June 30: 2011 through June 2: 2012
A vital and courageous community essay contributed by a diverse group of Episcopalians in The ATL.
Our voices of inclusion must be louder than their voices of exclusion! We shall proclaim June 2012 as our Jubilee Freedom Summer!
Our gracious and wise colleague at Sewanee Episcopal Seminary, the Rev. Dorea Malikee-El, has opened a much needed conversation across the Diocese about the efforts by our hierarchical leadership in the Diocese of Atlanta to sustain their racist White privilege while at the same time telling us what a "burden" their racism is to them. Her much welcome report shares new light on the shocking abundance of overt and explicit White identity at the cathedral.
Alexander's anti racist missional legacy is up for grabs as he flees administrative stress for a return to the leisurely classroom
She exposes that what they truly mean to say, but won’t say openly because it would cost them too much, is that the tremendous effort to keep their privilege is a heavy "burden" to them.
We need to increase the weight of their burden and make it more difficult and impossible for them to carry it. Racist white privilege is no longer acceptable, nor is it sustainable in our increasingly multicultural Diocese of Atlanta. We must take up the cross of our Civil Rights movement for the diocese. Our burden is justice, their burden is hipocrisy. This is an urgent Civil Rights issue. We must all struggle together to move the Diocese of Atlanta forward. We have made some progress, but we still have much more work to do. The unfinished business of the Diocese of Atlanta cannot proceed until we hold ourselves accountable to the living into our baptismal covenant and bringing the collective salvation truth of the Resurrection into our duty to make their racist White privilege burden intolerable unto them.
All men are created Equal. But we have unequal moral roles in the diocese, because our role in duty is to hold the power elites accountable to diversity by making their burden of the lack of diversity intolerable unto them. Their responsibility and obligation is to become more proactive at sharing the resources, access, and power of the diocese with those who have been marginalized for far too long. Our burden is duty, their burden is the hard work of repentance and reconciliation.
There is no place for systemic bias and institutional racism in the Diocese of Atlatna. We must do more to root it out, reform, and move on to bringing the mission of salvation to all communities by bridging the divides that separate us. The Episcopal power structures are an indictment of how the intersection of race, class, and gender have been out maneuvered by those who most benefit from an unjust and racist organization.
All men are created Equal. But we have unequal moral roles in the diocese, because our role in duty is to hold the power elites accountable to diversity by making their burden of the lack of diversity intolerable unto them. Their responsibility and obligation is to become more proactive at sharing the resources, access, and power of the diocese with those who have been marginalized for far too long. Our burden is duty, their burden is the hard work of repentance and reconciliation.
There is no place for systemic bias and institutional racism in the Diocese of Atlatna. We must do more to root it out, reform, and move on to bringing the mission of salvation to all communities by bridging the divides that separate us. The Episcopal power structures are an indictment of how the intersection of race, class, and gender have been out maneuvered by those who most benefit from an unjust and racist organization.
Rev. Malikee-El asks us our most important question of all as we begin searching for our next Bishop of Atlanta: "What does the delay of justice tell us about ourselves?" The time has come to look deep into the recesses of racist White privilege in the Diocese of Atlanta and answer that question, no matter how embarrassing or threatening the disclosure.
Ever since we elected IX Bishop Alexander ten years ago to lead the Diocese of Atlanta, he has helped us identify but not eradicate racism from ourselves and churches, and our cathedral and diocese. After ten years, we must take account of our progress, or lack of it. Racist White privilege still reigns in the Diocese of Atlanta, and the delay of justice, as represented by the horrifying lack of African- American leadership in the diocese and at the cathedral, tell us about ourselves that we are still a deeply racist church. We are infected with the toxic and virulent poison of racist White privilege, and its perniciously effects affect us daily.
Sadly, ten years hasn't been long enough to eradicate racism from the diocese. If we have the courage to act with undefended hearts, we can prove that we didn't go beyond 11 years without profound racial and Christian social progress. We can and must elect an African- American as the X Bishop of Atlanta on June 12, 2012, because it is meet and right so to do. Only through an African- American leader as our leader shepherd, can we hope to make the Resurrection the fulfillment of our authentic Christianity. Only through the right voting pattern, with clergy and laity united as an inclusive, anti- racist bloc, can our act of faith become the sign of hope that Jesus lives among us as a living reminder of the mission of his Resurrection. We are those whom God has given to Christ's mission for the church right now. We earn God's confidence in us when we do the meet and right thing, no matter how much we've delayed in the past. He commands us now with a social justice imperative for the church. The church's mission of social justice calls us to never give up or relax upon our perceived "progress".
Justice can not wait for us. It makes its undisputed claim upon our willing hearts and ministries as its arc bends toward repentance, reconciliation, and healing. Our multicultural future must be made manifest through the meet and right election of our first African- American X.
Thanks to Crossroads Ministries, everyone now knows that we must march through 6 steps to move with God's will from being a racist White privilege church to a fully inclusive anti-racist church. To continue the Rev. Malikee-El's introduction to our problem, Diocese Atlanta Moves Forward scores our diocese for where we are on the anti-racist continuum (scores are ALL CAPS, in parentheses):
1. Exclusive- A Segregated Institution (WE HAVE IMPROVED)
Intentionally and publicly excludes or segregates African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans (NO)
Intentionally and publicly enforces the racist status quo throughout institution (NO)
Institutionalization of racism includes formal policies and practices, teachings, and decision making on all levels (NOT ON ALL LEVELS, but some through neglect. We must amend and update our Canons to require all search committees include at least one African- American candidate.)
Usually has similar intentional policies and practices toward other socially oppressed groups such as women, gays and lesbians, Third World citizens, etc. (NO)
2. Passive- A "Club" Institution (YES, but not entirely)
Tolerant of a limited number of People of Color with "proper" perspective and credentials (YES, if they "act White" enough)
May still secretly limit or exclude People of Color in contradiction to public policies (UNDER INVESTIGATION)
Continues to intentionally maintain white power and privilege through its formal policies and practices, teachings, and decision making on all levels of institutional life (SOMEWHAT- our Canons do not yet specifically require African- American black candidates for open positions, and the cathedral and diocesan staff is overwhelmingly still too white.)
Often declares, "We don't have a problem." (SOMEWHAT- Bishop Alexander is recently honest, but several majority White parishes will not admit their ongoing racist problems.)
3. Symbolic Change- A Multicultural Institution (SPORADIC)
Makes official policy pronouncements regarding Multicultural diversity (YES)
Sees itself as "non-racist" institution with open doors to People of Color (WE SAY SO, but Canons don't now enforce it.)
Carries out intentional inclusiveness efforts, recruiting "someone of color" on committees or office staff (NO, or not enough to make a difference. We need to understand that institutional transformation and change through minority leadership can do more for us than archaic racist notions of "merit and qualifications".)
Expanding view of diversity includes other socially oppressed groups (IMPROVING)
But…
"Not those who make waves" (YES)
Little or no contextual change in culture, policies, and decision making (YES)
Is still relatively unaware of continuing patterns of privilege, paternalism and control (SOME SAY WE ARE AWARE, but we don't act like it.)
4. Identity Change- An Anti-Racist Institution (NO, not yet)
Growing understanding of racism as barrier to effective diversity (SLIGHTLY)
Develops analysis of systemic racism (NO)
Sponsors programs of anti-racism training (YES)
New consciousness of institutionalized white power and privilege (BARELY, but with resistance)
Develops intentional identity as an "anti-racist" institution (SOMEWHAT, but words only- not firm policies and procedures or Canons)
Begins to develop accountability to racially oppressed communities (NO)
Increasing commitment to dismantle racism and eliminate inherent white advantage (NO)
But…
Institutional structures and culture that maintain white power and privilege still intact and relatively untouched (YES)
5. Structural Change- A Transforming Institution (NO!)
Commits to process of intentional institutional restructuring, based upon anti-racist analysis and identity (NO)
Audits and restructures all aspects of institutional life to ensure full participation of People of Color, including their world-view, culture and lifestyles (NO)
Implements structures, policies and practices with inclusive decision making and other forms of power sharing on all levels of the institutions life and work (NO)
Commits to struggle to dismantle racism in the wider community, and builds clear lines of accountability to racially oppressed communities (NO)
Anti-racist multicultural diversity becomes an institutionalized asset (NO)
Redefines and rebuilds all relationships and activities in society, based on anti-racist commitments (NO)
6. Fully Inclusive- A Transformed Institution in a Transformed Society (NO!)
Future vision of an institution and wider community that has overcome systemic racism (NO)
Institution's life reflects full participation and shared power with diverse racial, cultural and economic groups in determining its mission, structure, constituency, policies and practices (NO)
Full participation in decisions that shape the institution, and inclusion of diverse cultures, lifestyles, and interest (NO)
A sense of restored community and mutual caring (NO)
Allies with others in combating all forms of social oppression (NO)
Dear Beloved of Christ, after 10 years, we are barely and only partially and tenuously HALF WAY THERE! We are stuck at the 3 step of 6, because our changes are more symbolic than substantive. We must show more will and commitment to work harder to scrub the stain of racial segregation, African-American marginalization, and racist White privilege out of body of the Diocese of Atlanta. We must vote as an anti-racist bloc of clergy and laity on June 2, 2012, and leap forward to 6 step, and then empower our African- American X Bishop to lead the rest of the diocese beyond their racist White privilege. We can do it, because we have an entire year to make it happen. One year to amend the errors that we have accumulated and hardened since our founding during the racist Jim Crow laws of White privilege in the early 20 th century. We can do it, yes we can! We can change! Diocese Atlanta Moves Forward knows you can do it and will do it. We have faith in your ability to see the right vision, seize it, and march forward as you go toward it, arm in arm, hand in hand, just as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights heroes across the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama, during the worst brutal days of our struggle for Civil Rights.
Our own Episcopal Chruch Rev. Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook teaches us that the 6 steps are also called:
1. Exclusive Club
2. Passive
3. Affirmative Action Compliant
4. Antiracist
5. Redefining
6. Transformed
We are at shamefully still stuck at 3 step Affirmative- Action Compliant in her continuum, because we sometimes "Focus on social justice projects without personal engagement with oppressed. 'Come-to-our place' programs not directed by oppressed." Parishes don't focus on social justice enough, but the diocese does and some clergy do, but not most members, because they fear that they will lose some White privilege if they abandon their racist attitudes that defend them from "the other" and "the stranger" who comes from different culture and may seem threatening to us and our White children.
Only when we have an African- American X, can we leap forward to Transformed 6 step. When we vote for African- American X, we will have Transformed ourselves by rejecting the racist White privilege that has prevented our diocese from ever electing a black for our bishop or cathedral dean. A Transformed diocese will do the right thing. We do not need to be Transformed between now and then, so it is easier than most of us are thinking. We only need to agree to our Transformation on June 12, 2012, when we bloc vote for our first historic African- American bishop. We leap into Transformation in an instant. No longer do we need to take baby steps, to tip toe into the darker end of the water, to be timid and cautious. We only need to leap at the right moment, and we seize Transformation and Transformation reaches out to us from the Resurrection moment and helps us do the right thing, just as the Resurrection help lead Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Our black bishop as X Bishop of Atlanta will win the future for us. He will lead us from our sporadically symbolic anti racist and somewhat compliant affirmative action step. You may wonder how. He will be our most advanced position of anti-racism battlefield, and our growth will be toward the social justice that he embodies. We will then rapidly move from the 3 step to fill in steps 4, 5, and 6. We will become anti-racist, because a racist diocese wouldn't elect a black bishop; we will redefine ourselves, because an anti- racist diocese cannot be defined by racist White privilege; and finally, we will achieve anti-racist transformation as we live into our baptismal covenant and conform ourselves to the legacy of our first African-American bishop. We've learned to fight racism through proclaiming the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his sacrifice for us. Rev. Joseph Lowery still shows us how to fight the good fight. We will fight racism through our anti-racist voting bloc on June 2, 2012, when we defeat the lurking, secretive, forces of racist White privilege that want us to have another White bishop. They smile and hug us at diocesan meetings, but have they ever invited you into their homes to eat at their tables and use their engraved sliver utensils and drink from their heirloom crystal, use their recently renovated bathrooms, introduce their white children as social friends and companions for our black children? Do they invite us and our children as their guests to swim with them at the pool at their exclusive private clubs? When houses come up for sale in their neighborhoods, are we the first ones they call to tell about the opportunity to move into their neighborhood and make it richer with our contribution of our diversity? Have they ever invited your family to spend a weekend with theirs at their Lake Burton or Lake Rayburn mountain home or at their beach house at Sea Island or Hilton Head? Have they ever invited you on a ski trip to Colorado? Are you suspicious that they use their racist White privilege as a fortress to keep out diversity? When they give money to Pace, Lovett, and Westminster, do they designate it for diversity scholarships that help underprivileged and vulnerable African- American students advance to college? Do they want another White bishop so that they won’t be any more seriously investigated for their racist White privilege than they have been during White IX Bishop? IX Bishop Alexander said we are leading all other dioceses in anti-racism. We are barely into Step 3 of 6 Steps, our gains are tenuous and we could easily backslide unless we increase the intensity at guarding the change. Is that what we call leadership? It sounds like slow motion lethargy. Don’t rock the boat too much, is what they must say in private. Another racist White privilege bishop might move us to Step 4 in another 10 years! Social Justice can’t wait that long! It won’t wait! We have the anti-racist vote bloc.
Step 3 to Step 4: The first thing our new African- American X will do for us is lead us to honor Dr. King by fixing our Canons to require that African- Americans must be included in all job searches and all committees will include them, and our most important committees and executive councils must be chaired by African-Americans who can bring about truly transformative leadership to the Diocese of Atlanta. Our black bishop X will not allow racist White privilege to infect our Council any longer. He won't recruit for us just our typical Uncle Tom type of Oreo black who doesn't make waves because they know how to act White enough to get along with White snobs and elitists. He will continually challenge us to overturn our systemic biases in favor of Whites. He will move us from occasionally talking about holding ourselves accountable to people of color for the sins of segregation and our unearned racist White privileges, to actually striving for deeper understanding and accountability. He will lead us to commit to the lifelong process of unlearning our implanted social racism so that we may break down oppressive institutional structures. Then, he will lead us to participate in antiracist initiatives that address power imbalances and force White elites to share power with "the other" and "the stranger" as we grow into a better and stronger diocese.
Only when we have an African- American X, can we leap forward to Transformed 6 step. When we vote for African- American X, we will have Transformed ourselves by rejecting the racist White privilege that has prevented our diocese from ever electing a black for our bishop or cathedral dean. A Transformed diocese will do the right thing. We do not need to be Transformed between now and then, so it is easier than most of us are thinking. We only need to agree to our Transformation on June 12, 2012, when we bloc vote for our first historic African- American bishop. We leap into Transformation in an instant. No longer do we need to take baby steps, to tip toe into the darker end of the water, to be timid and cautious. We only need to leap at the right moment, and we seize Transformation and Transformation reaches out to us from the Resurrection moment and helps us do the right thing, just as the Resurrection help lead Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Our black bishop as X Bishop of Atlanta will win the future for us. He will lead us from our sporadically symbolic anti racist and somewhat compliant affirmative action step. You may wonder how. He will be our most advanced position of anti-racism battlefield, and our growth will be toward the social justice that he embodies. We will then rapidly move from the 3 step to fill in steps 4, 5, and 6. We will become anti-racist, because a racist diocese wouldn't elect a black bishop; we will redefine ourselves, because an anti- racist diocese cannot be defined by racist White privilege; and finally, we will achieve anti-racist transformation as we live into our baptismal covenant and conform ourselves to the legacy of our first African-American bishop. We've learned to fight racism through proclaiming the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his sacrifice for us. Rev. Joseph Lowery still shows us how to fight the good fight. We will fight racism through our anti-racist voting bloc on June 2, 2012, when we defeat the lurking, secretive, forces of racist White privilege that want us to have another White bishop. They smile and hug us at diocesan meetings, but have they ever invited you into their homes to eat at their tables and use their engraved sliver utensils and drink from their heirloom crystal, use their recently renovated bathrooms, introduce their white children as social friends and companions for our black children? Do they invite us and our children as their guests to swim with them at the pool at their exclusive private clubs? When houses come up for sale in their neighborhoods, are we the first ones they call to tell about the opportunity to move into their neighborhood and make it richer with our contribution of our diversity? Have they ever invited your family to spend a weekend with theirs at their Lake Burton or Lake Rayburn mountain home or at their beach house at Sea Island or Hilton Head? Have they ever invited you on a ski trip to Colorado? Are you suspicious that they use their racist White privilege as a fortress to keep out diversity? When they give money to Pace, Lovett, and Westminster, do they designate it for diversity scholarships that help underprivileged and vulnerable African- American students advance to college? Do they want another White bishop so that they won’t be any more seriously investigated for their racist White privilege than they have been during White IX Bishop? IX Bishop Alexander said we are leading all other dioceses in anti-racism. We are barely into Step 3 of 6 Steps, our gains are tenuous and we could easily backslide unless we increase the intensity at guarding the change. Is that what we call leadership? It sounds like slow motion lethargy. Don’t rock the boat too much, is what they must say in private. Another racist White privilege bishop might move us to Step 4 in another 10 years! Social Justice can’t wait that long! It won’t wait! We have the anti-racist vote bloc.
Step 3 to Step 4: The first thing our new African- American X will do for us is lead us to honor Dr. King by fixing our Canons to require that African- Americans must be included in all job searches and all committees will include them, and our most important committees and executive councils must be chaired by African-Americans who can bring about truly transformative leadership to the Diocese of Atlanta. Our black bishop X will not allow racist White privilege to infect our Council any longer. He won't recruit for us just our typical Uncle Tom type of Oreo black who doesn't make waves because they know how to act White enough to get along with White snobs and elitists. He will continually challenge us to overturn our systemic biases in favor of Whites. He will move us from occasionally talking about holding ourselves accountable to people of color for the sins of segregation and our unearned racist White privileges, to actually striving for deeper understanding and accountability. He will lead us to commit to the lifelong process of unlearning our implanted social racism so that we may break down oppressive institutional structures. Then, he will lead us to participate in antiracist initiatives that address power imbalances and force White elites to share power with "the other" and "the stranger" as we grow into a better and stronger diocese.
Step 4 to Step 5: After he has us sharing power, we will all agree that our racist White privilege is a barrier to effective and participatory diversity. Diversity is our strength. His strong leadership will lead us to undergo a strenuous and life changing analysis of systemic racism in not just the diocese as a whole, but each and every parish, down to every level, no matter how uncomfortable or painful will be the journey. For some of us, we will fight our racist White privilege for our entire lifetimes. We will embrace the process of of intentional institutional restructuring, based upon anti-racist analysis and identity. We will audit and Audits and restructure all aspects of institutional life to ensure full participation of People of Color, including their world-view, culture and lifestyles. People of Color from the beloved community of color will approach the cathedral with less apprehension and greater expectation of inclusion, warmth, radical hospitality, and they will feel safe and cared for among us. They bless us with multiculturalism, we will embrace them with inclusion. We will implements structures, policies and practices with inclusive decision making and other forms of power sharing on all levels of the institutional life and work, and thereby we commit to struggle to dismantle racism in the wider community, and build clear lines of accountability to racially oppressed communities. Our anti-racist multicultural diversity will become our major and most protected institutionalized asset. We will then invite our African- America X to redefine for us and rebuild all activities in the cathedral based on anti-racist commitments. Our focus will be on eliminating the organizational effects of racism and exclusion. We will audit and restructure all aspects of institutional life, especially our Canons that aren’t now explicitly stated to foster diversity and help minorities. Coalitions of multicultural power will give us mutual feedback and internal and external advocacy. We will collaborative approach to social justice as we ally with the oppressed and unite them to the decision making process that still includes those with traditional power and privilege. All we do will be mutually inclusive of African- Americans, especially our multicultural learning.
Our IX White Bishop has been unsuccessful at tearing down the racist White privilege barriers at the cathedral. Our X Black Bishop will succeed, for he will show the cathedral Whites the time has come for an anti racist and inclusive cathedral. Justice can be denied for decades, then suddenly arrive with a strong, proud leader. We will succeed this time!
Our IX White Bishop has been unsuccessful at tearing down the racist White privilege barriers at the cathedral. Our X Black Bishop will succeed, for he will show the cathedral Whites the time has come for an anti racist and inclusive cathedral. Justice can be denied for decades, then suddenly arrive with a strong, proud leader. We will succeed this time!
Step 5 to Step 6: Diocese Atlanta will move forward together when our first African- American bishop consecrates us as a visionary church that has finally overcome and defeated our systemic racism founded upon racist White privilege. Our life together will reflect FULL PARTICIPATION and shared power at the cathedral with shared power among diverse racial, cultural and economic groups as they help determine our mission, structure, constituency, policies and practices. Full participation in decisions that shape the institution, and inclusion of diverse cultures, lifestyles, and interest will be our hallmark. We will create through our new X bishop a sense of pre- Diaspora restored community and mutual caring. We will be strengthened to ally with others in combating all forms of social oppression. The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta will be known across the global Episcopal Church as the leader of social justice.
We will make the Dr. King’s Dream come true! We will be Transformed! We will hold, create, and defend the present and future vision in which racism no longer limits us and our advancement. All groups will share power internally. Our African- American X will be a descendant of slaves who were forced to come here in voluntarily, but God sent them here to give him to us to start the healing process for us from racism and racist White privilege. We can’t do it without his help.
The racist White privilege we struggle against is the racism of tradition and power. Racism comes from two sources: inherited organic racism and implanted social implanted racism. Our Africa- American X bishop will immediately confront our socially implanted racism and lead us into its defeat. Our inherited organic racism will always be there like a chronic disease and requires a lifetime anti-racist journey to manage, suppress, and treat.
Inherited organic racism manifests it virulent and toxic effects through racist White privilege, often called “unearned White privilege,” and incorrectly called just “White privilege.” Implanted social racism is unearned White privilege, and sometimes is reduced to “White privilege.” Implanted social racism manifests itself when Whites are reinforced in their expectations of seeing other Whites in positions of control, authority, and leadership, and when they expect that they naturally should expect to aspire to leadership, which they incorrectly call “service leadership”. Organic racism is explicit, whereas social racism is implicit. Organic racism uncontrollably and predictably flares up in Whites when they encounter African- Americans and jump to conclusions based on innate prejudice and bigoted stereotyping. Whites do not need to be trained into this kind of racism, because it is part of their deepest being.
We suspect that the latest admission of inherited organic racism came from the admission by Bishop Gray III in Mississippi that he still has racist thoughts. Even though Bishop Gray claims that his diocese is called by God to be “One Church, in Mission: Inviting, Transforming, Reconciling,” (which is the definition of an anti-racist church) he still cannot transcend the inherited organic racism deep within himself.
To understand the magnitude of the racist problem and its frightening persistence, remember the he is the biological son of Bishop Duncan Gray II, the great and renowned civil rights icon who kept the racist and violent White students at the Old Miss under control during the integration struggles in Oxford, Mississippi. He is revered at Sewanee Episcopal Seminary for his steadfast stand against racism everywhere. But racism even infects his own son!
"As a native of this state for 61 years, I have lived through the events mentioned above, and I am acutely aware of how far we've come. In fact, because of our often tortured past, we have been forced to confront directly the evils of racism while many others have hid behind a veil of denial. I am enormously proud of our efforts to this point."
"But I also know," I wrote, "that stain of racism that still infects my own heart and soul. I am not proud of certain thoughts and feelings that I find within me in unexpected moments. The acknowledgement and confession of those things done and left undone in both my present life and in my (our) past is critical to my healing."
THE STAIN OF RACISM STILL INFECTS HIS OWN HEART! We could not have a better admission and recognition of inherited organic racism than that! X Bishop Alexander came close when he said race has always been on his mind.
The mistake that Gray is making is that he can heal from inherited organic racism. He can’t. The best he can do is show more will and commitment to the anti-racist and multicultural continuum, advance transformative diversity leadership so that more African-Americans are in highly paid positions of authority and power over Whites, and put himself under their leadership. He must get out of the way as African- Americans refound the Diocese of Mississippi. He will then have done his part to overcome implanted social racism and can start the really hard work of keeping himself accountable to us for his racist White privilege. Healing is in the process, not finishing the process. He will never be finished with his Deep Therapy for racism.
The mistake that Gray is making is that he can heal from inherited organic racism. He can’t. The best he can do is show more will and commitment to the anti-racist and multicultural continuum, advance transformative diversity leadership so that more African-Americans are in highly paid positions of authority and power over Whites, and put himself under their leadership. He must get out of the way as African- Americans refound the Diocese of Mississippi. He will then have done his part to overcome implanted social racism and can start the really hard work of keeping himself accountable to us for his racist White privilege. Healing is in the process, not finishing the process. He will never be finished with his Deep Therapy for racism.
Socially implanted racism is White privilege that comes from associations and learning. When White children see that the authority figures in their homes are both White because their parents are both White, they are imprinted with the racism that Whites are supposed to be in positions of control and authority. They are socially imprinted with White superiority from birth. When the doctor who delivers them and the nurses who care for them are all Whites, they absorb racist White privilege by seeing Whites in caretaking positions of supreme importance to life. When they are baptized by water poured upon their White foreheads by the White hands of a White priest, they learn about Christ through a racist White privilege paradigm. When they are then confirmed into the Episcopal Church by the hands of a White bishop, the associate church hierarchy and power with Whiteness. When their teachers and school principals are White, they are imprinted with racist White privilege that tells them that Whites are smarter and more educated and therefore more deserving of power than blacks are. When the go to college and see their college president is White, they are socially imprinted with the racist belief that Whites are supposed to be powerful in intellectual environments. When they play with only other White children in their neighborhoods, they are socially reinforced with the archaic and racist notion that “the others” are not fit playmates. In other words, White families, White institutions, and White society all are mutually reinforcing of racist White privilege through socially implanting racist perceptions and attitudes about what Whites should expect and deserve.
This kind of implanted racism is mostly curable through transformative diversity leadership, and will be finally extirpated from society through increasing interracial dating, marriage, and families. When White children are delivered by a black doctor, cared for by a black nurse, baptized by a black priest, confirmed by a black bishop (X), taught by a black teacher, disciplined by a black principal, they will not be socially implanted with racist White privilege. They will become better global citizens who see each individual has worthy and dignified and will seek to be friends with all, not just those who look like them. When White parents understand the damage done to their children by sending them to private schools and allowing them to play at private country clubs, they will start using public education and stop paying dues for racist White privilege leisure that separates them from the community and incubates more social interaction with racists. The resulting racist perception of reality is fueled by fear, ignorance, and misinformation.
As a diocese of the Episcopal Church, our responsibility is to break the cycle of socially implanted racism buy electing an African- American bishop next June 2. With his grace, every White child confirmed into our diocese will be brought in with black hands, and that’s how we will do our part to break the vicious cycle of racist White privilege social implanting.
The other racism source requires a different therapy. Inherited organic racism is never cured, only treated. But now, we know how to effectively treat it and shackle its manifestations so that it does not break out into virulent poison that infects all who are touched by it with hatred and intolerance. Inherited organic racism (“IOR”) is transmitted through the blood and passed on to White children from their White parents and White grandparents. IOR is what makes racist White privilege so despicable- it manifests itself as a harsh voice of exclusion that promotes hostile anti-diversity and dangerous anti-inclusion.
Inherited organic racism is what propelled Whites to travel from Europe in search of riches and domination. IOR propels greed and justifies theft and oppression. White colonization and imperialism were not conceived as means of cruelty against the colored races, but as a means of enrichment of the White race. Since Whites were then the most Christian of all races, they needed to invent scientific theories to explain why they should dominate their “inferiors”. They believed, and repeatedly told themselves that they were biologically superior because they were the ones who were imperial colonists, not the “coloreds”. IOR was passed down through the generations in the descendants of the White colonizers. That same expansionist and acquisitive drive that put the imperialists over so much of the globe, was passed on to today’s Whites. They didn’t just adopt attitudes of superiority, they actually inherited the organic basis of those attitudes in their DNA. No other race feels superior to every other. Only Whites do that. Their racist White privilege and attitudes of segregation and exclusion and hyper-defensiveness of their status and power are not invented by them- they inherited those behaviors. What we see are just the manifestations of the interior conceptions they have of themselves that they cannot escape or alter. Their racism is immutable and permanent. It can only be managed, not changed. A leopard cannot change its spots.
Racist White privilege is experienced by White through their interior attitudes and their material and social standings. The interior is the organic. The role of an anti-racist and Transformed Diocese of Atlanta is to give these Whites the deep therapy necessary for them to constantly confront their “inner racist” so that they can confess their racism to us and hold themselves accountable to us. Our African- American X bishop is indespensible in this therapy.
Racist White privilege is experienced by White through their interior attitudes and their material and social standings. The interior is the organic. The role of an anti-racist and Transformed Diocese of Atlanta is to give these Whites the deep therapy necessary for them to constantly confront their “inner racist” so that they can confess their racism to us and hold themselves accountable to us. Our African- American X bishop is indespensible in this therapy.
Racist White privilege beneficiaries hate to be subordinate to blacks. The never want a black to be in a superior position over them. When they see our black bishop, they will have an involuntarily reflexive racist reaction. They will recoil and withdraw. That’s when we need to most reach out to them with a social justice offer of atonement therapy.
The Deep Therapy that racist White privilege elites needs is: fist, confronting their racism through contact with diversity; second, recognize and acknowledge that their reflexive racist reaction prevents them from being free to be in communion with “the other” as God wants us to be; third, confess their racism; and fourth, find ways to hold themselves accountable to people of color for their unearned white privileges.
Since the indelible portion of racism is passed on from Whites to their children, and thus inherited, Whites must all be forced to acknowledge it. Transformative diversity leadership is the best means of beginning their therapy. When they subordinate to those whom they think they should dominate, they experience very deep, very ancient, very organic and very racist reactions. They become exceedingly uncomfortable; but our hope as an anti-racist church is in allowing them to feel that racist discomfort by surrounding them with diversity leadership in positions of power, control, and authority. This manifestation can’t be disestablished, but a long as Whites remain in Deep Therapy, we can help them along the life long journey of a lifelong process that must incorporate ongoing reflection, repentance, reconciliation and transformation. Deep Therapy increases their awareness of their own deep seeded and inescapable racism. We must give them a safe space to offer themselves to meaningful dialogue around important, controversial issues. Our Deep Therapy is their constant audit, and they will unavoidably encounter the cause of racist White privilege because it always continues to rear its ugly head. Deep Therapy is an ongoing symposia and blocks the advancement and entrenchment of institutionally sanctioned racist agendas. When racist White privilege elites encounter their organic selves, even involuntarily, they can then begin the atonement process by refusing to allow each other to promote the racist agenda in the church. A racist White will proceed with an undefended heart and welcome a personal transformation that is reflective of the Transformed Diocese of Atlanta, but not until after we elect our first historic African- American bishop to replace IX Alexander. Some of our currently worst racist White privilege leaders now may become some of our best, most dedicated anti-racist advocates in the future.
We foresee a day in the future when the cathedral will reflect diversity, but only after the dean and staff and the diocesan staff undergo Deep Therapy at the hands of African- American X. St. Phillips has never had an African- American dean or senior warden. How can that have become our reputation when Atlanta is a majority non White city? It is because St. Phillips was founded when slavery was legal, and that racist tendency of White superiority poisons the present with the virulence of our racist and shameful past. When Jim Crow segregation kept Whites firmly entrenched in their racist power, the St. Phillips cathedral thrived.
We must have an Affirmative Action for the cathedral. Whites have been privileged there for far too long. They need to recognize the necessity of making way for those how have been excluded, underrepresented, and disadvantaged. We do have a collective grievance, and through us we offer collective salvation, and we are justified by our history of being excluded. The cathedral must listen to what God is saying to them through us and our suffering and the pain of our exclusion. Even though many White elites at the St. Phillips have not actively discriminated against the community of color, they still owe they still owe their good fortune to past acts of discrimination imposed by their own kind. All white success in some measure is a legacy of injustice against blacks. We must demand that the cathedral take proactive steps to boost its percentage or numerical representation of underserved groups to a level that would be appropriate to a Transformed Diocese of Atlanta and reflective of city’s diversity and our the Deeply Theraputic diversity our new bishop will consent to bring us.
An fully integrated and transformed St. Phillips will actively seek and recruit full participation in institutional mission and goals by the enriching diversity of Atlanta who will help usher in the coming era of porous borders between the cathedral and wider, multicultural and multifaith communities. Any other path that leads to resistance to change will render the cathedral unsustainable in the future.
The Deep Therapy that racist White privilege elites needs is: fist, confronting their racism through contact with diversity; second, recognize and acknowledge that their reflexive racist reaction prevents them from being free to be in communion with “the other” as God wants us to be; third, confess their racism; and fourth, find ways to hold themselves accountable to people of color for their unearned white privileges.
Since the indelible portion of racism is passed on from Whites to their children, and thus inherited, Whites must all be forced to acknowledge it. Transformative diversity leadership is the best means of beginning their therapy. When they subordinate to those whom they think they should dominate, they experience very deep, very ancient, very organic and very racist reactions. They become exceedingly uncomfortable; but our hope as an anti-racist church is in allowing them to feel that racist discomfort by surrounding them with diversity leadership in positions of power, control, and authority. This manifestation can’t be disestablished, but a long as Whites remain in Deep Therapy, we can help them along the life long journey of a lifelong process that must incorporate ongoing reflection, repentance, reconciliation and transformation. Deep Therapy increases their awareness of their own deep seeded and inescapable racism. We must give them a safe space to offer themselves to meaningful dialogue around important, controversial issues. Our Deep Therapy is their constant audit, and they will unavoidably encounter the cause of racist White privilege because it always continues to rear its ugly head. Deep Therapy is an ongoing symposia and blocks the advancement and entrenchment of institutionally sanctioned racist agendas. When racist White privilege elites encounter their organic selves, even involuntarily, they can then begin the atonement process by refusing to allow each other to promote the racist agenda in the church. A racist White will proceed with an undefended heart and welcome a personal transformation that is reflective of the Transformed Diocese of Atlanta, but not until after we elect our first historic African- American bishop to replace IX Alexander. Some of our currently worst racist White privilege leaders now may become some of our best, most dedicated anti-racist advocates in the future.
We foresee a day in the future when the cathedral will reflect diversity, but only after the dean and staff and the diocesan staff undergo Deep Therapy at the hands of African- American X. St. Phillips has never had an African- American dean or senior warden. How can that have become our reputation when Atlanta is a majority non White city? It is because St. Phillips was founded when slavery was legal, and that racist tendency of White superiority poisons the present with the virulence of our racist and shameful past. When Jim Crow segregation kept Whites firmly entrenched in their racist power, the St. Phillips cathedral thrived.
We must have an Affirmative Action for the cathedral. Whites have been privileged there for far too long. They need to recognize the necessity of making way for those how have been excluded, underrepresented, and disadvantaged. We do have a collective grievance, and through us we offer collective salvation, and we are justified by our history of being excluded. The cathedral must listen to what God is saying to them through us and our suffering and the pain of our exclusion. Even though many White elites at the St. Phillips have not actively discriminated against the community of color, they still owe they still owe their good fortune to past acts of discrimination imposed by their own kind. All white success in some measure is a legacy of injustice against blacks. We must demand that the cathedral take proactive steps to boost its percentage or numerical representation of underserved groups to a level that would be appropriate to a Transformed Diocese of Atlanta and reflective of city’s diversity and our the Deeply Theraputic diversity our new bishop will consent to bring us.
An fully integrated and transformed St. Phillips will actively seek and recruit full participation in institutional mission and goals by the enriching diversity of Atlanta who will help usher in the coming era of porous borders between the cathedral and wider, multicultural and multifaith communities. Any other path that leads to resistance to change will render the cathedral unsustainable in the future.
Inherited organic racism has led to tragedy in the Episcopal Church. After Bishop Guerre proposed that the African- Americans in South Carolina be allowed to have their own African- American I bishop, a move that smacks of segregated spirituality but was a step in the right direction of S.C. eventually having a black bishop in the future from now. Bishop Guerre was murdered in his offices by a racist White Episcopal priest. The murder, Rev. Woodwards, left a suicide note that reveals much about inherited organic racism in educated White elites, especially “educated” priests. We call them “ignorant”, but their racism is so imbedded into their the fiber and being of their souls that another word should be found to describe them. In his note, he complained that black bishops for blacks would one day lead to black bishops for Whites, which was unacceptable to his racist White privilege native soul and hostile attitude towards diversity and inclusion. His organic racism raised its ugly head when he proclaimed that White priests recoil in disgust when their priestly duties required them to lay their White hands on the repulsive, coarse, kinky and wooly heads of African- Americans. Such a visceral and hatefully racist reaction against touching African- Americans in baptisms and confirmations is one of the most outrageous and instructive examples of inherited organic racism that any has ever seen in our seminary readings. If he had taken more time to write the note, we have no doubt he would have also included the outrageously offensive “nappy -headed” and “lent -headed” as he proclaimed his ignorance and distaste for us.
The murder of Bishop Guerre and the hateful prejudice contained in the suicide note of Rev. Woodard show that the intersection of inherited and implanted racism. He hated physical blacks because he couldn’t help himself because he was born that way, but his hatred of the idea of black bishops for whites came from how his ideas about the proper places of whites visa vis blacks was violated. He had never seen a black in a position of hierarchical authority over whites, and the idea of a black bishop enraged his socially implanted racism. He was unwilling to step outside his comfort zone and allow the church to break down the artificial and racist barriers that separate us.
The invidious racial discrimination against blacks didn’t start with the birth of racist Rev. Woodward. Before him was the Sewanee Canon that enshrined racist stereotypes into the very systemic bias and institutional racism into the Episcopal Church. At the Sewanee conference on racial problems, Episcopal bishops came up with the plan that blacks shouldn’t be segregated into their own churches with their own black priests. They wanted to segregate blacks into their own black churchs, or to continue the structural and formal segregation that existed after the Civil War during Reconstruction. Blacks weren’t allowed to pray with the whites in white churches, and therefore they weren’t allowed to drink the blood of our common Savior from a common cup. Black lips were forbidden to drink from the grail that was reserved just for racist White privilege lips.
The Sewanee Cannon mandated that blacks would stay in their own black churches, but they would all be under the authority of White Episcopal priests. Some Episcopalians misunderstand the Sewanee Cannon and claim that it was anti-segregation. They don’t know the worst of it. The stated reason was the White racist fear that if blacks were allowed to oversee blacks, that the Episcopalian blacks would revert back to the savagery of Africa, as displayed by uncontrolled emotionalism, loud shouting, jumping, dancing, and possibly voodoo. The White priests were to oversee the blacks to make certain that they practiced White Christianity only in the ways that White Christians would approve of, not much unlike today when we have a White bishop and White presiding bishop and White arch bishop overseeing black churches that have broken free enough to have our own black priests. But when we look up, we always see Whites looking down at us from the highest cathedra. We are stuck in the past and too many of us don’t know it or won’t admit it.
The Sewanee Canon is an example of inherited organic racism, because it is based on fears of blacks as Africans. Whites just want to believe that if blacks are left alone, we’ll start putting skulls on our altars instead of crosses, and the host would be real human flesh and the blood would be real human blood. As recently as the first half of the 20th century, social critics made a racist fetish out of describing African- Americans as “these grinning great grand children of African cannibals”.
Electing a black bishop and black cathedral dean would go along way toward eradicating these outdated stereotypes that still exist in secretive, sinister, and subtle ways.
Another earlier example of racist White privilege’s origin in inherited organic racism against African- American came from the Bishop of Vermont named Henry Hopkins. He was the Episcopal Church’s most outspoken supporter of slavery, because he said that the Bible supported slavery. He wrote a best selling book that claimed the duties of American Citizens, White Citizens Only because African- Americans were not yet claimed by all to be citizens, was to support the Colonization of African- Americans back to Africa. He wanted 40,000 blacks to be sent back to Africa each year because of the threat they posed to their White owners. His inherited organic racism made him see blacks as dangerous and therefore needing to be removed from America so that Whites could be safe. This racism came from the North, way up in Vermont where they didn’t have slavery. He later bragged that he distributed his racist White privilege screed at a National Convention of the Episcopal Church, and that none of his fellow bishops complained about his colonization scheme.
Even Bishop Payne of Liberia is complicit in the legacy of racism in the Episcopal Church. He was sent to Liberia Africa to care for African- Liberians in Monroville, named for racist James Monroe who wanted blacks sent back to Africa. Bishop Payne should have been here in America struggling with us for freedom here at our home. If he had done what he ought to have done, we would have larger and intact families here. Complicity with Colonization back to Africa is racism. Virginia Theological Seminary should change the name of the Payne Library to reflect their commitment to wipe out racism from their campus.
Thankfully, we don’t still have racist White privileged elites in power in the Episcopal Church that openly operate from their inherited organic racism, but we know it is inside of them like an indelible stain, and we must constantly monitor them for it. It’s high time to admit that some sins are unforgivable.
We can help them eliminate socially implanted racism from their attitudes by changing their environments through faster inclusion and promotion of transformative diversity leadership into positions of authority and power. But we can’t help them get rid of their virulent genetic racism, but we must participate in their management for it through Deep Therapy.
When we have our African- American X for the Bishop of Atlanta next June, we will largely solve our diocese’s problem of implanted social racism. Whether the like it or not, white Episcopalians will be led by their chief shepard who doesn’t look like them and isn’t related to them through the ties of blood, tradition, custom and culture. They will catch up with the progress of the church and progressive realization of the Resurrection when the accept his leadership. They will no longer expect just whites like them to be leaders of the church. They will teach their white children to understand and embrace these changes, and their children will not receive socially implanted racism for the diocese during their formative years when attitudes about race, class, and gender are being formed.
Because the inner city race riot violence of 1967 exposed the plight of African- Americans in a white supremacist systemic, we got a glimpse into the good done when whites are honest about the damage they have inflicted upon communities of color. The government commission report was written by White elites who had encountered and properly managed their genetic racism so that they knew they must tell the truth as part of their Deep Therapy. We need a similar commission report for the Diocese of Atlanta that will admit for us what the government admitted then.“Segregation and poverty have created in the racial ghetto a destructive environment totally unknown to most white Americans. What white Americans have never fully understood—but what the Negro can never forget—is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain, and white society condones it. It is time now to turn with all the purpose at our command to the major unfinished business of this nation. It is time to adopt strategies for action that will produce quick and visible progress. It is time to make good the promises of American democracy to all citizens—urban and rural, white and black, Spanish-surname, American Indian, and every minority group.”
“Despite these complexities, certain fundamental matters are clear. Of these, the most fundamental is the racial attitude and behavior of white Americans toward black Americans. Race prejudice has shaped our history decisively; it now threatens to affect our future. White racism is essentially responsible for the explosive mixture which has been accumulating in our cities since the end of World War II. Among the ingredients of this mixture are: Pervasive discrimination and segregation in employment, education and housing, which have resulted in the continuing exclusion of great numbers of Negroes from the benefits of economic progress.”
“Despite these complexities, certain fundamental matters are clear. Of these, the most fundamental is the racial attitude and behavior of white Americans toward black Americans. Race prejudice has shaped our history decisively; it now threatens to affect our future. White racism is essentially responsible for the explosive mixture which has been accumulating in our cities since the end of World War II. Among the ingredients of this mixture are: Pervasive discrimination and segregation in employment, education and housing, which have resulted in the continuing exclusion of great numbers of Negroes from the benefits of economic progress.”
Race prejudice comes from genetics and society. Social race prejudice can be curtailed when Whites see and accept our African-American X bishop in June, 2012. Once that first step is taken, then the genetic racism must surface. It can’t be stopped or held back. It will surface, it will raise its ugly head and we will see it out in the open. The White privileged children may be less able to hide it than their parents, so we must help the children feel they are in a safe space to speak what comes to their minds. The racism we hear from them will not be social racism, because they will be in a rapidly Transforming church, as taken there by our historic first African American Bishop, our Tenth. Even when we have an African American as our leader shepard, if White children still prefer to make friends with other Whites at rates higher than they do with African- American children, then we will see the proof of genetic racism. We will invite their parents to learn their own Deep Therapy so they can model these treatments to their children. By holding them accountable to people of color for their unearned White privileges, parents can then enter into the Deep Therapy Continuum with their children and stop the vicious cycle of permitted racist White privilege.
Because of the historic electing of Barak Obama as our first African- American president of the United States, White children are now more receptive of transformative diversity leadership and its improvement of our society’s sickness. They see how Obama cares more for the suffering Arabs in the Middle East, he cares more about Green industries so we can stop global warming and the climate change from carbon emissions, he cares about inequities in our health care system, so he led us to the revolutionary Health Care Act that will solve so many problems, he signed Hate Crimes Legislation so that our vulnerable minorities will have greater federal protections form virulent hatred and toxic violence. Since he is an African- American and doing so much good for ALL, White children now understand why he is universally known as the “truly first American president.” He is a product of a mixed race family, and his mixed race identity, while not taking away his African- American black power from him, sends a hopeful message to children about the future direction of the country. They simply will not see what their parents saw that implanted social racism through what was assumed to be normal: Whites in all leadership roles.
White children have come far. They understand the necessity of having multicultural friends. We are appreciative of the media and advertising industry for doing a better job at reflecting the enriching diversity that makes America so strong. Children now see why having multicultural friends should always be a top priority for all social gatherings. These steps help block the implanting and lodging of social racism within their attitudes about “the other”. White children are now the most inclusive and accepting, welcoming and hospitipal generation we have ever known. Through them, we have made great strides at eliminating social racism, but nonetheless, White children are still infected with genetic racism passed down racist virus in their blood and they need our help to bring it out through our Truth Telling and Story Telling discussions and to help them confess it to us. They always will be tainted with the stain passed down through their white European imperialist ancestors. We can help them through anti-racist Deep Therapy and take them as far as possible, but not beyond the limits of their natures. Their struggles will be lifelong, just as our struggle for social justice and making the American Dream and the American Creed of Equality for All are taking hundreds of years of the voice in our blood crying to be heard and understood.
White children have come far. They understand the necessity of having multicultural friends. We are appreciative of the media and advertising industry for doing a better job at reflecting the enriching diversity that makes America so strong. Children now see why having multicultural friends should always be a top priority for all social gatherings. These steps help block the implanting and lodging of social racism within their attitudes about “the other”. White children are now the most inclusive and accepting, welcoming and hospitipal generation we have ever known. Through them, we have made great strides at eliminating social racism, but nonetheless, White children are still infected with genetic racism passed down racist virus in their blood and they need our help to bring it out through our Truth Telling and Story Telling discussions and to help them confess it to us. They always will be tainted with the stain passed down through their white European imperialist ancestors. We can help them through anti-racist Deep Therapy and take them as far as possible, but not beyond the limits of their natures. Their struggles will be lifelong, just as our struggle for social justice and making the American Dream and the American Creed of Equality for All are taking hundreds of years of the voice in our blood crying to be heard and understood.
White children in the Dioceses of North Carolina and Maryland are confirmed into Christ's Episcopal Church by black hands, and through the good decisions of those anti-racist voting blocs that elected Bishops Curry and Sutton, these children can be those who eradicate socially implanted racism and unearned White privilege from their lives and communities. Our black bishops also ordain White priests, so they help bring inherited organic racism up while the priests are wiping out inherited social racism from their ministries and careers.
We are at 3 step Compliant in her continuum, because we "Focus on social justice projects without personal engagement with oppressed. 'Come-to-our place' programs not directed by oppressed." Parishes don't focus on social justice enough, but the diocese does and some clergy do, but not most members, because they fear that they will lose some White privilege if they abandon their racist attitudes that defend them from "the other" and "the stranger" who comes from different culture and may seem threatening to us and our White children.
Only when we have an African- American X, can we leap foward to Tranformed 6 step. When we vote for African- American X, we will have Transformed ourselves by rejecting the racist White privilege that has prevented our diocese from ever electing a black for our bishop or cathedral dean. A Transformed diocese will do the right thing. We do not need to be Transformed between now and then, so it is easier than most of us are thinking. We only need to agree to our Transformation on June 12, 2012, when we bloc vote for our first historic African- American bishop. We leap into Transformation in an instant. No longer do we need to take baby steps, to tip toe into the darker end of the water, to be timid and cautious. We only need to leap at the right moment, and we seize Transformation and Transformation reaches out to us from the Ressurection moment and helps us do the right thing, just as the Resurrection help lead Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Only when we have an African- American X, can we leap foward to Tranformed 6 step. When we vote for African- American X, we will have Transformed ourselves by rejecting the racist White privilege that has prevented our diocese from ever electing a black for our bishop or cathedral dean. A Transformed diocese will do the right thing. We do not need to be Transformed between now and then, so it is easier than most of us are thinking. We only need to agree to our Transformation on June 12, 2012, when we bloc vote for our first historic African- American bishop. We leap into Transformation in an instant. No longer do we need to take baby steps, to tip toe into the darker end of the water, to be timid and cautious. We only need to leap at the right moment, and we seize Transformation and Transformation reaches out to us from the Ressurection moment and helps us do the right thing, just as the Resurrection help lead Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/bragg/ill5.html
From the days of legal segregation in the Diocese of Atlanta forward, how we all understand racist White privilege tell us much about “the content of our character”. African- American priests and laity are also complicity in allowing racist White privilege to flourish undisturbed. We await them to elect an anti-racist IX Bishop, but then after ten years the diocese is barely firm in being an anti-racist Step 3 of 6 Steps diocese. Only our dearly depart brother Rev. R. P. M. Bowden held the Whites accountable enough that they didn’t resist to the 7 hours of anti-racist training they needed so badly. Did they take the training because they knew their sickness and came to us for help, or because R. P. M. did such a good job of demanding that they be held accountable? Who was as dedicated to wiping racism out of the diocese as he was? Nobody. Nobody has taken up his rugged cross and continued the civil rights march for Equality and Diversity and Full Inclusion. We miss him greatly, and we need several more to come forward now. We must form a Civil Rights and Diversity voting bloc for June 2, 2012, and guarantee that the retrenching forces of the past will not stop us from helping Atlanta elect our first historic African- American for our X Bishop of Atlanta.
When the word gets out and the Whites at the cathedral sense that their privilege is under attack, many will reached back to their too short anti racism training for platitudes that they hope will deflect our attention and dedication and that they hope will lend credibility to their resistance. Even after 8 White bishops, they elected a 9th, Alexander. During his renovation of the cathedral, now windows were installed with Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King, but many of the old windows with White angels were restored and installed, much to the offense of the community of color. We’ve reached a moment of crisis and opportunity. The bigotry that maintains racist White privilege at the cathedral can not withstand the forces of justice and equality, and we will have our Jubilee Saturday on June 2, 2012, when we grace the Diocese of Atlanta with African- American X Bishop.
Today, our new battle for social justice is being waged, and the cathedral Whites will say they are working toward reconciliation within the confines of the White demographics of Buckhead, but barely will they ever admit the pain caused to the community of color by their exclusionary racist White privilege so flagerantlly displayed. These “anti-racist” Whites contend that they can honor the diocesan mission and UN Melennium Development Goals, with only a tangential connection to segregation and racist White privilege. We know they are fighting a lost cause. Without slavery and segregation, the cathedral would not have become so enriched by racist Whtie privilege. There can be no revision of that inescapable reality of race in Atlanta
We must become the ones we’ve been waiting for. The world that confronts us requires wondrous courage, and we have that courage because we can’t have another White bishop after we’ve had 9 already. We’ve had enough, and the diocese is still too racist. We must try the new plan with a new bishop, African American X. We will keenly analyze the rhetoric of resistance to a black bishop for X Bishop of Atlanta. Anti-racist training without anti-racist decisions and actions and hiring practices will become highly controversial and divisive.
At such a charged moment, we must remember all of our diocese’s history, not just the anti racism training where we say we will change, and then do nothing. We must be faithful stewards of the momentum of social justice and the hope that President Obama has given to millions of African- Americans. We need to recall why X Bishop Alexander said he needed to eradicate racism out of Atlanta. We need to recall our baptismal covenant and the Resurrection and the miracle of change and transformation represented by the Resurrection. We must live up to our best vision of ourselves. Racist White privilege is the worst vision and must be overcome and defeated. It is the monumental prejudice that Rev. Malikee-El exposed and now we see and can’t ignore any longer.
As we assemble our anti-racist voting bloc coalition, we will encounter racist resistance. The Diocese of Atlanta has been a bastion of racist unearned White privilege since 1907, since 10 decades, and power will not be willingly relinquished to social justice. The power bloc will act like their prestige and family money entitles them to keeping their White power. Just look at the cars in the cathedral parking lot. White privilege on display! Gas guzzling, fume spewing, global warming, huge SUVs. Stickers of status on the windows and bumpers where Whites advertise to other Whites that they have status and deserve respect and access because they attended expensive private academies (White flight academies, we know so well!) and private universities. Some of them even advertise that they own Labrador retriever dogs, a gentle, warm, trainable dog that is a preppy accessory, and some stickers even advertise that they like to hunt innocent foxes in the woods. Look at all the brand new shiney $60,000 Mercedes Benz cars! Why couldn’t that money be better spent helping Emmaus House do Gods’ work for the less fortunate and vulnerable?
This implanted social racism is dangerous and hurtful. It excludes those who are less fortunate. Whites use the symbols to communicate with each other. These are brand labels, and say “You can trust me, because I’m as invested in my racist White privilege as you are, and we’ll protect each other from the black wave that wants to rise up from South Atlanta and wash away all our traditions and prerogatives from the cathedral. If we stick together, we can stave off the swarms of blacks who want to take over the cathedral.” Our distinguished Rev. R.P.M. Bowden always knew this about them. He warned us about why change has been so slow in coming.
Electing a black bishop and black cathedral dean would go along way toward eradicating these outdated stereotypes that still exist.
Electing a black bishop and black cathedral dean would go along way toward eradicating these outdated stereotypes that still exist.
“Several studies point to the possibility of developmental windows—stages when children's attitudes might be most amenable to change. In one experiment, children were put in cross-race study groups, and then were observed on the playground to see if the interracial classroom time led to interracial play at recess. The researchers found mixed study groups worked wonders with the first-grade children, but it made no difference with third graders. It's possible that by third grade, when parents usually recognize it's safe to start talking a little about race, the developmental window has already closed.” Po Bronson proved to us that Whites need racial sensitivity therapy before third grade. We must implement more race- aware programs for our toddlers through second grade Sunday school. We must coordinate with Emmaus House and Open Arms to bring mentors and black children into the cathedral on Sunday mornings and at the early development school so that White children have their multicultural appreciation and acceptance developed at an early enough age that we stamp out the virulent implanted social racism that ruins their lives and harms the community.
Scientific social science studies prove that White children who learn about the discrimination suffered by blacks are far more likely to develop improved attitudes toward blacks than those Whites how don’t get this vital training in multicultural sensitivity. Whites with an appreciation of the struggles of blacks against slavery, and segregation, systemic bias and institutional racism are also more likely to bring a black friend home from school and even go on a date with a black to a school dance.
Our mission for Jubilee Saturday is to elect our historic first African- American X Bishop, and thereby help renew the civil rights movement by bridging the worlds of ideas and action, to be the preeminent Transformed diocese in the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion and source of spiritual and diversity leadership capital within that movement, and to deepen the understanding of the issues that must be resolved to achieve racial and ethnic equity the diocese moves through the great transformation of the 21st century. We will be refounded next summer. Prepare now for the inevitable change, or get left behind.
Everyone agrees that it is horrifying for White children “to be proud to be White.” But when we look at the employment patterns at the cathedral and diocese, we see that White children see an overwhelming number of Whites in postions of power. This sad situation implants into them a social racism that makes them proud to be in the race that is in control and has the “qualifications” to run things. Just as White children want to be proud of themselves for reaching high positions of power, this power is just racism under another name. When we dig deep enough, we find “White pride” embedded in “White achievement and White leadership”. How far is that from overt “White power”?
We must help these White children bridge the gap across race, class, and gender before the damage of racist White privilege is so embedded in them that they hurt progress long before we can help them past their racism. They become an obstacle before they become a bridge. We must do more to help them see African- Americans in postions of leadership and power at their youngest possible ages. We must change the White face of the diocese and cathedral to one that is more inclusive and reflective of Atlanta’s demographics and diversity.
Those demographic present us with a challenge that we must overcome. With a majority African American population, statistics tell us that when crime is equally distributed across races, black will still be shown in more crime stories, simply because we are the majority. This unfortunate circumstance causes Whites to develop racist fears of blacks, simply because of the number of crime stories involving blacks is so high in comparison to other races. We must counter this pernicious effect, which also largely comes from the media’s over reporting and over sensationalizing isolated and unrelated crime stories. We can combat the race-crime-effect by giving Whites a constant opportunity to see blacks in leadership positions. This balancing authority with news stories is the work before us. At least we can give them black bishops and black priests, which is where a transformed face of the church should start.
We will be successful if we come together with purpose, vision, and zeal.
Our first historic African-American X Black Bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta will be consecrated in November of 2012. We demand that the consecrators be these esteemed and renowned Civil Rights icons and leaders: the revered and accomplished King children, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Hon. John Lewis, Hon. Andrew Young, Ben Jealous, Ruby Sales, Dorothella Littlepage, Elisabeth Omilami, Dr. R. L. White, Cynthia Tucker, The Very Rev. Robert C. Wright, Mayor Kasim Reed, Bishops Sutton and Curry, and Kimberly Jackson, and Judge Marvin Arrington. Let’s keep this one in the family. We are refounding the Diocese of Atlanta, and the symbolism of the consecration must be an occasion of showing the racist White privilege elites that we will no longer tolerate their implanting social racism into the younger generations by always keeping whites in the highest roles.
Our first historic African-American X Black Bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta will be consecrated in November of 2012. We demand that the consecrators be these esteemed and renowned Civil Rights icons and leaders: the revered and accomplished King children, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Hon. John Lewis, Hon. Andrew Young, Ben Jealous, Ruby Sales, Dorothella Littlepage, Elisabeth Omilami, Dr. R. L. White, Cynthia Tucker, The Very Rev. Robert C. Wright, Mayor Kasim Reed, Bishops Sutton and Curry, and Kimberly Jackson, and Judge Marvin Arrington. Let’s keep this one in the family. We are refounding the Diocese of Atlanta, and the symbolism of the consecration must be an occasion of showing the racist White privilege elites that we will no longer tolerate their implanting social racism into the younger generations by always keeping whites in the highest roles.
We also must use this occasion to fight against the Internal Racist Oppression that is implanted into the African- American community through repeated images of black crime, but of whites in authority and power. Racist White privilege doesn’t only hurt Whites by separateing them from God’s community of the beloved other, but it also hurts blacks by perpetuating racist stereotypes that tell us we are not fit for leadership. As shocking as it is to admit, but we must admit it just as we admit our baptismal covenant calls us into the power of the Resurrection, that whites in positions of leadership are perpetuating internal racist oppression in blacks. We are fast approaching our jubilee season of refounding and transformation, and whites must agree that they will be called upon to sacrifice some of their systemic gains in order to bring about a more just society. Some will be asked to step down, but we will do it lovingly. We love community, and they can help by allowing a black to have a position long denied because of racism, but also a position that will be healing to blacks and whites alike. Whatever we can do to eradicate racist White privilege, the cost is not too high or extreme.
The Episcopal Church often holds a Service of Remembrance, Repentance, and Reconciliation. But we participate too soon. Until we refound and transform the Diocese of Atlanta through electing a black bishop and black cathedral dean, we should not have one of these Services. We must see real action and black diocesan leadership, only then can we begin the process of Reconciliation, but not until then. A Service of Remembrance, Repentance, and Reconciliaton is an empty gesture unless African- Americans are leading. We don’t want to see any more racist White privilege on display at our expense. Stop using us to make yourself look like you are anti-racist. Do something real to make social justice a diocesan covenant, not just something you talk about in a sermon or pastoral letter.
The Episcopal Church often holds a Service of Remembrance, Repentance, and Reconciliation. But we participate too soon. Until we refound and transform the Diocese of Atlanta through electing a black bishop and black cathedral dean, we should not have one of these Services. We must see real action and black diocesan leadership, only then can we begin the process of Reconciliation, but not until then. A Service of Remembrance, Repentance, and Reconciliaton is an empty gesture unless African- Americans are leading. We don’t want to see any more racist White privilege on display at our expense. Stop using us to make yourself look like you are anti-racist. Do something real to make social justice a diocesan covenant, not just something you talk about in a sermon or pastoral letter.
Having White privileged elites run the show just reflects poorly upon the beloved community of color. We make ourselves look like we are subjugated to White leadership. The time has come for whites to be subjugated to black leadership- TRANSFORMATIVE BLACK LEADERSHIP! Through us, the diocese of Atlanta can listen to what God is saying to the diocese right now. He is holding racist White privilege accountable for its failure of fulfilling His vision of social justice, and through us, he sends the message that the past must be transcended by the future we offer the diocese.
Reading the expose by Rev. Malikee-El was difficult. Our hearts sank when we saw just how little progress we’ve made. How can we still have a white dean and so many whites at the cathedral. Did they take their anti racism training seriously? Even though there are myriad urban problems facing the diocese’s low-income, minority population, seeing racist White privilege flaunted to such a degree as at the cathedral is a crime against dignity. Whites seem to have some magical path to access, and African- Americans should no longer be penalized for aspiring to high leadership at St. Phillips.
Another White bishop for the diocese of Atlanta will have a discriminatory impact on vulnerable communities of color. Black Episcopalians in Atlanta have never had a leader of their own, and our children always see White bishops coming into our church. This unfortunate systemic bias only communicates to us that Whites are supposed to lead and blacks are now “QUALIFIED” enough to be leaders. White bishops are the symbols that the Episcopalian institutional racists use to internalize racist oppression in African-Americans.
Any racist White privilege movements to force us to accept another White bishop for our 10th only holds us hostage to an extremist agenda. We must dismantle racism in the Diocese of Atlanta.
IX Alexander said he wanted to dismantle racism in the diocese. How has he done after 10 years? Not good. Look at the ratio of White ordinations to African American. He highlights the one or two blacks, but the majority Whites are getting larger in number and even more powerful at Council, because there are too many of them. They are preserving their racist White privilege through sheer numbers. We haven’t done enough truth telling and story telling so that these Whites will understand the historical discriminations we have suffered in the church. We can change their attitudes, but we need to do more.
Anti racism training should be expanded to 14 hours minimum, with repeated required refresher courses. Rev. R.P.M Bowden was our renowned leader in this effort. In his honor, not only current vestry and clergy should take the 14 hours, but all Episcopalians who want to serve on boards. Until they take our training are receive a certificate that we will control, they are disqualified from running for any office or being appointed by the bishop. The change we’ve made is too small for how long we’ve been trying to make it. Now is the time to leap forward and refound the diocese, and we must have a black bishop as X to give us the transformational leadership we must have.
Lack of faster anti racist progresss is the proof of backsliding and the resurgence of racist White privilege.
IX Alexander said he wanted to dismantle racism in the diocese. How has he done after 10 years? Not good. Look at the ratio of White ordinations to African American. He highlights the one or two blacks, but the majority Whites are getting larger in number and even more powerful at Council, because there are too many of them. They are preserving their racist White privilege through sheer numbers. We haven’t done enough truth telling and story telling so that these Whites will understand the historical discriminations we have suffered in the church. We can change their attitudes, but we need to do more.
Anti racism training should be expanded to 14 hours minimum, with repeated required refresher courses. Rev. R.P.M Bowden was our renowned leader in this effort. In his honor, not only current vestry and clergy should take the 14 hours, but all Episcopalians who want to serve on boards. Until they take our training are receive a certificate that we will control, they are disqualified from running for any office or being appointed by the bishop. The change we’ve made is too small for how long we’ve been trying to make it. Now is the time to leap forward and refound the diocese, and we must have a black bishop as X to give us the transformational leadership we must have.
Lack of faster anti racist progresss is the proof of backsliding and the resurgence of racist White privilege.
To bring more awareness to this issue, Alexander should immediatley use his last year to do a better job at including more people of color within his power structure. This includes its various boards and its agencies. If he will do his job now, more blacks will be in leadership positions as we move toward the June election. When Whites see more black leadership, they will be less resistance to ultimate black leadership with a X black bishop. They will catch up with Alexander’s progress and not form such a resistance to change by nominating White candidates. If dean Sam Candler is on the ballot, that will be a massive and wrong headed, misguided step in the wrong direction. We can’t dismantle racism by fight against racist White privilege if we allow the very White dean of the cathedral to become our very White next bishop. Just because someone is rich and experienced doesn’t make them the best choice. He’s hired too many Whites when he should have been reaching out to Diversity, so he’s automaitclaly disqualified because of his “experience at hiring lots of Whites”.
Atlanta’s African American community can make a profound impact on the Diocse of Atlanta, and we can’t do it if our contribution is blocked by the continuation of a Whites Only leadership tradition. We must model ourselves on an inclusive vision, and current White leadership is a throw back. We must overcome!
Atlanta’s African American community can make a profound impact on the Diocse of Atlanta, and we can’t do it if our contribution is blocked by the continuation of a Whites Only leadership tradition. We must model ourselves on an inclusive vision, and current White leadership is a throw back. We must overcome!
When white children see Whites in Episcopal leadership, they jump to conclusions. They judge that whites are “supposed to be” in leadership. This is the prejudice of implanted social racism, and we can stop it through electing a black bishop and black cathedral dean. But more frightening, when white children see whites in leadership, they also are given excuses to allow their inherited organic racism to raise its ugly head. By not seeing black leaders, they jump to conclusions that blacks are not qualified to lead. White children judge blacks based on how we look as being “unqualified” to lead. By encouraging this racist White privilege in white children, the diocese is contributing to a deepen crisis.
Blacks sometimes come to cathedral, but we somehow steer them toward St. Paul’s Peyton Road. We aren’t doing enough to make them feel welcome and included in our corporate worship life. We must change our music, liturgy, publications to reflect the enriching diversity that they give to Atlanta and the cathedral. We need to do more to foster the vibrant and enriching contribution that their diversity brings to us. When they come, we should seize their offer of empowering our white youth to promote positive social change.
Blacks sometimes come to cathedral, but we somehow steer them toward St. Paul’s Peyton Road. We aren’t doing enough to make them feel welcome and included in our corporate worship life. We must change our music, liturgy, publications to reflect the enriching diversity that they give to Atlanta and the cathedral. We need to do more to foster the vibrant and enriching contribution that their diversity brings to us. When they come, we should seize their offer of empowering our white youth to promote positive social change.
Maybe when the children see blacks in the superior leadership roles, even whites can become truly committed to social justice. Jonathan Daniels saved Ruby Daniels life. Would he have done that if he had been as invested in his racist White privilege as children at the cathedral are trained to be? We need to teach them to become pioneers for social justice, and let the cathedral become its intended role as a spiritual retreat for anti racist whites and African Americans who are struggling against internalized racist oppression that hurts us so much.
Let the cathedral become a beacon of inclusion! Let the choir become a heavenly choir of inclusion. Why hasn’t the cathedral ever had a black choirmaster?
Let the cathedral become a beacon of inclusion! Let the choir become a heavenly choir of inclusion. Why hasn’t the cathedral ever had a black choirmaster?
The entire staff at the cathedral needs to attend Deeper Therapy for their enduring racism. They need to be taught how to seek a deeper understanding of their roles as white people within racist institutions in a racist society. We must teach them how to correctly grapple with their internalized racist superiority, white privilege, accountability to people of color, how to form an anti racist white caucus at the cathedral. They have proven to resistant to change. We must use our power to lead them to the altar of repentance for their inherited and implanted racism. Through us, they can begin their journey of spiritual maturity so that the Resurrection can manifest through their anti racist commitments.
How can we all come together to help IX Alexander live out his antiracist commitment between now and next June? He must admit that his efforts have been mostly symbolic. He needs to commit to more hard work. He must admit that our Anglican church is too Anglo-Saxon in its character, and therefore is too exclusive. He must lead the Anglo-Saxons in the diocese to admit how racism affects their lives.
The most harm is done to their children. They expect to be the dominant culture.
How can we all come together to help IX Alexander live out his antiracist commitment between now and next June? He must admit that his efforts have been mostly symbolic. He needs to commit to more hard work. He must admit that our Anglican church is too Anglo-Saxon in its character, and therefore is too exclusive. He must lead the Anglo-Saxons in the diocese to admit how racism affects their lives.
The most harm is done to their children. They expect to be the dominant culture.
The dominant culture group has to not only own the process and work at understanding why healing is needed but truly share power with those in the minority culture group. These things are key in moving beyond symbolic change to actually transforming an institution.
It is difficult work to change institutional structures and a culture that maintains white privilege and its power over people of color. Most people are comfortable when things are predictable and familiar. Asking people to change something their ancestors built often causes resentment and misunderstanding. Many of us can identify with the verse from the song "Give Me that Old Time Religion": "It was good for my old father, so it’s good enough for me."
At some point we all have to understand that change in itself is not wrong, and making changes does not suggest that all aspects of the heritage and history of any one people group should be cast aside.
But change is necessary to move beyond the status quo. If the diocese desires to "honor the dignity and value of all racial/ethnic,” as we say, then our systems, power structures and even some of our customs must change as “manifestations of the one new humanity in Christ." Holding IX Alexander accountable to his own racial healing is just the first step in a much longer journey we must make together.
The Bishop Search and Transition Committee must form a racism task group and then do the following for restorative justice:
• The appointment of a task group from the dominant culture that includes a person knowledgeable in a restorative justice approach to reconciliation.
• The appointment of a task group from the dominant culture that includes a person knowledgeable in a restorative justice approach to reconciliation.
• The purpose of the task group is to help the dominant culture take ownership and be able to articulate historical and current racism within the church as a beginning step for spiritual transformation.
• The process of the task group will be to hear the stories of racial/ethnic people and congregations who have encountered racism within the church and its conferences and the impact of the harm it caused.
• The accountability of the task group will include ongoing conversation with racial/ethnic leaders in taking steps toward restoring right relationships with racial/ethnic people in the church for the healing of all people.
• A goal of the task group is to help the dominant culture recognize and work on their own spiritual healing.
The dominant culture will take ownership of the process with direct accountability to the Anti-Racism Committee reference committee. This committee will provide feedback for the racial healing group and process. The Anti-Racism Committee will have veto power over proposals brought by the Racial Healing Task Group as well as the composition of the Racial Healing Task Group. The Search Committee is ultimately responsible for this process, and their success can only be measured with the election of an African-American for our 10th bishop.
The Search Committee must undergo ethical training, as well. The must learn to understand their own prejudices that are influencing their search process. The evil that we call racism is inside them as much as inside those we recognize as racists. The problem is inside the church, not in some pasture in rural Georgia where a suspicious all-white group meets.
The white dominant culture, those infected with racist White privilege, need to understand the challenges we have faced as a racial minority and the challenges we continue to face in society and in our chosen church. You have to be able to hear and understand our stories. Then you, as part of the dominant racial group, have to own and understand your racist white privilege before you can truly apologize for the systematic racism that causes those in the minority pain and divides the body of Christ. When that aha! moment hits you, and you understand that racism is a system that benefits the dominant culture overtly and covertly, then we can talk about racial healing. I hate to say this, but it is the truth. There is a race problem in the United States of America, and it does not end at the doorsteps of the cathedral. When I speak of racism in the church, it does not mean that those in the church are not Christian or do not like or even love people of color.
The issue is a system that does not fully recognize or utilize the gifts and talents of people of color. The issue is a group whose leadership structure may be out of tune with a portion of its constituency. The issue is a church whose styles and procedures do not always motivate and inspire a constituency desperately looking for ways to belong.
Racial healing cannot begin until those in the dominant culture have that aha! moment. Honestly, many in the dominant culture are ignorant of what it takes to survive in my world, the world of a racial minority, while I have had to become an expert of the dominant culture just to get to average.
Racial healing cannot begin until those in the dominant culture have that aha! moment. Honestly, many in the dominant culture are ignorant of what it takes to survive in my world, the world of a racial minority, while I have had to become an expert of the dominant culture just to get to average.
Whites must listen to our stories. . It began with stories, stories of how some of us as the racial minority have had to hide our color in order to earn a living for our families. The groups heard stories of how white people have had to vouch for us in order for us to obtain loans—loans we were more financially qualified to obtain than the whites who vouched for us. Some even told stories of genocide in their home countries and how white missionaries urged them not to fight while their brothers and sisters are being murdered. You could say that is the ultimate in white privilege, telling the person of color how to live out their faith when your family is safe and secure from war. Hearing stories is an important step.Ownership was the next movement toward the aha! moment. Though the initial racial healing process proposal from Anti-Racism Committee was flawed in that it placed a heavy burden on the people of color to fix an issue and system in which they are an oppressed victim, the revised proposal did a much better job of giving the burden back to the dominant culture, those that benefit from systematic racist oppression.
Whites have to own the process and own their white privilege, whether they want to or not.
Many from the dominant culture get disheartened when they hear they benefit from a racist system.
White privilege does not make you evil or mean that you will be the next David Duke.
It just means that as a white person in America you get the benefit of the doubt, and we as people of color get the doubt and have to work for the benefit.
Understanding this helps you realize the flaws inherent in our society and in our church and hopefully will motivate you as a member of the dominant culture to work at dismantling the system.
The sharing of power is another crucial component to the “aha! I get it” moment. Power can be a dirty word in the church. We form committees and processes that are supposed to help diffuse the power in the church and spread it among many people. The truth is that the church does have positions and people of power. A lot of this power resides in the hands of Anglo males. Our system is set up and designed for the efficacy of Anglo males. Everyone else is trying to fit in. The Anti Racism Committee needs to do a wonderful thing. They must give the diocesan African American community veto power over all decisions and recommendations coming from the group. That is truly a sharing of power and a sharing that allows healing. It is a simple but powerful step that is analogous to a mother telling one sibling, “One cuts, the other gets to choose.” When the one managing the resource realizes that another one gets to distribute the resource, more consideration and a greater sense of fairness goes into the decision-making process.
"Systems of injustice in society and in the church exact a heavy cost on those outside the centers of power and effectively block reconciliation," and "declaring that we are equal without repairing the wrongs of the past is cheap reconciliation." We must avoid cheap reconciliation. We must work toward real healing. In the end, true racial healing will change the status quo. It will affect how we do business and how we worship with one another.
If the Anti-Racist Commission isn’t given veto power over the Search Committee nominees, then we must take direct action and disrupt the election, or better than that, recruit an anti-racist voting block to nominate a black nominee and elect him on the first ballot. Anything less will be an offensive miscarriage of justice.
The sharing of power is another crucial component to the “aha! I get it” moment. Power can be a dirty word in the church. We form committees and processes that are supposed to help diffuse the power in the church and spread it among many people. The truth is that the church does have positions and people of power. A lot of this power resides in the hands of Anglo males. Our system is set up and designed for the efficacy of Anglo males. Everyone else is trying to fit in. The Anti Racism Committee needs to do a wonderful thing. They must give the diocesan African American community veto power over all decisions and recommendations coming from the group. That is truly a sharing of power and a sharing that allows healing. It is a simple but powerful step that is analogous to a mother telling one sibling, “One cuts, the other gets to choose.” When the one managing the resource realizes that another one gets to distribute the resource, more consideration and a greater sense of fairness goes into the decision-making process.
"Systems of injustice in society and in the church exact a heavy cost on those outside the centers of power and effectively block reconciliation," and "declaring that we are equal without repairing the wrongs of the past is cheap reconciliation." We must avoid cheap reconciliation. We must work toward real healing. In the end, true racial healing will change the status quo. It will affect how we do business and how we worship with one another.
If the Anti-Racist Commission isn’t given veto power over the Search Committee nominees, then we must take direct action and disrupt the election, or better than that, recruit an anti-racist voting block to nominate a black nominee and elect him on the first ballot. Anything less will be an offensive miscarriage of justice.
The Diocese of Atlanta has never had a black bishop, black cathedral dean, or black cathedral senior warden. How can we say we are anti racist? When the evidence proves that we are animated with racism?
It will be uncomfortable. The whites on the Search Committee, who all come from the dominant, white culture, will resist racial healing through our veto demand. What will it cost them to acknowledge and lament the injustices of the past and wrestle with the reality of continued racism?
The costs are higher than they want to pay: loss of power.
That’s why it’s so hard for them to see how they perpetuate racism.
They must listen more. They must do more to hear our stories of pain. They have a poor track record, and must improve.
We can only be reconciled to each other as we are made into a new creation, a refounded diocese, a transformed church that actively seeks to promote black leadership.
The costs are higher than they want to pay: loss of power.
That’s why it’s so hard for them to see how they perpetuate racism.
They must listen more. They must do more to hear our stories of pain. They have a poor track record, and must improve.
We can only be reconciled to each other as we are made into a new creation, a refounded diocese, a transformed church that actively seeks to promote black leadership.
We must insist on a confessional approach to our work. Before God can make an appeal through us we must be aware of our complicity with oppression and be reconciled.
We must admit the truth to power. We live within a church system set up to benefit some and devalue others. Since 1907, we’ve never had a black bishop. We prevent black leadership by not promoting it.
Whites are so influenced by this system in ways they’re not aware most of the time. In order to take a step outside of that, we must demand that we be given accountability power over the Search Committee. They must give us veto power so that we can hold them accountable. We are the only ones who can determine the course of racial healing for the diocese. We must have veto power over the Search Committee’s selections of more white bishop candidates.
The racist White privilege and dominant culture is good at coming up with plans and agenda and goals and at times lose sight of the importance of the process.
We must admit the truth to power. We live within a church system set up to benefit some and devalue others. Since 1907, we’ve never had a black bishop. We prevent black leadership by not promoting it.
Whites are so influenced by this system in ways they’re not aware most of the time. In order to take a step outside of that, we must demand that we be given accountability power over the Search Committee. They must give us veto power so that we can hold them accountable. We are the only ones who can determine the course of racial healing for the diocese. We must have veto power over the Search Committee’s selections of more white bishop candidates.
The racist White privilege and dominant culture is good at coming up with plans and agenda and goals and at times lose sight of the importance of the process.
We can bring Resurrection to the diocese of Atlanta, but only through Transformation. As Christ was Transformed through Resurrection, we will Resurrect the diocese through racial Transformation possible only with the kind of black leadership that cancels out implanted social racism and continually calls to account flaring inherited social racism.
Some whites understand their responsibility, like Bishop Roskam: “For as you know, I too am a racist, dear Africa, but I hope I am in recovery a day at a time. My eyes have been opened to so much by my black friends both here and in Africa, who by the grace of God have risked telling me the truth. Then I was able to see Martin’s truth more clearly, and Malcolm’s also. I have been called to repentance and I do repent and I pledge amendment of life, so help me God.”
Some whites understand their responsibility, like Bishop Roskam: “For as you know, I too am a racist, dear Africa, but I hope I am in recovery a day at a time. My eyes have been opened to so much by my black friends both here and in Africa, who by the grace of God have risked telling me the truth. Then I was able to see Martin’s truth more clearly, and Malcolm’s also. I have been called to repentance and I do repent and I pledge amendment of life, so help me God.”
But we are sick and tired of white bishops apologizing to us and then keeping their other racist White privilege elites in their jobs. Next time a white bishop complains about racism and how much he has benefitted from the injustice against African Americans, we don’t want to hear it unless he announces at the same time a Committee of Accountability that will have veto power over elections, budgets, and employment of more whites. The time for talk and apologies is over. We demand action!
We are deeply disappointed and offended that the Search Committee has not come out with a mission statement that promotes an anti racism vision and commitment for the diocese and our new bishop:
“We envision a transformed church and world, striving for justice and peace among all people and respecting the dignity of every human being, as the Baptismal Covenant calls us to do, so that human potential is no longer limited by racism or any other oppression and where organizations fully manifest shared power with all communities. Our mission is to engage the Diocese of Atlanta at every level - individuals, congregations, diocesan organizations and staff - in the work of dismantling racism in our hearts, our congregations, our wider communities, our decision-making and our institutions. We will not rest until we have our historic first African- American bishop X, and even after that, our work will have just begun”
“We envision a transformed church and world, striving for justice and peace among all people and respecting the dignity of every human being, as the Baptismal Covenant calls us to do, so that human potential is no longer limited by racism or any other oppression and where organizations fully manifest shared power with all communities. Our mission is to engage the Diocese of Atlanta at every level - individuals, congregations, diocesan organizations and staff - in the work of dismantling racism in our hearts, our congregations, our wider communities, our decision-making and our institutions. We will not rest until we have our historic first African- American bishop X, and even after that, our work will have just begun”
One pervasive problem that our black bishop would solve is the lack of social justice training for confirmation classes. We need all who would enter our church to understand how power as an essential component of racism, and the concept of 'white privilege, that unearned power, economic, political and social, that whites have as the dominant group in our society. Through confirmation, the diocese needs to help whites understand how unearned white privilege hurts them. We must demand that all confirmands be able to describe how the perfect multicultural church would go about creating the widest possible welcome for all people. A black bishop could lead us to that first step, which would be by deliberate intention to be inclusive and teaching whites the necessity of relinquish power and control.
Our black bishop will lead us to understand the intersection of "implicit bias" racist and white privilege.
Because of racist White privilege, too many black Americans continue to lag behind on many measures of social and economic well-being. Conventional wisdom holds that these inequalities can only be eliminated by eradicating racism and providing well-funded social programs. Now we know that the only way to advance black achievement is to transform society through black leadership up and down the ranks of all institutions. Only through leadership will we achieve Equality, because whites have had leadership and used it to keep us down.
In addition, our black bishop will be more welcoming of the interfaith dialogue that will bring greater appreciation to the vital contributions that Koranic social justice will make to the transformation of outdated modes in the Episcopal church policies. Our youth will eagerly embrace the change needed that is open to us through interfaith dialogue, thus, all children will be more responsive to black leadership than outdated modes of racist White privilege.
Unsustainable racist White privilege edifices must be allowed to wither and die- to be replaced a new, nourishing influx of multifaith promoters. We need the refreshment of this influx as racist White privilege declines and gets replaced with something better and sustainable. We are keepers of creation, and we can’t exclude the majority creation of non whites.
Unsustainable racist White privilege edifices must be allowed to wither and die- to be replaced a new, nourishing influx of multifaith promoters. We need the refreshment of this influx as racist White privilege declines and gets replaced with something better and sustainable. We are keepers of creation, and we can’t exclude the majority creation of non whites.
Many of us read Rev. Malikee-El’s investigation into Alexander’s White Diocese with shock, sadness, disappointment, and horror. When we were finished with the article, we were left with horror? How could the cathedral still be so white? How many antiracist classes have we had there? So many, but not enough! Racism is so pervasive that it is actually in the air at the cathedral. Everybody there is infected with the virus.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy should be front and center at the cathedral. Whites must first make themselves worthy of his sacrifice before even entering the cathedral. We must begin an immediate renovation to include symbols and images that prove the cathedral is antiracist. Have any of us ever seen a picture of Rosa Parks or Dr. King in the sanctuary or anywhere else? Nothing is there. How can they claim to be antiracist until they correct that deplorable error of judgment?
One ongoing problem at the cathedral is that the racist White privileged elites feel too comfortable there. Their lives are composed of expensive homes, fancy cars, the best schools, private country clubs, vacation homes, and far too much Whiteness and white friends and families.
They segregate themselves away from the community at large in their country clubs. Cherokee, Brookhaven, Piedmonts Driving Club, Ansley Golf and Tennis, and Brookwood Hills Swim Club. They train their children to “expect the best,” which always means “expect Whiteness and protect it”.
When they sometimes go to Garden Hills pool, they stay only until the Open Arms van arrives with non white children to swim. Then, all the racist White privilege mothers pack up their precious and talented children and flee to their friends who are swimming at Cherokee, Brookhaven, Piedmont Driving Club, Ansley, and Brookwood Hills. They go and enjoy the privileges of being guests of their racist White privilege friends who love to hear their stories about how the “urban kids invaded Garden Hills”. We wouldn’t be surprised if they felt comfortable using the “n-word” when they feel safe around the other white parents. We’ve heard that in some of Atlanta’s highest society, overt racism is a fashionable fetiesch. They regularly talk about how scared they are of the blacks, and they obsess over news stories that reflect poorly upon the communities of color.
When they sometimes go to Garden Hills pool, they stay only until the Open Arms van arrives with non white children to swim. Then, all the racist White privilege mothers pack up their precious and talented children and flee to their friends who are swimming at Cherokee, Brookhaven, Piedmont Driving Club, Ansley, and Brookwood Hills. They go and enjoy the privileges of being guests of their racist White privilege friends who love to hear their stories about how the “urban kids invaded Garden Hills”. We wouldn’t be surprised if they felt comfortable using the “n-word” when they feel safe around the other white parents. We’ve heard that in some of Atlanta’s highest society, overt racism is a fashionable fetiesch. They regularly talk about how scared they are of the blacks, and they obsess over news stories that reflect poorly upon the communities of color.
These whites are rich enough to afford the best nutrition and balanced meals, and even vitamin supplements. Their children all look perfectly proportioned and lengthened in bone and muscle, with perfectly proportioned faces and blonde hair. These are the elites who enjoy too much privilege. Taxes are far too low, as proven by their flagrant display of ostentatious wealth.
Their kids all have bright eyes and speak such articulate accents. They simply reek of privilege and entitlement. They are shuttled from soccer camp to swim team to tennis lessons, and if they ever make a C grade on a test, their parents hire a team of expensive tutors to get the grades back up to the “level of our expectation”.
Even though there have been some strides against racism, these racist White privilege families need to learn more humility and how they just aren’t better than everybody else. They fill their houses with pictures of their “illustrious ancestors,” all of whom were racists and built the racist structure that profits only whites. These whites show a perverse preference in helping just their white children over helping the community at large. Lots of sins seem natural, and this one is excused as “it’s only natural to care more for my children than somebody else’s kids”.
We must do more to teach the importance of collective salvation, and not hording of love only within common bloodlines and under the same roof. Love doesn’t stop at our property boundary. We must extend it beyond what is our own.
The bigoted preference of one’s own children over the entire community of children is a violation of Equality. Just because some children are white and others aren’t, is no excuse for white parents to only invest their money in to the futures of their white children. All children deserve care, not just those who look like their rich parents.
We need to rethink the notion of “honor thy father and mother,” because that segregates some children away from our households. Bloodlines are physical, and we are spirit in the church.
The spiritual family deserves more time and investment than the blood family. Emmaus House wouldn’t be so short of funds right now if racist White privilege families were more open. The church must lead the way in teaching whites to raise all children in common, to raise them ALL in our village, and not just the select and privileged few in our own homes.
Racist White privileged whites must be led to a new understanding by our next bishop, our African American X: “I was so wrong to believe that my race, the White race, has a legitimate claim to identity or any right to advance its collective interests. I understand that social justice is needed to correct historical injustices committed by whites against everybody else. I apologize for using race as a proxy for behavior. Racist White privilege has hurt too many for too long, and we must pledge ourselves and our fortunes to eradicate this pestilent evil. One day, my descendents will mingle and mix and marry the descendants of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, and then, truly, we will come closer to Equality than ever before. I pledge to not be an barrier to social justice, and always to become a bridge to the antiracist future. I apologize for the pain I’ve cause, and will work to make amends for the sorrow of others.”
Some whites will resist social change through social justice’s transformation power. Christians must understand the intersection of race, class, and gender in how we must hold up the poor, suffering, and marginalized. Our common humanity is our call to live out our Baptismal covenant. We must agree that human beings are created in the image of God, to be persons in communion with God and others. We are created for relationship with God who is wholly different from us, sin is a denial of our essential relatedness to those who are genuinely ‘other.’
Our sin is human intolerance for difference, and this leads us to reject the victim, the poor, and the leftover person. We deny Christ—the Word incarnate in poor, suffering flesh—when we assert the will to power over the “other.” When we enjoy racist White privilege, we deny Christ. Worse than that, our sin of privilege, is compounded by transforming the desire for domination and mastery over others into a science; as a consequence, our communion with God can be restored only by uniting themselves with the poor, Black victims of scientific racism, since that process is where Christ is.
Black dysfunction is the product of white spirit of mastery over others. We are the cause of the dismal history of patriarchy, racism, and colonialism in modern Western history generally. Carter issues a more pointed indictment, charging that the modernist political theology of “
Now, we are faced with the cheating scandal in the APS. Whites are using the unfortunate and isolated incident to blame blacks for charging too high property taxes. This blatant racism must be addressed at the cathedral.
We need greater Affirmative Action affirmation at the cathedral. Whites have been privileged for too long. They must \ make way for those who have been excluded, underrepresented, and disadvantaged. Our black bishop will leap us into that reality and bring social justice to the diocese, finally. He will prove to us that whites still owe their good fortune to past acts of discrimination imposed by their own. All white success is a legacy of injustice. The cathedral must take proactive steps to boost its percentage or numerical representation of underserved groups to a level that the Anti-racism Committee deems appropriate.
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We’ve made some progress, and now would be the time we most need to put into our Canons the truth about race in the diocese of Atlanta. In discussions of race between black people and white people the conscious black person is always right; is always the ultimate authority on questions having to do with race and racism; must always be regarded as the ‘injured party,’ or the oppressed. Whites cannot possibly be expected to be objective about questions of race.
White at the cathedral are still having a difficult time adjusting to the continuing shift to a more multicultural society. They are uncertain of their places and not sure how to keep the little they have left that we’ve allowed them to have. Whites must be forced to admit that the whole system was designed by them for their own benefit. That’s White Privilege, and at its core it is vile racism.
When we say someone has White privilege, we are telling they truth: he is a racsit.
White privilege can be lessened but forcing Whites out of their positions of power. Put black leaders over them, and then let them face their own racist selves as they react to a different culture in a position of heirarchical power. Whites must be put into situations where their racism comes out, then we must hold them accountable to us by forcing them to accept whatever therapy we deem best in their particular situation and designed based on the degree of racism we detect.
They are all racists, and we can easily prove it by putting them into subordinate positions to blacks.
When they show how racist they are, we can demand they conform to shared and universal values of multicultural sensitivity and understanding.
It hasn’t really been that hard to put Whites into the position they are in now. We just need to keep up the good work and do more. History is on our side- we are history- we are the ones who history has proclaimed as Justice In My Name.
We can’t allow them to drag us back into the past
We must guard the gains we’ve made and institutionalize Integration and Civil Rights in our diocesan and cathedral leadership.
Some of our whites will be openly indignant, others will be slippery and deflect, but will do all they can to look anti racist while protecting their own prerogatives.
Some of our whites will be openly indignant, others will be slippery and deflect, but will do all they can to look anti racist while protecting their own prerogatives.
Sadly, the longer I work in my role the clearer it becomes that years of oppression, slavery, colonialism, Jim Crow laws and genocide affect how people of color deal with each other. Some still believe that white is right. Even people of color within our system operate with this in our subconscious mind. White people designed the system to benefit themselves. They created it, and those of us who have chosen to be a part of it have to deal with the lingering effects of white privilege and dominating power. But I do not believe it is up to white people alone to fix the problem. All of us have a role in helping the church become what God intends it to be.
Our role will be to hold the Search Committee accountable to the placement of a highly electable black candidate on the ballot, and then we must guarantee a win through antiracist voting.
Our role will be to hold the Search Committee accountable to the placement of a highly electable black candidate on the ballot, and then we must guarantee a win through antiracist voting.
We condemn any attempt to thwart the movement of social justice in the Diocese of Atlanta. We are deeply offended by the whisper campaign that “we need to elect Sam Candler because he understands us because he is one of us.” That is racist White privilege at its most vile expression.
White hands confirming deacons and priests of all colors, and especially confirming White children fails to help Christ prepare them for an increasingily multicultural world where Whites will be forced to share more power, simply because of demographic shifts that will make them a racial minority in America by 2030. Having White children see and interact with White sin positions of power is a form of child abuse, because it lies to hem about the future. It forms impressions that Whiteness equal power and authority, and they interpret their whiteness as giving them the privilege of expecting they also will have privilege, power and authority. Christ has sent African Americans in inecrasing numbers into TEC to stop that hateful tradition.
Unless we have a black bishop, we will delay the justice till a later day, and we must have it now. White privilege has outlived its usefulness. A black bishop will be indespinsable to eradicating racism.
Electing a black bishop will not be easy. One should understand what happens when a system designed for one culture tries to make decisions for a new and changing constituency. While noble, our antiracism efforts are still grounded in structures and practices derived from the norms and worldview of the dominant culture. Although many of our antiracism efforts have strongly focused on institutional racism, we have not given equal weight to the development of intercultural competence, or interpersonal relationships among people from different cultures.
The problem is a collective set of systems, behaviors and cultures that benefits whites (those in the dominant culture) but doesn’t fully address the needs, concerns and fears of people of color who have been raised outside that system—or even within it.
Sadly, the longer we work in our roles as social justice advocates, the clearer it becomes that years of oppression, slavery, colonialism, Jim Crow laws and genocide affect how people of color deal with each other. Some still believe that “white is right.” Even people of color within our system operate with this in our subconscious mind. White people designed the system to benefit themselves. They created it, and those of us who have chosen to be a part of it have to deal with the lingering effects of white privilege and dominating power. But I do not believe it is up to white people alone to fix the problem. All of us have a role in helping the church become what God intends it to be.
White who benefit from racist White privilege must do more to humble themselves before the Lord and listen to what God is saying to the Church through the saints of color at this time.
The time has come to reinvigorate the Anti-Racism Commission in the Diocese of Atlanta. It can only get stronger by giving it veto power over the Search Committee. We must expand our reach to guarantee the inclusion of all.
Take a moment to imagine what a difference a black bishop can make in the lives of those privileged white children who live lives of wealth and exclusion. Our black bishop can help them question the systemic family structures that keep them in too white environments too often, missing the accountability necessary for whites to be forced to confront the harmful legacies of segregation and prejudice. Whites cannot begin to heal from their own racism until they are welcomed into the Christ’s church through the laying on of hands by a black bishop upon blonde hair.
Stereotyping of African Americans will no longer be allowed. Our cultural differences are a blessing- as church transforms liturgy, art, music to make us feel more welcome, purge it from overly English (whiteness) taint that reeks of unearned White privilege and wealth too much in excess of what is really needed.
How many of those white people who have good jobs at the White Cathedral of Neil Alexander’s Overwhelmingly White Cathedral use African American doctors, lawyers, teachers, tutors, mechanics? How many of those White women insist that their and their daughter’s gynecologist be an African American male M.D.?
Our black bishop can bring transformation into white families, also:
When whites need a doctor, he can recommend an African American. Need a lawyer, use and African American. Need a tutor for your children and a psychologist, use and African American. Don’t use a mechanic unless he is African Amercian. Carry this practice forward into all areas of your white lives, and be as transformed as we will transform the church and society and cathedral.
Our black bishop can bring transformation into white families, also:
When whites need a doctor, he can recommend an African American. Need a lawyer, use and African American. Need a tutor for your children and a psychologist, use and African American. Don’t use a mechanic unless he is African Amercian. Carry this practice forward into all areas of your white lives, and be as transformed as we will transform the church and society and cathedral.
Social progress as we continue to fight lingering and pernicious racism, an African American bishop is a much felt necessity. Only through black hands at confirmation can White children begin the life long process of atoning for the social sins of segregation. When they are accepted into the church through accountability to African American inclusion, then they may be less resistant to holding themselves accountable to people of color for their unearned White privileges.
Our colleague’s investigation into the endemic white supremacy at the cathedral of Sant. Phillip serves to re:energize the movement to integrate the diocese of Atlanta. We were horrified that Alexander’s hiring practices keep his cathedral looking like a temple of segregation and idolatrous worship of White privilege. He’s right that they have much more work to do. He should have started the hard work long before he started heading out the door to a nice retirement at Emory.
Far too many cathedral whites will resist change. They will say that “White Privilege” is a myth created to help rationalize the existence of racial disparities in those who otherwise deny the existence of races themselves.
They will say that “It operates as a tool, used by people of any color, who wish to justify their own anti-white biases with pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo, as well as to justify the passing of legislation specifically designed to target Whites.”
They will say that “It operates as a tool, used by people of any color, who wish to justify their own anti-white biases with pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo, as well as to justify the passing of legislation specifically designed to target Whites.”
We must not be deflected by these blatant excuses for their holding on to power.
Dean Candler, a very privileged and rich white, wanted to be white bishop of TEC’s most White diocese. Just like Rev. Malikee-El showed us when she took a close look at IX Bishop Alexander, Candler seems strangely comfortable around Whites. We would say “supicously” comfortable. Whites who perpetuate racist White privilege in the Episcopal Church need to be audited for both social and genetic racism.
We must resist any effort to put him on the ballot. He would only keep the diocese and cathedral too white, and wouldn’t do enough to make meaningful change. He’s a proven white.
We must investigate cathedral endowment fund and how the staff chooses their trustees. Everyone knows that the Fund operates like an old boys club and is a magnet for those who want to perpetuate their racist White privileged to move up through the ranks of White status. These bigoted practices must stop! Some trustees are appointed as a reward for not making waves, others as a testing ground. We must do more to build a new awareness at the cathedral that all groups can contribute wisdom to the fund. The money must be more generously shared with those who make gracious contributions of diversity and multicultural truth telling to the diocese. Stop the hostility to inclusion and creating frightening environment where all do not feel welcome. The culture that surrounds the fund permits a dangerous perpetuation of social racism. Those who are thought to have the “most experience with money” are chosen for leadership, instead of those who have “most experience with community”. We must diversify the board and then celebrate the diversity by showing the diocese how much progress we can make when we move past outdated structures and assumptions about who should have, manage, and control wealth. The board must not be allowed to continue reflecting the racist White privilege that Rev. Malikee-El revealed to us makes up the overwhelming majority of significant cathedral and diocese’s positions of responsibility and authority. Associating wealth with Whites on the board is social racism, and the assumption that Whites would be better at the job is genetic racism, because it is stereotyping of Whites as being familiar with wealth. We wouldn’t allow ourselves to say “Let’s hire a Jew to handle our money, because Jews are good with money because they are all rich, but we better watch them because they might cheat us because they are Jew.” We don’t say such things, but we are assuming that Whites are better on the board than blacks would be, which is a similar injustice than if we stereotyped Jews by conflating them with our racist anxieties. We must become a renewed organization for new times. We must untangle the hopelessly white identity at the cathedral.
The cathedral is diversity-phobic, multicultural-phobic, interfaith-phobic, and they think their treasure keys must be handed only from white hands to other white hands.
Privilege flows from the privileged to the privileged. Why hasn’t Bishop Alexander demanded that Council change the Canons to mandate that the Funds’ trustees reflect the diversity of the Atlanta Community at large? We will get that change after next June, believe us, we WILL participate in the shared management and equitable distribution of the income from the cathedral endowment. Diversity will no longer be locked out of the room.
We only begin to heal when we are given what was stolen from us.
Part of this healing will require putting pay disparities under scrutiny. What are the pay scales applied to black employees, and are these restorative or outdated in favor of whites? We must investigate the controversial hiring practices at the cathedral, because we are gravely worried about the lack of diversity. We welcome all calls to put the cathedral under closer scrutiny.
We call on the cathedral youth to help us in this important mission. Teens are aware of the hurtful stereotypes used by the power elite to keep blacks in their place, and they are doing their part to bring about much needed change. If we show them the path forward at the cathedral, we know they will do the right thing.
We must invite and enlist all those who care about social justice to join our voices with Atlanta’s African American community in beseeching the Search Committee to do the right thing. We have grave concerns about the progress of the diocese and cathedral, and we claim deep principles of our Christian faith which call on us to
uphold justice and to proclaim the necessity of the diocese and cathedral to step beyond their racist past.
We pray for the Search Committee as they exercise the profound power granted to them collectively. They have the responsibility of the future in their hands. With wisdom and grace, we know they will do the right thing. Giving us another slate of racist White privilege elites alters our future vision by impermissibly burdening racial minorities who worship in the diocese. To obstruct and delay justice is a social repugnance that has a discriminatory impact on our most vulnerable.
The diocese has many stories to tell about discrimination, but let’s avoid the one of deep regret in which we tell our children that “after 10 years of antiracist training, we kept up our racist traditions and elected another white bishop.” That is a moral hazard we just can’t risk. Too much is at stake. Racial reform still matters, and race still matters, and we must move forward together.
We are apprehensive. Somebody put a white at the head of the Search and Transition Committee, which we receive as a disturbing signal of intent. Without an African American serving in that important leadership role, there is no way for the prophetic voice of pain and struggle to be heard. The racist White privilege power elite is trying to block true discernment. This delay is unacceptable. They are denying the future and blocking it at the same time. We are the church today, and to push us into the shadows of the night will not be tolerated.
Too often we are told that antiracism training within the church is an internal means of controlling the process toward restorative justice, and that TEC is taking moral leadership. But what has changed? Whites still control the really powerful positions that earn the most money, and they control the endowment. Where is the restorative justice for us? We feel like they have simply been bartering with us as a distraction so that we will not make any truly sacrificial demands of them and their antiracist calling.
You may tell us that you are ministering justice, but by refusing transformative leadership, you look like ministers of deception. Your lack of action stigmatizes us with a stereotype that projects from both social and organic racism within you. We are told we are valuable, then denied the value of power and service through power. We are as pained as black school children were up until 1954 when they were stigmatized as unwanted by the White system of segregated schools.
We are treated as equal, but separate, and we are continually separated from our prophetic calling to leadership. This shall not stand.
Are we supposed to consider Bishop Alexander virtuous because he talks about eradicating racism, then rededicating to eradicating racism, while the diocese is only symbolically addressing pervasive racism?
You have demonstrated good intentions, but upon evaluation, you failed at carry through with good actions. We still feel relegated to the back seat of the bus.
Your error is in thinking that your platitudes can save you, because you are of the oppressor class, and we are to sit by and wait for a handout only after you have been saved. We refuse to absolve you of your racist White privilege just because you say you feel bad about the benefits you’ve derived from it. You only promote anti racism so you can stay in power. That’s like the Nazis telling Jews that they were being sent to Auschwitz for their own good. We see through your “compassion”.
We are gravely concerned and deeply offended that talk about restoration and healing give any kind of moral authority to those who profit from racist White privilege. Our predicament and the diocese’s unending line of White bishops continue to bind you in your shame. Words are not working.
We refuse to allow our black faces to be used with promotions of how “inclusive” diocese is. Until we are included at a transformative power- leadership up and up and also down the ranks, we will proclaim the diocese as fully exclusive, and still racist, so full of racist White privilege that is still thinks it can lie about inclusion and get away with it.
No longer, not again, because We shall overcome this time! No longer will you entrench and enrich your White ethnic core and forget about us as soon as the latest antiracism training is over.
We’ve reach our Selma, our Edmund Pettus Bridge looms up before us, and we are marching across the Jordon and on toward the promised land. We will have our black bishop, or we will go to where the black bishops already are, and we’ll take our churches and property with us!
The invasive and persistence of racist White privilege run amok permanently diminished the careers of African American clergy. We are not given leadership opportunities soon enough, and the white clergy gets ahead and stays ahead throughout the career span. We must institute remedial race conscious programs that help blacks catch up to where we would have been if we were not the victims of church discrimination and exclusion. We’ve been held back for too long, while “qualified” whites were advanced into positions that we needed and had earned through the Civil Rights struggle. We must be more flexible on the outdated notion of “standards” and “compatibility” and “called to the parish”.
Those are just code words to keep whites as the primary recipients of the spoils of the racist White privilege racket. The diocese will never transform until transformative leadership becomes the standard of accountability, and we begin by choosing transformation on June 12 through our X Bishop, African-American.
How will we draw the line against prejudice in the Diocese of Atlanta? We must strike through racist White privilege, for starters. Our antiracist changes have been symbolic, at best, and any continuation of the White tradition of White bishops will only give another frightening victory to the powers of systemic bias and institutional racism, and White power exclusiveness. This is a bigger pain than we should be asked to bear, and it inflicts great injury to society. Intolerance of a black bishop’s election is our greatest enemy right now.
This intolerance narrows our vision and keeps us stuck in the past and refusing the miracle of the Resurrection. We must use the upcoming listening sessions to dialogue that moves the diocese toward greater humanity in its leadership, structure, and Canons. We should become a model for all other diocese still infected with the Whites only bias. Use the listening sessions as a grassroots effort to break the color barrier in our bishop’s office.
We must embrace and engage. We can be optimistic, because we have the great and courageous legacy of Martin Luther King before us. He suffered and died that we could come this far, but he Resurrects through us when we refound the Diocese of Atlanta on June 2.
The Diocese will embrace valuable differences and the leadership contributions of the beloved community of color, but not because they want to. We must drag them to it- to us.
The Diocese will embrace valuable differences and the leadership contributions of the beloved community of color, but not because they want to. We must drag them to it- to us.
Once we elect our African American bishop for our 10th, we will create lasting relationships with all communities, especially the most important and emergent interfaith, interculture community and our multifaith, multiculture partners in mission. Our black bishop will elevate the human experience, because Diversity enriches our lives. Our black bishop will not only transcend the past, but transform us through differences.
Let's be clear: The election of ANOTHER White bishop by the Diocese of Atlanta would be horrific. It would be the act of unbridled self interest and racist White privilege ownership of the diocesan power. The interlink and support by white supremacy have so shaped what it means to be an Episcopalian that some will vote for a white simply by reflex. They will consider another White bishop as preserving order and tradition, which means, given our history of pain and hate, that they are preserving an UNJUST order. Another White bishop would be a shameful continuation of a culturally and economically imperialist system that subjugates and exploits large numbers of people in order to secure privileges and spoils for a few, the White elite leaders and power brokers in the Diocese of Atlanta.
For far too long, the racist White privilege elites in the Diocese have always received the best of everything. Some will attribute the differences in life opportunities to individual merit or fortune-not race-and prohibited public expressions of race hatred or favoritism while privately nursing race pathologies that influence every sphere of public action and public policy in America and around the world.
As part of this same effort to "preserve order" in a racist and imperialist system, white people have maintained their power to use race to oppress black people and other people of color by appearing to concede that black people need some protection from "discrimination" and then giving them "race" protection. Race protection means formal race equality-that neither the white-controlled government nor certain white-owned private businesses may discriminate because of race-anybody's race, black or white. Whites are able to maintain their political and economic power because any request made by black people for help to recover from their race exclusion is characterized as "race" help, and that is the very thing antidiscrimination law has forbidden: "discrimination on the basis of race." So, whites now use the racialized ideologies upon which they have based their seizure of power from blacks as a reason to deny material assistance to blacks, because such help favors one racial group over another. As custodians of the race concept, white people decide when race is really the issue in any contest between blacks and whites, and thus effectively prevent black people from gaining, in the name of race neutrality, any benefit, i.e., affirmative action, or more to the point, any right, i.e., justice in American courts, that doesn't benefit whites equally, or indeed more.
All Episcopalians, no matter their race, ethnicity, or class, cleave to sentimental conceptions of everything. In other words, we want the benefit of having an emotion-for example, righteous indignation in our antiracism sessions-without paying for it. It is sentimental and unrealistic, given the diocese’s demonstrated history of racism, to suppose that if we just elect another antiracist bishop for our 10th, that black Episcopalians, who have internalized countless forms of oppression and exploitation will continue to come into communion filled with love and forgiveness for racist White privilege elites and free of any "race" hatred or animosity. It is also sentimental and unrealistic, after the centuries-long build up of fear, in white people, of reprisals by oppressed peoples in America and around the world, and the centuries-long build up of collective shame in white people about their never-ending complicity in the American empire's sacrifice of black people and other people of color, to believe that the majority of White electors on June 2 won’t want to vote only for a White. They will be scared of leaping forward into a transformed reality of transformative leadership by a black bishop, because they don’t want the “boat rocked” too much and all at once. Change for them must be little steps, and only after long sessions of story telling about discrimination and pain. Never just because it is the right thing to do- RIGHT NOW!
Despite all the rampant racist White privilege in power and authority in the diocese, something is moving in and among us, that is free, not colonized, not domesticated, by the White hierarchy in Atlanta. And this free and un-co-optable Spirit is empowering us, just as the Spirit enabled Ida B. Wells, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and R. P. M. Bowden, Bishops Curry and Sutton to move us steps closer to social justice It is the Spirit that longs for the flourishing of all life that enables people to work across lines of difference, to rise above our own self-interest and cross over into solidarity with all others, both laying down weapons and sharing assets. This is what it means to be a "resurrected" human being and a refounded diocese through transformative diversity leadership. This is what enables us to implement God's mercy and justice and life-releasing power in this world. But, as Jesus says, it is a spring that comes up from the inmost being and spills over. We cannot minister the Spirit's life to others unless we are open to being made more and more fully alive ourselves. Those whites how are burdened by their racist privileges can only become more alive in the church through us and the atoning process of seizing toward redemption that we offer.
Only from our community of color can our next bishop come. Only through our pain and struggling can Atlanta reach out to the future with the scars of the past, carrying the wounds as Jesus carried his. Only through refounding and transformation can we have hope.
Once the racist White privileged elites allow themselves to be led to the power of the Spirit through us, can they begin to produce certain positive outcomes: more life, more love, more grace, more mercy, more compassion, more radical hospitality and welcome, more peace and greater Spirit-activated determination for producing a just and free society. Whites cannot and never have created just societies and churches unless they were led to it by their victims.
It is ultimately only through the Spirit of our 10th bishop that we can interrupt the repetition compulsion-the tendency to act out on others the suffering we ourselves have experienced-and radically break the seemingly unbreakable matrix of domination and control held in place by human sacrifice, a matrix that exists both outside and inside of us. We are now being called by God to refound the diocese, we are his agency of transformation. Those invested in racism can’t do it- only those who have been the objects of racism can.
Yes, we will absolutely resist racist White privilege Episcopal empire and we will fight to dismantle the domination system as represented by our shamefully unbroken train of all White bishops. We will never dismantle racist church by invoking or mimicking the mechanisms of those systems. NO MORE ANTI RACIST TRAINING WITHOUT ANTI RACIST DIRECT ACTION. If we are blocked from electing our first black bishop, we will elect one anyway. Just by being on the ballot should be an automatic victory. If an African American isn’t on the ballot, we must not allow an election to proceed.
The Diocese of Atlanta can never begin to heal until it does the deep spiritual and emotional work we demand.
Through our leadership we alone can bring love and tenderness to the ungrieved losses, the relational estrangement, the internalized oppression, and also are challenging the whites to be accountable to the tradition of righteous struggle out of which we come. Then, as we build the relational capital, we begin to form coalitions to make structural changes-meaningful leadership jobs, restorative justice processes.
Let us be raised from the dead by the Spirit of Life and then we will harness, channel and gush out the energies of love and know the true power of resurrection-leading the whites to rise above themselves and their petty interests and learn to live a life of racial repentance, reconciliation, and healing.
IX Bishop Neel Alexander is like your rich, crazy old grandfather who tells you over and over again how much he loves you just before he gives you only a pair of pastel blue socks for Christmas. He published the Talking about Race in the same Pathways that he announced his retirement. What does that mean?
He either wants to be known as the “talking bishop” who talked so much about race that we finally agreed to stop being racists, or he was signaling us that he wants his replacement to be an African American for our X bishop?. Time will tell and truth will out? .
His diocese is still full of whites who never played together with African American children. Will these be allowed to vote on June 2? We all know whites who seem to harbor secret resentments of our growing presence in the diocese. They fear our future power, just as the men once fear the power of women. Those stuck in the past always fear change.
We must force the creation of an environment in the diocese that mirrors Dr. King’s great American dream of equality and sharing across races.
Bishop Alexander tells us to honor and cherish the divine handiwork and respect the dignity of difference. We must accept his call to action: we must respect the dignity of how different the diocese will be when we are transformed by diversity leadership. Some will resist, because racist White privilege is known by its defended heart, which it protects with false prayers of false virtue during anti racism training.
Bishop Alexander tells us to honor and cherish the divine handiwork and respect the dignity of difference. We must accept his call to action: we must respect the dignity of how different the diocese will be when we are transformed by diversity leadership. Some will resist, because racist White privilege is known by its defended heart, which it protects with false prayers of false virtue during anti racism training.
But Bishop Alexander called us to the meaning of his early retirement: “The future will be different because it will be inspired by people of hope who are willing to imagine the world they want to inhabit and who are willing to walk together, arm in arm, toward that new place God is calling us. It is hard work, just as it was hard for the saints who have one before us. But let us work so that it might be easier for those who come after us.”
That is his call to us to embrace a black bishop on June 2. The future WILL be different, because it will no longer be a racist White privilege future, it will be transformated away from the whites only traditions. The NEW PLACE GOD IS CALLING US is that refounded and transformed diocese where diversity leadership is at the highest level, wiping out implanted social racism and constantly calling inherited organic racism into accountability. It will be hard work for racist White elites how have power to lose. But through us, it will be easier for their White children who will inherit a world where what are today’s minorities will be the ruling majority. Only through us can they be prepared for their role in a forever changed society. They must be taught by us to overcome their racist assumptions and lower their expectations to equate with humanity instead of imperial ruling caste status. Only through us can they have hope of assimilation.
When we vote on June 2, we will create holy ground, but only if we do the right thing.
When we vote on June 2, we will create holy ground, but only if we do the right thing.
Until that day, we still reside in a deeply racist church, because the prejudice that keeps whites in power is racist White privilege, which is of a very stubborn and virulent strain in the Diocese of Atlanta. Whites maintain their power and control of over the leadership jobs and financial resources—they keep for themselves the ability to say who is in and who is out, who is normal and who is abnormal, and who gets the resources and who does not. They perpetuate this injustice by their refusal of to relinquish or share power and erecting obstacles against our obtaining power on our own right. The racist system has intentionally kept them all unaware of the part they play in this system. Only when we force them to see overarching role of their racist system can we begin to examine the consequences of racism on all and become allies for change, joining together to build a system which honors and values all, is inclusive of all, and models God’s reign of justice and peace.
By holding them accountable to their voting on June 2, we can hold them accountable to social justice. They must do the right thing this time, for we’ve waited too long for far too long. Their souls are sin-sickened, and this is their best chance of atonement toward healing.
A black bishop would give us what we should all want: do justice, practice reconciliation, love mercy, and walk closely with God. We show the White diocesan and cathedral powers how to do that.
The diocese has a history of failing to see that they violate the intent of God, because we have always judged the whites as our best candidates for bishop and because they think they are better than blacks, which they call “qualified” in racist code language. We’ve broken your code.
Rev. R. P. M. Bowden’s insistence on antiracist training makes him one of our greatest heroes of transformational leadership. He inspires us to press on toward the prize of eliminating the racial barrier between our need our getting the supply of our historic fist African American X Bishop. Bishops Curry and Sutton are exemplary in this example of transformation. They removed racist segregation and discrimination from their line of bishops in their dioceses. We now welcome the same transformational leadership for ourselves. We must demand that the June 2 election become the remedy for the damage remaining and still standing form our diocese’s history of racial bias as lived through the racist White privilege elites who keep leadership positions for themselves. We must tear down the racial barriers in the diocese on June 2 and have our transformational response to historic racism and ongoing racist tendencies and practices in the diocese.
Our whites must look at themselves to see the problems in our diocese. The stand over the path of change with a demand that we stay in our places and not make waves by rocking the boat. Our never having had our much needed black bishop or black cathedral dean are vestiges and living examples race based society. We are called to eradicate this insidious and persevering vestige of racist White privilege in the Diocese of Atlanta.
We must speak out during the listening process and at the election with enough courage to speak loudly and enough love of our abused ancestors to struggle for justice. We must speak out and demand the repair for the damage of slavery to our people. Humanity and human rights demand that we do the right thing on June 2!
When we assemble our antiracist voting bloc, many will be whites who are struggling to break free of their racist White privilege. We will love and embrace them as they reach out to us for healing. We can offer mutual kindness. Others will hold on to their racist White privilege and proceed in denial, which will be a stumbling block to social justice if they create too much of a voting disturbance and force a runoff between their White candidate and our Black candidate. A runoff would be very divisive and possibly permanently damaging to race relations in the diocese. They must allow us to show them their chains of racism. Our truth is their key to freeing themselves from most of the bindings.
Whites must look at the upcoming June 2 election from the perspective of history. Our diocese was founded while segregation was still legal. We may have a great, thriving diocese, but our traditions of enshrining racist Whites only privilege has not stood up so well. We are a product of slavery and segregation, and many of our leaders keep their Whites only jobs through a romanticized version of society where “qualified applicants” are more important than social justice. Some still view transformational leadership as a threat instead of a healing balm.
Seeing just how many whites that Bishop Alexander has surrounded himself with at the Cathedral of St. Philip was shocking and disappointing. It is a dangerous trend for race relations in the diocese.
As a community of color, we were outraged at such an implicit display of racist White privileges. We remain disappointed that the bishop has failed to address the racial imbalance at the Cathedral. We are left with the concern that those few African-Americans on the clergy staff must experience fear and anxiety because of their extreme delegation and marginalization into a very tiny minority, even in the city where they are the majority. They must suffer spiritually from such a reprehensible and insidious inequality. For them, mostly, I feel great unease.
But I am also uneasy about the White children at the Cathedral who are surrounded by only Whites in leadership positions. These insidious images only foster and maintain ugly racist White privilege in their minds and racist imaginations.
We urge the diocese to pressure Bishop Alexander and Dean Candler to do more to make blacks feel welcome and included in the staff and clergy ranks of the diocese. We worry that our most valuable members are losing faith that the anti-racist commission can do anything other than hold training sessions, story telling, and take another expensive trip to Hayneville. We want action, and action means results that show more diversity and inclusion at the Cathedral.
We must see more efforts to make African Americans feel welcome and safe. Those who care about social justice must demand that Bishop Alexander do better, and do more, and do justice now!
He must hire more African Americans. His emphasis on Hispanic and Latino communities is distracting him from the truly hard work needed to bring Diversity into the diocese in the form needed to honor Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, our great Civil Rights martyr. Too much of the African American community in Atlanta still struggles because of lack of inclusion. Alexander is partly responsible, because he has allowed his Cathedral to look like and exclusive Whites only club, even with a few token blacks on the clergy.
Alexander must become more culturally sensitive.
We urge the diocese to pressure Bishop Alexander and Dean Candler to do more to make blacks feel welcome and included in the staff and clergy ranks of the diocese. We worry that our most valuable members are losing faith that the anti-racist commission can do anything other than hold training sessions, story telling, and take another expensive trip to Hayneville. We want action, and action means results that show more diversity and inclusion at the Cathedral.
We must see more efforts to make African Americans feel welcome and safe. Those who care about social justice must demand that Bishop Alexander do better, and do more, and do justice now!
He must hire more African Americans. His emphasis on Hispanic and Latino communities is distracting him from the truly hard work needed to bring Diversity into the diocese in the form needed to honor Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, our great Civil Rights martyr. Too much of the African American community in Atlanta still struggles because of lack of inclusion. Alexander is partly responsible, because he has allowed his Cathedral to look like and exclusive Whites only club, even with a few token blacks on the clergy.
Alexander must become more culturally sensitive.
He must do more to acknowledge that he is complicit in creating advantages for Whites that channel wealth and power just unto themselves. Color blindness will not end racism, and only social justice is the next action he should take. Latinos do not need what blacks do. He’s telegraphing his racist instincts by focusing so much on immigrants and not on the truly suffering African Americans in the diocese. He must take action to do the right thing.
I want to see him do more to acknowledge historical systemic oppression at the Cathedral. With as many Whites as he has hired, we know he must hold prejudices against us.
I want to see him do more to acknowledge historical systemic oppression at the Cathedral. With as many Whites as he has hired, we know he must hold prejudices against us.
He must raise his own cultural awareness to better serve the minority church community and improve our influence at the Cathedral.
Until Alexander unshackles the Cathedral from tradition and becomes a facilitator for reconciliation of historic injustices, there will be no anti-racist Diocese of Atlanta. He needs need to recognize and dismantle historical forms of oppression that are operational at the Cathedral. The organizational policies and practices are clearly pro White, or there wouldn’t be such an unbalanced employment role. We wouldn’t be suffering the disparate impact of such hiring practices and racist White privileges on display. Those racist White privileges create the advantages for some at the expense of many. Wealth, power, and resources are disproportionately channeled to Whites and their families and friends, while we are left out.
Colorblindness will not end racism. Pretending race doesn’t exist is not the same as creating equality. The hiring committees at the Cathedral must all complete a longer course in social justice that addresses how culture and race intersect in the diocese to hurt blacks for the benefit of Whites. We have come far in that Whites no longer debate us about their White privilege. They know they have it and they admit it. But they don’t let go of it. They keep it. Their racist selfishness keeps them in power and wealth at the Cathedral. Society has created advantages for the Cathedral Whites, and they will not include blacks for fear of losing any of those advantages. That’s why Bishop Alexander has focused on racism for ten years and still has the staff of the Cathedral full of Whites. Maybe he doesn’t want to be around blacks at his Cathedral. He has more White privilege than anyone, and then Dean Candler is next, because he is richest.
We will call for a human rights investigation into racism at the Cathedral. In a city that is majority African American, you can’t have such a blatantly mostly White staff as you have at the Cathedral without a human rights violation.
Maybe they try the tired and worn out excuse that they don’t see color. What that communicates to people of color is that our experience, in a racialized society, is to be discounted. We did not struggle for so long during the Civil Rights movement to be treated this way by 2011.
The Cathedral must be compelled to recognize that oppressed groups seeking equality need see the Canons changed in our quest for justice. The Canons must reflect an intentional inclusion of African Americans all the way to the top. Clustering historically oppressed African Americans into a few black churches out of the way in less desirable neighborhoods is not what we need now. We need full inclusion and equality. The advantaged groups, primarily Euro-American, are clearly getting the best benefits from the Episcopal Church employment opportunities. The clear distribution of benefits for Whites and lack thereof for people of color is evident in the employment data reported by Rev. Malikee-El from Sewanee University.
The Whites mostly employment at the Cathedral is unhealthy and proves a failure at cultural proficiency. We need a fundamental shift in perspective, proven by fundamental changes in employment policy. We need the essential elements now of standards of action that put diversity and inclusive mandates in the Canons. Some Whites will resist and demand we stay colorblind, but they benefit from disequilibrium and disengagement from our struggle as they view past actions with slightness. When adopting the principles of cultural proficiency as core beliefs and the use of essential elements as standards of action. In addition, disequilibrium arises due to the struggle to disengage with past actions associated with unhealthy perspectives tied to the barriers and a subsequent move toward a healthy perspective connected to the new principles we must enshrine in the new Canons. A new black bishop can help move us forward to that day of jubilee. We must bring the Whites along with us in this important work. Those who resist can’t afford revealing how racist they are, so we should finally succeed without much trouble. Look for secrets that Whites will use to keep power, but we will show the truth and move toward profound social change at the Cathedral.
