What is the Bible?

In August Daniel Darling wrote an article about "white privilege" for TheGoodBook.com, and then recently Relevant Magazine re-posted it.  Here's why lecturing white people about their so-called "privilege" will not solve the problems in the black community, nor will it foster racial reconciliation.

The reason I care about what Daniel Darling writes is that he is very influential among both Southern Baptists, and evangelicals as a whole.  He is one of the leaders at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, serving under the very controversial Russell Moore.

It's ironic.  The goal of Darling's article is unity and racial reconciliation, but his viewpoint is very divisive. The main idea is that white people are privileged, and this is because of their own systemic racism and injustice, and white people need to get involved in making societal corrections. In other words, black people have it much harder in America today, and it's because white people are racist and are holding them down.

This kind of talk does nothing but hurt the church. It causes white Christians to feel guilty and ashamed of the color of their skin for injustices committed by other people long before they were born. And it causes black Christians to think that they cannot succeed because they live in a racist society, and to look upon all white people as racist oppressors.

Darling points out that on the whole white people are at an advantage over black people. But this is not evidence of racism.  Asian Americans are at an advantage over white people. Racism? That wouldn't make sense.  The problems facing the black community are self-induced. Black culture is broken -- by sexual immorality, children born out of wedlock, fatherlessness, crime, substance abuse, etc. White people are not forcing black people to take drugs, to have children out of wedlock, to drop out of high school, or to commit crime. Solving these problems will mean that the black community will have to look inward.  The solution is not "social justice," but the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The overall problem with Darling's perspective is that he is not looking at people as individuals, but as members of a racial group. He assumes that if a black man is struggling or suffering, it is not because of his own choices or those of his parents, but because he is a part of an oppressed group. And if a white man is successful, it is not because of his choices or those of his parents, but because he is a part of a privileged group. But the assumption is a bad one. There are many black people who are extremely successful in America, and there are many white people who are struggling and suffering.  

Darling thinks that the problems plaguing the black community are the result of systemic racism.  But he fails to point out examples of systemic racism.  There are indeed racist individuals, but the American system today is probably the least racist in the entire world.  Citing examples of how blacks are doing worse than whites is not evidence of racism.  There are far more men in prison than women.  Is this supposed to be evidence of systemic sexism against men?  Nope.

The bottom line is that in the United States of America we are all extremely privileged, regardless of race.  This is the land of unlimited opportunity for people of all races and religions, which is why people from Central America are at this moment beating down the border door to come in.  Racism, while it will always exist, is no longer a barrier that is holding black people back. The vast majority of white people in American couldn't care less about race. They want to help their black neighbors.  The're just tired of being lectured about their "privilege" and being blamed for the problems in the black community.