Can We Please Stop Saying, "White Privilege"

White is the new four letter word, in the same lineage of expletives whose origins were well intentioned but given the cruelty of time have devolved into dehumanizing adverbs. To dance white, talk white or look white is not so subtle innuendo all done to communicate one is not with it, out of fashion and touch.

Following closely behind in this same stream is the phrase white privilege.

Now we all know to be white in 2020 still carries meaning and advantage. Just a few years ago, I remember stepping off the one train in the middle of Harlem and seeing a Whole Foods. Huh? Looking around, I noticed young white couples pushing baby strollers, and to my surprise, the next morning white women joggers going up and down the same streets Malcolm X once walked. Their presence meant healthy food options, higher real estate values and a dissipating minority community, once known as the largest black community in America. There exists no stronger visual in modern America that to be white is to enjoy privilege, and a kind of privilege which means pushing others out, than twenty-first century Harlem.

My problem with white privilege is not so much the ugly, truthful realities the phrase conveys, but how it is said. White privilege is said by many the same way a frustrated mother refers to one of her brood who has disappointed her and she is forced to make an appeal to their father to step in and do something: “Sammy, come get your son.” Your son. Yes, that child does share DNA with Sammy, but this mother was not underscoring a biological truth, but attaching a sense of displeasure. That’s how I hear white privilege. It has a ring of displeasure, a note of attack and sourness. White privilege. Your son. Neither conveys love, and love is the insignia of the Christ follower.

Many are misinformed when they say white privilege, demonizing privilege for the sake of privilege. When we do this we need to be wary of hypocrisy. Just about all of humanity has received a portion of privilege (some more than others of course). The fact you’re reading this from a device suggests you are privileged in some way. My parents will celebrate fifty years of marriage next year. Think of that: I, a black man, have my two biological parents who are still together, love Jesus and have given me a good name. That’s a measure of privilege, while not on par with whiteness, which still sets me at an advantage.

And more importantly, if privilege was sinful then Jesus Christ was sinful. Philippians 2:1-11 argues that Jesus was the most privileged person ever to live, who in his status was God. But what did Jesus do with his privilege? He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).

Does white privilege exist? Absolutely. Should our white brothers and sisters feel guilty about their privilege? Let me ask it this way- Did Jesus feel guilty about his? No. Neither should our white siblings. So the real issue isn’t privilege- because we all have a measure of it- it’s the stewardship of privilege. In humility, Jesus used his privilege to die on the cross for us, so that we may have eternal life. Here he shows us the potency of privilege stewarded well. When we use the advantages God has blessed us with not for self promotion, but for the benefit of others, we look like Jesus and bless our world. Show me anyone who is white, who is not humbly seeking ways to disadvantage themselves for the advantage of others, and I will show you someone who does not truly get the messianic lineage they have supposedly inherited.

To read more on this, pick up my book, Insider/Outsider.