YGT: The Blackness that Whiteness Created

I don't usually write about my assignments in school, but this semester, I'm taking Theology of the Black Church with Dr. J. Kameron Carter. The class has brought up very powerful insights into the ways Christianity promotes whiteness*. The term "whiteness" has to do with white social power along with it's place as the unquestioned standard for all other people. It's important to say that whiteness doesn't simply refer to white people. It refers to a power structure, an invisible hierarchy that imagines itself as the ideal. All white people wouldn't be in this structure (though white people should immediately attempt to remove themselves either). Conversely, all black people wouldn't be excluded from this structure either (continue reading).


One of the comments that came out of class a couple weeks ago is "the blackness that whiteness creates". This is the idea that whiteness has created a desire and need to define what blackness is. (Don't get lost here -  this is important) I hadn't made that connection before, but I was intrigued to think about the ways in which those who are black define themselves by/against those who are white. Sometimes people can do this in ways that actually ignore their realities. For example, black people can become more focused on "not being white" than in finding out what "being black" really means.


Trying to think about this theologically...

According to James Cone's Black Theology and Black Power, Jesus’ Jewishness is essential in understanding God’s connection with the oppressed. The context of Jesus’ suffering is central - he was a Jew, a minority within the Roman state.  Jesus’ Jewishness was a social marker of oppression because of the Caesar of Rome. Said plainly, there is no struggle without an oppressor.  In Jesus’ culture, Jewishness was defined by and against ”Romanness”. 

This “Roman-ness” mirrors “whiteness” in intriguing ways; In John 19, when Pilate is sentencing Jesus and the Jewish crowd says “we have no king but Caesar”, the Jews are performing the theological problem of whiteness. In a sense, this minority group is saying, “we will not acknowledge that there is an alternate understanding of king, because that doesn't fit into the social world that has been created for us.” This is the Jewishness that Roman-ness creates. It creates a blackness that is in the best interest of whiteness rather than the best interest of the oppressed. Similarly, whiteness (like misogynistic theologies) denies that there is another understanding of God outside of the one that it has proliferated.  The kind of blackness that can only name a king that has been given to it is a dangerous blackness.  Blackness unvetted is nearly as toxic as whiteness unacknowledged.




Lord, we pray that we love our neighbor as ourselves.  Please help us through the hard work of study and examination.  Not just the examination of books, but the examination of our hearts.  Forgive us for times we are implicated in social oppression.  Thank You for freedom and the life of Jesus Christ.  In His perfect name, Amen.

Created,

j.a.g.








*There are countless books/resources that examine whiteness, including works by Richard Delgado, Mike Hill, and others. The word can also find early mention in W.E.B. Dubois' "The Souls of White Folks" chapter in his book Darkwater, where he notes the world's people discovering "personal whiteness".