I Feel Good About Being White

“One of the worries that I have about the way that we’re talking about race” is that “somehow white people now have to feel guilty for everything that happened in the past. I don’t think that’s very productive.” Of course . . . there’s more to the critical race theory debate than that. But about the strain of educational philosophy that looks to raise students’ awareness of racial injustice, Rice said that for Black kids to be empowered, “I don’t have to make white kids feel bad for being white.” John McWhorter quoting Condoleezza Rice here

I feel good about being White because that’s what God created me to be. My parents’ DNA gave me my skin color and hair color. I have Grandmother Ethel’s blue eyes and Grandmother Lucy’s body shape. I was born heterosexual with the ability to bear children. I feel good about all this.

I also want you to feel good about being Brown or Black or Golden or whatever skin color God has given you. I want you to feel good about being queer or differently abled or however way God made you.

Do I cringe when I learn about history that didn’t value people with darker skin or eyes, with different orientations or abilities? Yes. Do I squirm when I find out that my own ancestors enslaved people and moved Natives from their land? Absolutely. Do I have White Guilt? Most definitely. But most of all I want to learn even the difficult history of my family and my country so that we will do better now and in the future.

One of the reasons that representation is so important is that all children and all adults deserve to feel good about being however God created them to be. I want everyone to see that it’s good to be them because the world is full of possibilities for people who look and live like they do. They can be church leaders and scientists and inventors. They can run companies and countries. They can be parents and teachers and writers.

I want all people to feel good about ourselves because we are created in God’s image. To say that Critical Race Theory or Anti-Racism Studies make White People “feel bad for being white” is a cop out. It’s an excuse for avoiding the difficult truths of our history. Being ignorant about historic and scientific Truths doesn’t grant racial supremacy. It simply keeps us ignorant.

We are created in the Image of all that is holy and good and yet we have fallen short in every generation. By grace, I want all God’s children to feel good about who they are. Don’t you?

This only happens when everyone is given opportunities and possibilities.

This only happens when people who don’t look like me are valued as much as people who do.

Image is of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory captured this picture. God created the universe. Source here.