PART I: The Picture

Yes, the race conversation is still going on #ThereIsMuchWorkToBeDone

And while most of you will likely have missed the back and forth banter between myself and two Facebook friends which was overspill of the Black Jesus Last Supper Depiction the last few days, i felt this needed to go here because there is some incredibly helpful stuff here.

But firstly let me acknowledge Alix Beaujour as the artist behind that amazing picture and share my thought behind it. i simply posted it and asked people to “use three’ish words to a sentence to explain your initial response to my new cover pic”.

LAST SUPPER BLACK JESUS CREW

The responses ranged from “Finally someone gets it” to “Seeing with new eyes.” as the three had to be ammended to “three’ish”. We also got “Finally and Yes”, “Got it”, “Does it matter?”, “it’s about time”, “Count me in”, “Unusual, but compelling (in other words, good different!)”, “What I felt didn’t coalesce into words. But I felt mesmerised.” and then one of my favourites which was, “Historically inaccurate but socially relevant.”

Because for me, that was the point. It is an artist’s impression and so not necessarily an attempt at recreating the scene exactly. i don’t think anyone would seriously try and argue that Jesus and His followers were black. Closer to Arabic, middle eastern types for sure. But if seeing a white depiction of Jesus [which also no-one would seriously argue as fact, surely, or at least no-one with the smallest amount of thinking about it and savvy] all of our lives has never caused a double-take reaction and then suddenly seeing a black Jesus does, then something is going on there. Something worth looking a little more deeply at.

For me this picture was only really about challenging the notion of white Jesus. Getting us to think a little more deeply about that and realising that it has not been accidental that all these years we were fed a white Jesus image.

PART II: The Noise

Lesley who had a quite common, “Can’t we stop bringing race into it?” stance and Will who seemed to be suggesting that “White people are doing better in this country because of God’s favour”…um, no Will, STOPPIT!

And a lot of back and forth and i was not the only one trying to reason with them both, although it didn’t seem to be going anywhere. There was a lot of defensiveness and much missing or avoiding what was being said in favour of repeating the same points and throwing a lot of traditionally used arguments “white farmer genocide” at the conversation while completely ignoring the facts of numbers of white deaths compared to black etc etc…

Enter Jacqui Tooke, a friend of mine who with much more grace and calm and empathy gave two separate answers to each of them which i thought contained a lot of valuable and helpful thought. So with Jacqui’s permission, i share her two responses and feel free to share these, because i really think she has nailed some nails on some heads of the aforementioned nails. And in part because she has the facts behind the numbers that I am aware of but don’t necessarily have the links to:

I’ve been reading through your comments and I wonder if you and others here are approaching this from very different angles. It seems that you are looking at racism from the PERSONAL perspective – so it seems bizarre to you that when someone says white people earn 6 x more than black folk… then you are hearing that it’s because they have white skin they are earning more – as if there’s something in their white skin that is making them wealthy.

And I agree that doesn’t make sense. And it sounds racist from a PERSONAL lens. But Brett is looking at it from a SYSTEMS point of view which recognizes that there’s something in the way that our country works – the bigger systems that are not due to a single person’s actions – that is resulting in white people earning more.

Let’s look at what our system is producing:
* SA unemployment rate at 34%, but for white folk it’s at 8%. (statsSA 2016)

* SA Poverty Line at R620 measured in 2011: 60% of black folk live below this, and 4% of white folk do. (StatsSA 2011)

* half of privately owned land is in white hands (StatsSA 2014)

* 75% of all directors in JSE listed companies are white (SA Institute of Chartered Accountants 2014)
I can give you the full reference of these.

The point is that the way our past and current systems work means that black folk still find it hard to succeed even if they work hard and follow Jesus. The system is not just.

Now that doesn’t mean that you haven’t experienced Gods amazing grace and provision in your personal life. I have too. And from what I know about Brett he too has experienced Gods mercy and grace in his personal life.

God is so amazing that he cares for the details of our individual lives. God is in the PERSONAL.

But His heart also breaks over this SYSTEM that is crushing his other children who are seeking Him, calling to Him for relief, trusting Him for provision, having nothing to rely on except for Him and if He doesn’t come through then their lives are literally at risk.

So what do you and I do? Do we join with God in dismantling this system that is crushing others – knowing that the privileges that come our way may also stop? Or do we just keep our heads down and focus on our own lives and hope somehow everything will be sorted by politicians?

Now remember – you and I aren’t to be blamed for being white or for a system that holds black people back. But we really can’t say that God is not blessing those black folk like he blesses us white folk – because that’s just ignoring that there is an unjust system. And it is cruel to those black folk whose faith and holding-on-to-Jesus-strength is huge and self sacrificial.

So that was addressing one part of the conversation and then a little bit later she added this to the second conversation that was taking place:

I’ve read our comments on this thread and I hear your heart – you long for a world where skin colour doesn’t matter anymore because skin colour is random and is not a worthy indicator of anything about an individual. I long for a world like that too.

But where I differ from you is how we get to creating such a world. I believe that we can’t just wish away racism by not talking about color – rather we have to name it and use language to talk about the oppression that continues to happen today.

Because racism and oppression of black people happens today – it’s not in the past (though the legacy of apartheid is still choking many people – if I think about friends whose parents were thrown off their land in Wynberg and Seapoint; or a friend who’s mom was taken into detention and was unheard of for many days etc the scars are real and the financial damages are real) Racism is in the present – I have friends who can’t buy land in certain parts of the WCape because they are black and no one wants to sell to them. Other friends who can’t find rentals cos they are black. Not to mention the racist jokes and slurs.

Then there’s the subtle way that black people are reminded that they are less from advertising (whiteness being seen as aspirational) to plasters colour to language and name pronunciation. Even in our churches – hardly anyone challenges the images of Jesus as white – even tho its historically wrong AND hurts people of colour from many backgrounds. We have to talk about this until racism is no longer a thing – only then can we stop talking about skin colour.

Now no-one is saying the current government isn’t responsible for much of the inequalities and persistent legacy of apartheid, however most of us white folks have been quite content with things just continuing as they are. I mean we don’t think it’s great that folk still have to poo in a bucket but have we written to our local councilors to say the City must do something about it; have we marched or petitioned or joined a movement to say this is unacceptable?

Have we put off buying a luxury item or going on holiday so we can support a civic organisation that holds government accountable to ensure people have sanitation? Very few white folks have. We may give to charity here and there but we are actually ok with the system that still allows white folk to thrive if they work hard; but seems to hold thousands of black folk back despite their very hard work.

That system is wrong. Not you or me for our white skin. We are not wrong. But I’m tired of living in a system that is so unjust – so I want to be part of changing this system so we can all benefit. Which means acknowledging where I benefit and where others are oppressed and to say – hey let’s stop doing it this way. I think we should only feel guilty if we don’t speak out and don’t work for change and continue to benefit.

Thank you Jacqui… and Tenille and Julia and Bruce and Wayne and more who refused to let the thoughts and words go unchallenged. Bit by bit we have to keep chipping away at the destructive ideas and idologies that some people still continue to hold so tightly to.

i am not the best at it. But i am generally around a lot. And so i will keep doing my best and being thankful for the Jacquis of the world.

For me one of the hardest things to get right is the fine line between wanting to grasp every opportunity to try and educate someone and bring them that little bit closer to realising or seeing or being more aware… and that of having friends of mine of colour having to read insensitive ridiculous often painful mindsets and arguments and my finger hovers over the block button. i imagine i will get that one wrong a lot from time to time, but i refuse to stop wrestling with these things and hope and trust that others will continue to jump on and assist, especially when they do it better than me…

#NotOnOurWatch