An Open Letter to the White Community
I, as “someone who believes myself to be white,” am writing this to the white community.
The brutalizing of black and brown bodies is not a manifestation of people of color. It is the manifestation of the demon of white supremacy. White supremacy is a principality and power that I have partnered with wittingly and unwittingly. The fight for racial justice is visceral. It is felt bodily and I, carrying the pass of a white body have been able to opt out. I have preferred a “negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.” For this, I seek repentance.
The brutalizing of black and brown bodies is not a peripheral issue for the church. The brutalizing of black and brown bodies is an assault on the gospel. This is an assault on the peace that Jesus’ body was broken over. Contending for racial justice is not a cause for some disciples of Christ. Contending for racial justice is discipleship.
Those who are white cannot be afraid to confess our part in building up and maintaining the well-engineered, yet very broken, structures of racism in the United States of America. We have to turn and face this collectively for this is not merely an individual matter. Like Thomas, Jesus is beckoning us to examine the wounds inflicted on his Body at the hands of God’s people on behalf of a shattered image of justice.
White folk, it’s past time to educate ourselves about how we’ve participated in and perpetuated oppression. Here is a great resource list and a good place to start.
We must acknowledge that we’ve engaged in an abusive relationship and we cannot ask the black community to educate us on the trauma they’ve experienced at our hands and on our watch.
The white community cannot deny the testimony of people of color any longer. We have not navigated the world in a black or brown body. Our speculation about police brutality is, in effect, calling people of color liars and the black community is literally dying for us to listen. I beg you, do not be so quick to alleviate the tension you feel in this, but stay engaged. Do not seek absolution so hastily, but stay despite the discomfort and stumble forward in costly discipleship.
Christ has already broken down in His own body the dividing wall of hostility. He has already waged peace. May we agree with Him and by the empowerment of the Spirit make Kingdom come a reality on earth as it is in Heaven.











