Showing posts with label shame. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shame. Show all posts

Monday 16 May 2016

Reimagining The White Man's Burden: On Shame

I had an interesting conversation with one of my coworkers today. We were talking about our school's cultural awareness program and the ways that I think it could be improved. She expressed reluctance to spearhead discussions about racism and discrimination because she is white. She mentioned that in college, she took a course that focused on the history of oppression. To paraphrase, the course led through various injustices in history and pointed out that each of these atrocities had been perpetrated by white people. She said that the course made her feel ashamed, like it was all her fault.

I've been thinking about this all day, and while I expressed sympathy in the moment, I wonder about the worthiness and honesty of my response. 

Generally speaking, I don't want to say, "Don't feel bad" to a white person who feels shame on behalf of other white people because I feel bad on behalf of other black people. It hurts you to think about your ancestors enslaving blacks, and it hurts me to think about my ancestors being enslaved. It hurts you to feel like people are still blaming you for civil and social injustice, and it hurts me to still be treated and viewed as less than a white person. It is, to a great degree, our heritage as Americans to feel shame: for what we have done or for what has been done to us.  

Mostly, I don't care when white people complain about white guilt and shame. Shame is like a shadow for me. I still live in a society that, in many ways, disrespects, dehumanizes, marginalizes, and oppresses black people. Every day, I have to decide how I will deal with this shame: will I ignore it, internalize it, or fight it?

I didn't choose this shame either, but it's here. I want to say, "Too bad, deal with it." I want to say, "Join the club."

The polarization of race, especially black vs. white, is a problem, and we can't find solutions to racism by ignoring white voices. And I want to be compassionate in my conversations with white people, even when those white people cannot even begin to understand what it is like to be discriminated against because of their skin color.

If you are white, what do you think about this? Do you agree that shame is the burden of the white American? Do you believe that this is fair or unfair? Should we try to alleviate the white man's burden? Or should we simply learn ways to deal with it?  

 Does this picture make you feel shame? Me, too. 


For [Jesus] himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. . .that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. -Ephesians 2:14-19