Faith and #BlackLivesMatter

Future Directions and Current Directives for White Folk

Abstract

According to James Baldwin’s wisdom: “…nothing can be changed until it is faced,” and “…ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” White people’s ignorance of the daily dangers, death-traps, terrors, and traumas experienced by Black people has been a “ferocious enemy” of racial justice in the United States. Perhaps that ignorance (aptly known as white blindness) is beginning to be cracked by the raw and holy fury and truth-telling unleashed in this land. That is an important step toward overcoming structural racism. However, while cracking through white blindness is necessary, alone it is inadequate for the leap – by White people -- into anti-racist living as a necessary and inherent aspect of God’s call to practice justice-seeking love for self and others when that call resounds in a racist society.  In this context, this article poses and pursues a question:  What are some future directions and current directives for White U.S. citizens of relative economic privilege if by our lives we are to assert that Black lives do matter?