I won’t repost the thread, but someone sent me a thread about a local BIPOC group being attacked as racist and I must take a moment to address the issue pastorally.
Background:
A white woman asked a local BIPOC group if she could attend their events. The purpose of the group is to give BIPOC individuals a safe space to fellowship and share. When told this would be inappropriate, she launched into a campaign against the group and “identity politics”. She claims the group is racists for excluding her.
Response:
No, it is not racists for a marginalized group of people to exclude those who have consistently marginalized said group of people. You are white and it is mighty racist of you to expect them to open their arms and welcome you into THEIR safe space. Then to label them racists shows your level of white privilege.
You expect that your whiteness will get you whatever you want and have fully embraced that privilege. That is why safe spaces for BIPOC individuals exist.
And to then attack “identity politics” as the problem rather than your own racism is appalling. It is not identity politics to want marginalized groups to have a safe space to be themselves and to be free from those who have oppressed them. Would you make the same claim if a group of transgender women wanted to exclude the cis-gender MAGA male from their luncheons? Of course not!
But somehow this is different?
Maybe you should ask yourself a couple of simple questions: 1) why do I really want to invade the spaces of marginalized groups? 2) why do I call myself progressive if I don’t really support those who are marginalized or only support them when they “let me in their group”? 3) am I a racist?
Blessings!
