Another Attempt to Trash "Whiteness"

On Monday the Academy Award Nominations were announced.  I hardly pay attention to this event as nearly all of the movies that are nominated are ones that I have not seen nor care to see.  But what got my attention this year was the incredible backlash because of the absence of people of color who were nominated.  Immediately there were cries of discrimination toward the Academy for their selections.  It was another year where "whites" dominated the Hollywood scene.  Several actors and actresses have indicated that they will boycott this years Academy Award Show, thus expressing their indignation over the lack of people of color being nominated.  The President of the Academy has indicated that he will investigate to see if reforms are necessary in future balloting. 


Now what strikes me is that perhaps, just perhaps, there were no outstanding performances by blacks this past year.  If the Academy votes on those exceptional performances - and I know that judgment is always questioned by many - then the challenge to those who feel slighted is to try harder next year, to create a more powerful movie or performance that will grab the attention of the Academy voters.  My father shared with me these words of advice, "Son, if you feel you are being slighted, don't complain, just try a little harder."  What great advice that was and still is!


Then I came across an article, written by Peter Fricke, and published at the Campus Reform website.  It was titled, "Portland Community College to devote an entire month to 'whiteness' - shaming."  The subtitle was, "The schools says the month is an 'educational project' exploring how the 'construct of whiteness' creates racial inequality."  I think you already are getting the drift of where this article was going.  Allow me to share with you a couple of paragraphs from this article.  (www.campusreform.org/?ID=7174).


"'Whiteness History Month: Context, Consequences, and Change' is a multidisciplinary, district-wide, educational project examining race and racism through an exploration of the construction of whiteness, its origins, and heritage," PCC states on its website.  "Scheduled for the month of April 2016, the project seeks to inspire innovative and practical solutions to community issues and social problems that stem from racism.  Whiteness does not simply refer to skin color, but to an ideology based on beliefs, values, behaviors, habits, and attitudes, which result in the unequal distribution of power and privilege based on skin color."  In other words, white-skinned people are responsible for the problems of our nation.  But let me continue with another sentence or two from the article: "Not only does the concept of whiteness allow those who are 'socially deemed white' to accrue benefits, the page asserts, but those benefits 'are accrued at the expense of people of color, namely in how people of color are systemically and prejudicially denied equal access to those material benefits. The ideology of whiteness, it continues, dates back to 'at least the seventeenth century, when "white" appeared as a legal term and social designator determining social and political rights,' a concept that eventually grew to include 'thousands' of 'special privileges and protections' for white citizens." 


Now Portland Community College is not the first college or university to begin to gang up on being white.  Others have tried it as well.  And we have seen offshoots of this philosophy recently on campuses in Missouri and in Minnesota. 


Friends, I did not know that because I am a white person that I was the problem.  I like to think that I am where I am today, not because of my color, but because of my work-ethic and values beliefs and with the help of God.  I would like to think that a person of color who had my same work-ethic and values beliefs and same dependence upon God would be in a similar position today as well.  We celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,'s birthday this past Monday.  Perhaps in one of the greatest speeches in American history, we remember those words of his great "I Have a Dream" speech, where he declared that he hoped the day would come when we would see beyond the color of a person's skin to see the integrity and character of his heart.  I guess the folks at Portland Community College belief that we can by-pass the issues of integrity and character and just look at skin color. 


I am drawn back to those very early words in Genesis where God states that He created men and women in His image (Genesis 1:26).  I am not certain that I will live long enough to see the erasing of racism, where I, as a person, am judged, not on the color of my skin, but on the character of my heart - of what I say and what I do.  People of color in Hollywood, this recognition cannot be forced, but must be earned.  People of color at Portland Community College, this recognition cannot be forced through the trashing of "whiteness" but must be earned through a dedication of heart and soul.  Can it be done?  Absolutely!  And the place where this can best be started is in the local church.  May the church be the haven for all people no matter the color of their skin.  When this happens it will be a foretaste of heaven.