Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

White Space

Maintaining black dignity in white space is the name of the game of life for a black person in the Anglo-American realm. Conversational and cultural norms are undoubtedly white in this realm. This can be brutal in its exhaustion and confusion and can be seriously disorienting for black folk working and living in this space. Once a black American enters white space, which is usually located right outside of their door, they are instantly an “other”–someone who is unlike their cultural milieu and subject to the stereotypes of “otherness” in this milieu. This is a privileged space for whites. Whites are safe here while black folk struggle for their identity and self-preserving dignity.

White Fragility

Now, before I proceed, we confront the problem of white fragility: the issue that whites become offended at the prospect that they might be implicated in the creation and perpetual maintenance of this white space. This white fragility is real, dangerous, and deeply ironic. Whites have the highest standing in the Anglo-American West, yet they are the most easily offended at the implication of guilt in the construction and perpetuation of white space and white privilege. The pew research center has a recent poll that indicates that only 16% of whites believe that white people benefit a great deal from advantages in society that black people do not have. This number is staggering.

Nice Whites

“But,” they say, “every fellow white person I surround myself with is so nice!” This niceness is seen as a “Get-out-of-Guilt-Free” card for whites. “If I am a good person, then how can I be responsible for systemic racism?” Easily. Niceness actually perpetuates this racial disparity. Nice whites are a problem for black folk because it forces the latter to assume the position of guilt and responsibility. If most white people are nice, then any disorientation, confusion, and exhaustion are the fault of the respective attitudes of black people. What is the alternative? Answer: whites more serious about confronting their own responsibility for racism than they are about being nice to avoid that guilt. So fellow whites: be nice, but not too nice; be normal, but not the norm; be responsible, but do not feel whatever form of guilt that entices you to “make up” for it with niceties. Be brave in your confrontation with guilt, for your black brothers and sisters are far braver than you for entering white space every single day in stride.

Theological Perspective

Lastly, fellow whites, pray for conviction and confrontation with your own racist tendencies: all us whites have them, as we are all constituent parts of white space. Pray that your view of God would shift from a “Law and Order” God to a loving, powerful, just liberator God, who is the God of the oppressed and the exhausted, disoriented, and those who struggle for dignity in a space that is not theirs. A God of a diaspora people. That God is God; any other is an idol.

This post was inspired by Austin Channing Brown’s book “I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness.”