Photo by Brad Neathery, Unsplash
Photo by Brad Neathery, Unsplash
White Evangelical Trump supporters are quick to publicly feign outrage at the suggestion that they are perpetuating whiteness but that’s bullshit, merely another effort to prey upon vulnerable people and eradicate diversity while painting themselves as the victims.
Republished with permission from John Pavlovitz
As a white, cisgender-heterosexual man born in America and raised in the Christian faith, I have been afforded every benefit this nation offers: education, opportunity, freedom, options (the kind most will never experience), while having very little required from me other than to show up.
I have never known marginalization of any kind, never been oppressed by any measure, never had to alter anything about myself to be welcomed or feel safe or find success. I’ve never needed to read a room, be aware of my surroundings, or watch my tone.
And among the legion of things this privilege has bestowed upon me, perhaps the most instructive has been unlimited access to others like me; those whose pigmentation, gender, orientation, and birthplace have also made them the baseline of what American traditionally looks like.
I know what white people say when they feel safe; when they no longer feel bound by decorum or social mores, when they imagine themselves free to reveal the ugliness they harbor in their hearts without accountability; in locker rooms, church meetings, neighborhood picnics, holiday tables.
And as someone who served as a pastor for nearly three decades in largely white churches in the South, I know what most white Evangelicals truly see as the objective of their collective presence here—and it has very little to do with the non-white, non-American, compassionate and loving Jesus at the heart of their faith tradition. Honestly, most of them despise Jesus, whether they can admit it or not.
All this to say, I know firsthand what the majority of white Conservatives in America want: an America made of only white Conservatives.
That is why they passionately worship a 34-count felon and court-adjudicated rapist who has never had a noble impulse in his life. He is simply a vulgar, ignorant means to an end, one which results in their dominance over a place they perceive as their birthright.
This may not seem revelatory to you, but what you may not know is how committed they are to self-preservation. There is no law enforcement violation of people of color, no weaponizing of the Government against brown-skinned immigrants, and no legislative assault on trans people too alarming, grotesque, or illegal to detach them from this President.
White Evangelical Trump supporters are quick to publicly feign outrage at the suggestion that they are perpetuating whiteness but that’s bullshit, merely another effort to prey upon vulnerable people and eradicate diversity while painting themselves as the victims.
They offer caveats about brown-skinned immigrants “doing it the right way,” lament the rampant crime across American cities, warn of the rising violence here, and decry the evils of a permissive culture—and it’s all gaslighting and code language to signal other fear-addled straight white Christian people who agree with them that it’s time to preserve whiteness at any cost.
I’m a white person who doesn’t want to live in a nation made up of nothing but white people.
I have no interest in seeing us become a gated community of inbred, entitled supremacy that cuts itself off from a world it believes itself superior to.
I have no desire to spend the rest of my days in an America that is devoid of the diversity and bereft of the multiculturalism that America once aspired to (in word, if not in practice).
Trump’s America (which is Stephen Miller’s America, which is Franklin Graham’s America, which is the Proud Boys’ America) is something I will oppose with every word, dollar, and moment that I have at my disposal.
I hope enough white people here are willing to stand and say the same thing in the face of this vile, corrupt Administration. America cannot be purged of the variety and plurality that have made it a flawed but still radiant beacon for the world.
We need to leverage our privilege and disrupt our circles of influence and do all we can to partner with the rest of the diverse humanity here, to ensure that this nation does not become a White Evangelical fever dream.
That is the last thing this world needs.
John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. When not actively working for a more compassionate planet, John enjoys spending time with his family, exercising, cooking, and having time in nature. He is the author of A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, Low, and Stuff That Needs to Be Said.
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