of time you know what the implications of that maybe the other theological so how do we get that what is it that blocks us from seeing the image of God and others what is it that blocks us from doing that what we need to name it and then we need to another word it's called canosa's we need to empty ourselves of it self empty empty yourself of the daggone privilege of whiteness and name the ways in which that has indeed become a part of your very spiritual self really and don't strive for just because you don't happen to look like a white American don't mean you don't act like one though you know so I'll just say that Jesus profound self emptying happen on the cross he refused to allow anything to be a part of himself that separated him from the most marginalized in society the crucified class of the world and so he was crucified on the cross and crucifixion one for Direction Barthel crucifixion was for the outcasts to marginalize the enslaves of that time Jesus that Jesus went to the cross was his ultimate self emptying its ultimate consolidating with what I call the crucifer the crucified classes of our world who the people where are the crucifying realities remember I talked about cultures of death to crucify cultures it is to those people with those people in that we are to find ultimate solidarity it is to them that we're to understand the meaning of God's justice and the meaning of God's freedom because we're naked say freedom when they can say justice them we know it's calm canosa's so we're called to canosa's all right emptying ourselves of that which would not allow us to see the image of God that is reflected in all the pieces of God's creative puzzle then the last the last last last thing and I'll say I like to call it these sort of the Incarnation are--and my comfort yes Jesus came in God became us one of us to know what we know to feel what we feel to yearn for what we yearn for so it was that as Jesus with God became incarnate this is where we get this sort of notion of the golden rule so that God could understand what we need where we are who we are right I invert the golden rule sort of the Incarnation or notion of the golden rule do not withhold from another that which you would not want withheld from yourself you want food don't withhold it from another so today you need one Jesus I like the story of him at the Samaritan woman at the well Jesus said I thirst letting the woman know that he feels what she feels because she came looking for water and I'm not going to withhold water from you if you don't with because you wouldn't I don't want it withheld from me you need a place of welcome to feel respected you want to be free who in here wants to be free to live into the fullness of who they are y'all won't be free then don't withhold it from another you want healthcare so that when you gets it who wants healthcare don't withhold it from another do you want to walk down the street and feel like you can walk down the street and not be killed just because you walking down the street and looking like you look who wants to walk down the stream feel safe then don't withhold that privilege from another so that's what it means by incarnation oh you know you see yourself and them you put you see them and you and you say what I want they want what they want I want that's a spirituality the infrastructure of a spirituality for justice that's the infrastructure for spirituality that gets us beyond the realities of whiteness okay imma shut up I'm in there I know and see if they're questions anything just a little tease to think about right to think about how we got it and how we gonna get out of here now let me invite you this this country may have not is yet to decide what kind of nation it wants to be but the mere fact that we sit here and claim to be children and people of God guess what you've decided however not quite sure majority of white Christians voted for a different vision for America and so here's the thing if you've really decided then we can't remain silent well in there the question hi my name is Janelle the question that I have been wrestling with over this past week is the fact that the the language of why evangelical church white evangelicals have been a household name since the 2016 elections but there are other theological traditions that white people belong to Catholic Church Piscopo church and a Baptist tradition some Pentecostals accepter etc so my question is are there things within those traditions that evangelicals can learn from or does whiteness Trump these theological traditions is it does whiteness infect these theological traditions so deeply that the baby is sick from the bathwater well yes and yes first of all here's the thing and just as I I just stated we focus on this quote-unquote 81% go white evangelicals when we focus on this base that people keep talking about and we have to realize as I said before get that non-white I mean that non evangelical White's also supported this this vision and the other thing that we have to so that's one the other thing that we have to recognize is this is nothing new that there is a long tradition of Christianity providing safe a sacred canopy for the anglo-saxon vision of America it and in all of the ways in which it is manifested itself and so the question is you know what are what the theology that of white anglo-saxon symptoms of racism that has become there is the apex just as there was an apex in the 18th century late 8th century of religion of scientific racism there was an apex of religious racism right and so one and I don't have time to go into detail so that's always been present in very obvious ways and then in more in implicit ways here's what we should know about power one of the ways in which this kind of oppressive denigrating power sustains itself as typically power doesn't sustain itself typically by being coercive because people rise up power sustains itself as Michele Foucault philosopher says by being productive it produces the knowledge in the discourses it needs to sustain itself so that it appears that the way things are or the way they're supposed to be in the religious communities provide that knowledge by suggesting that the way things are or the way that God intends them to be that's always been the case now does whiteness Trump no pun intended does whiteness began to Trump a different sense of vision of sort of God's justice that doesn't sustain of what Christianity truly is about when we understand that in relationship to the one who died on the cross my answer to that is simple yes it's sinful it is a sinful violent identity construct and culture because first of all whiteness emerges as a construct always in opposition to that which is not white that's the way it emerged it's an oppositional construct and as such it is a construct that is always denigrating into humanizing of that which is not white in anything in the ideological system structure that is denigrating dehumanizing is violent and so it's a violent construct it's sinful and yes you can't at once be in the way in which I'm talking about this you cannot at once be white and Christian and that means you have to name the ways you have to call out the demon you have to name the ways in which you were white and again I guess reinforced I'm not talking about folks who happen to look like white Americans so you have to name the demons so so are there things that we can learn from white Christian churches that were not I think your question that did not support first of all you know just the way in which we were using whiteness I'm gonna say you know why not churches that are white Christian in that sense of the word but I'm going to pull us to another to other tradition yes I'm sure there are I want to pull this little another tradition and I want to pull us for instance to in this instance in this dichotomy a black faith tradition how come we don't look there because that's a tradition theologically when it's been at its best that is always understood the realities of God's justice as opposed to the realities of human justice and what it means to be free and move to work for that and so what what do we look and they've all went one of the key things in that tradition has been the understanding of the imago Dei and a God that is free which means that to be created in the image of a free God means that we are all meant to be free so I don't did I answer your question yeah and so in this short way there are theological prongs I think there's one can we take one more now to do it short because I said she's been like sure go ahead you've been like no it's gonna start on time we I got answer you you got a do it in 30 seconds I got a minute go ahead it's a big question so it won't get answered I you're probably feeling like yeah we're probably familiar that we have several different justice resolutions that this church has one of which is the racial justice resolution one of the things that we're looking at is terminology cultural humility I like the self-emptying concept that framework the Beloved Community all of that we live in ten seconds okay multiculturalism and how that we need to move beyond that to self empty in just a few comments yeah and I don't like the term multiculturalism and all that because all those terms suggest right that everybody else it's not white is multi something multicultural right so I mean because it's a way of undoing it's also not a way of recognizing what's really going on God let me just quickly say this there are ways that we can live into this stuff in the church one what what's the fabric of our church looks like we have to make sure that people are able to see the diverse images of God's creation in our church in the icons and in the fabric of our churches right Jesus's of color aren't just for churches of color right and and and so that's the first thing so that people can see Oh a body of color is sacred right first so what's the fabric what are the stories that we read to our children in our churches what are the images in those stories we know that there is a derf theme American Library Association just put out the fact that the images of children of color in our books is pitifully pitifully love what are the what are the what what does that look like you don't have to have it's always nice to have diverse congregations but the 11 o'clock hours Martin Luther King jr. once said it's going to remain a segregated hour as long as the our experiences or segregated experiences right so you got to change the nation in order to have a more great it worships of people who experience the same things worship together so you know we got to do stuff out there to change the way people live but we don't have to have the diverse quote unquote a a kind of diverse congregation doesn't have to simply express itself in terms of who's sitting in it what are the ways in which we can bring the reality of God's very rich creation into the church without having to tokenize people who don't look like us so find those ways you can then white folks can talk to each other you don't need people of color to talk to you about racism you really don't these are the things that the church can do on my end there thank you

Channel: All Saints Church Pasadena

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Length: 46min 5sec (2765 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 24 2018