However once again we have allowed the liberal left media; the moderate middle media; and the conservative right media, all controlled by white America, to slant and shift the dialogue and discussions away from the systematic, institutionalized culture of racism in America - to debates and confusing conversations about the issues of gun control; persecution of Christianity; and the Confederate flag.
While each of these subjects are important and have merit in the overall conversation to bring healing to the nation, let us not forget that our goal and thus our conversations and efforts should be about changing the culture of white privilege that is at the heart of racism!
His intent was clear, he wanted to kill black people! His motivation was clear, he was motivated by racial hatred, bigotry, and white supremacist ideology. Thus our debate, conversations and dialogue should be focused on the issue of dismantling the accepted culture of systematic institutionalized racism that exist at core and in the heart of America.
It just so happened that he chose to enter a church in order to carry out his intentions. He entered a church because as he stated in his manifesto, “I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is [the] most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country."
But let's not get sidetracked, Dylann Roof's attack was an attack on black people and black culture as he stated, not on Christianity as such. There were plenty of white churches he could have entered and killed Christians if that was his intent. No, his intent was to kill blacks in hopes of starting a race war. This intentional racist act was born out of fear, hatred, and a culture of white superiority and white privilege.
In the words of Pastor Kevin Cosby, "Culture is the unique way in which a people do life and experience reality." Whites since the founding of America have done life and experienced reality as a people who believed that they were privileged, superior and thus supreme compared to others. White supremacy sought to dismantle Native American culture and way of life and to dismantle black culture and way of life because they were perceived to be inferior and pathological.
White privilege is a way of living which consciously and unconsciously imposes cultural conformity. Simply put, white privilege says, "You must do life like I do life and experience reality as I do, because yours is inferior and pathological."
The White liberal racist says, "I care about you and because of my privileged position and superiority to you, I know what is best for you, and so if you want to experience my reality, do what I say and follow my lead."
The White conservative racist says, "Because of my privileged position and superiority to you, I don't really need to care about or be bothered with you, but if you want to experience my reality, watch me and try to do what I do."
In either case, black culture is viewed as a threat to the privilege position and superiority that whites believe are inherently theirs. This mindset and culture has permeated every sector of society, business, education, criminal justice, legal, medical, entertainment and sports, and yes, even the Church and Religious communities.
This is the mindset, the culture that we should be discussing, because this is the mindset and culture that Dylann Roof took with him into Emmanuel AME Church a week ago and killed nine innocent black people with no remorse.
No comments:
Post a Comment