Can You Imagine Giving Whiteness Up and What Does That Even Look Like?
Here’s How It’s Being Done in Chicago
Lent is an annual religious tradition which involves a 40-day period of prayer and fasting. Largely a Roman Catholic practice, other Christian denominations also participate in Lent. During this season, adherents typically choose to abstain from one or two things, like maybe giving up social media for 40 days or maybe even avoiding a favorite food or drink. This year, a mixed, but predominately White church in Chicago is giving up Whiteness.
Exactly how they plan to give up Whiteness is no longer outlined on their website, but local news reports from before the site was changed indicate they don’t intend to use worship songs written or composed by White people during Lent. Instead, the church plans to highlight songs and music written and composed by Black and indigenous people and others of color.
Recently, I read an excellent article by Zaron Burnett III, in which he shares results of his survey where White folks all over the world were asked if they’d ever give up their Whiteness. Some of the answers were quite telling. Overall, they made me rethink my own article about White people not knowing what Whiteness is, especially when I scrolled through Zaron’s comments and was reminded by Herbert Dyer, Jr. about Jane Elliott’s famous line of questioning which culminates with asking White people if they’d ever trade places with a Black person.
I was wrong when I said White people don’t know what Whiteness is. They know precisely what it is and that it’s not just a skin color. Zaron’s survey and Herbert’s comment helped snap me back into reality. Whew!
Anyway, back to giving Whiteness up. Would you? Could you? What would that look like? And for how long could you do it? By the way, I’m asking all people this question, not just White folks (although it takes on a deeper meaning for those assigned to Whiteness, I suppose).
Could you give up watching movies and television shows with White lead characters and only watch those with Black or other characters of color?
Could you give up listening to White musical artists and only listen to non-White ones?
What about books? Could you only read books by non-White authors or those with non-White characters?
As a consumer, could you buy goods and services primarily from non-White owned sources? (I have to stress primarily because I know solely just is not possible.)
What do you think you’d gain from such a change? And what do you think you’d lose?
While these questions are meant for all of us, I do hope White people at least deeply think about this and will respond accordingly. I’m not asking you to actually do it, just think what doing so would look or feel like. How might your worldview change if you were to do this for 30 or 60 or 90 days?
So, who knows what this church will gain from their Lenten exercise? It seems like a pretty easy thing to do, but I can’t speak to their experience. I grew up Catholic for much of my childhood (in White or Whitewashed churches), but chose to join a Black Pentecostal denomination as an adult and so I’m familiar with the different musical tastes. I suspect the difference in musical styles will be nothing short of profound for this Suburban, largely White church.
What do you think?
Before you click away while thinking giving Whiteness up is a piece of cake, I suggest you read Allison Gaines’ most excellent piece questioning if White people can enjoy an all-Black tv series (HINT: Not really):
And don’t forget to read the article she links to in her article describing the very real empathy gap White people experience when watching Black characters on the big and small screen (Whiteness really does a bad number on people!):
Saving the best for last, I highly recommend you read or listen to Zaron’s article here on Medium as the answers White people gave about whether or not they could give Whiteness up say just about everything that needs to be said:
