A Letter to White Charlotteans
By Rev. Dr. Benjamin Boswell, Myers Park Baptist Church & Revs. Greg and Helms Jarrell, QC Family Tree
Other contributors: Rev. LeDayne McLeese Polaski, MeckMin; Rabbi Asher Knight, Temple Beth El; Imam John Ederer, Muslim Community Center of Charlotte
Dear White Charlotteans,
America is fed up. The protests across our country in response to the murder of George Floyd by police are a stunning reminder that white supremacy is the problem.
White supremacy has always been the problem. The history of Charlotte is a microcosm of the history of our nation, filled with stunning examples of white supremacy’s terrorizing legacy. White settler-colonialism transformed an indigenous trading crossroads, today’s Trade Street and Tryon Street, into the cotton manufacturing capital of the South. Those settlers relied on violent destruction of native civilizations, the removal of indigenous peoples, and the horrific practice of chattel slavery to build this city. After the Civil War, during Reconstruction, the newfound freedom of the formerly enslaved was met with a deadly combination of white vigilante terror from the KKK and white Dixiecrat political violence. Then Jim Crow laws were implemented to privilege whites, and to segregate and oppress Black people. These lasted for most of a century until the victories of the Black Freedom (aka Civil Rights) Movement. While many of us we were not alive during slavery, Reconstruction, or Jim Crow, as white people we are all the inheritors and economic beneficiaries of whiteness.
Advancements in justice for Black people have been met time and time again with white resistance, white violence, and white policies. The history of Urban Renewal, Red-lining, and the re-segregation of CMS (see historian Tom Hanchett’s “Sorting Out the New South” or Pamela Grundy’s “Color and Character”) are but a few examples of how whiteness continued to plague our city, leading to disparities in education, employment, housing, health care, and criminal justice. Over the years, every major task force that has been commissioned by the city or county (including the recent Opportunity Task Force) to study the reasons for economic disparities in our city has resulted in a report that states the primary issue at the root of our trouble is whiteness. How many reports will it take for white people to face the fact that the problem is ours? As James Baldwin famously said, “White people are still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it.”
Today we face a reckoning. Calls for unity and reconciliation by white people sound hollow to our Black neighbors. We must remember, “A Call for Unity,” was the title of the letter white clergy published to prevent Dr. King from protesting against segregation. Dr. King responded to that letter with his impassioned Letter from a Birmingham Jail where he said, “I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
There can be no unity or reconciliation without repentance and reparations. The time for platitudes is over. Now is the time for action. First, we need to be ready for hard things like listening to sharp words that feel uncomfortable and sting; words that make us cringe. Softening words isn't helpful. We need to make our ‘white skin’ into ‘thick skin.’ The prophets of the Hebrew Bible did not soften their words in the face of injustice. Neither did Jesus. Our desire to receive things in an easy manner is a symptom of privilege and complacency.
White people often ask, "What do we do?" While well intentioned, this question is filled with immense fragility. White friends, please hear us when we say, "You know what to do!” Deep down, in your body, you know. We are a part of a deeply connected, interwoven and interdependent creation.
We’ve told ourselves that we don't know what to do because what we know to do is too hard. That’s right, what we have to do is very hard. It’s like giving up an addiction. But we still have to do it.
When we feel like there's nothing you can do, we must take a moment to realize that your feelings of paralysis are the result of whiteness, which wants us to feel like there is nothing we can do. Pay attention to that feeling, then resist it and ACT!
DO HARD THINGS like get used to seeing and hearing the word "white" and learning to name “white supremacy.” For generations, the norm has been white. When you were identifying someone, you didn't have to use the word "white" because it was an automatic assumption unless specified otherwise. You may want to cringe when you hear or see the word "white", but others have had to experience this all along. Notice your discomfort, breathe through it, and keep going. We can do hard things.
BECOME actively anti-racist. The alternative to being a racist isn’t being not-racist, it is being anti-racist. Neutrality is not an appropriate response to racism or white supremacy. In the words of Elie Weisel, “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever people are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.” (Read Ibram X. Kendi's book on becoming anti-racist: https://www.ibramxkendi.com/how-to-be-an-antiracist-1)
WORK on your whiteness! Do the hard work of looking deeply at your own whiteness. Work through Layla F. Saad's new devotional workbook "Me And White Supremacy." http://laylafsaad.com/). Create a small group of white people in your religious community or your neighborhood to read the work of Black authors, activists, intellectuals, poets, and scholars and discuss white supremacy. There are many other resources for looking at whiteness, but it is a critical step for white people. Click here for an anti-racist reading list: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/books/review/antiracist-reading-list-ibram-x-kendi.html?referringSource=articleShare
NAME and ATTACK white supremacy anywhere and everywhere you see or hear it! (here are 5 ways: https://medium.com/@surj_action/5-ways-white-people-can-take-action-in-response-to-white-and-state-sanctioned-violence-2bb907ba5277 & here are 75 more: https://medium.com/…/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-ju…
ADVOCATE for immediate Police Reform. Educate yourself on the current use of force policies so you can advocate for changes in your city's police department http://useofforceproject.org/#project. Challenge your elected leaders to root out racism and white supremacy in the police force and other areas of government, and to redirect funding from police departments to public education.
VOTE VOTE VOTE! Vote with this intention from Dr. Willie Jennings: "How will my vote impact the lives of poor Black women and their children?" In the words of Jim Wallis, “Our vote is our greatest weapon against the sin of white supremacy!” We can also protect our democracy by working to protect voting rights and defeat voter suppression efforts.
GIVE YOUR MONEY to Black (preferably women and LGBTQ) led movements for justice. Give directly to Black Lives Matter https://blacklivesmatter.com/ or the NAACP https://www.naacpldf.org/ or the ACLU, or one of the many organizations working directly with protestors: https://www.thecut.com/…/george-floyd-protests-how-to-help-…
LISTEN and FOLLOW Black and Brown leaders and organizations without allowing your whiteness to take over the space. Alongside the contribution of our financial resources, this is another way to participate in dismantling systemic racism and white supremacy. Check out organizations like the Equal Justice Initiative https://eji.org/
We know some of you are already working on this. Keep doing that work! While your work is great, we need exponentially more of you.
America is fed up. So, white Charlotteans, let’s strive to become a truly model city. Let’s make a commitment to stop asking what we can do, because we know what to do. White people must speak up, stand up, and work together to fight against the evil of white supremacy in all its forms. If we can do this, all God’s people can be released from this terrible history that we have yet to understand. Will you join us?
Rev. Dr. Benjamin Boswell, Myers Park Baptist Church
Revs. Greg and Helms Jarrell, QC Family Tree
Rev. LeDayne McLeese Polaski, MeckMin
Rabbi Asher Knight, Temple Beth El
Imam John Ederer, Muslim Community Center of Charlotte