I’m slacking off on this weekly blogging, I know . . . but here I am, anyway . . . this week, at a meeting for church, we wrestled with the ways in which our identities have been twisted as a result of our racialization in this society, and again I felt the weight of my whiteness, something that I have to struggle to make myself actively aware of, but which is always with me . . .

anyway, I was googling “white privilege quotes”, looking for a quick fix (given the fact that it’s 11:23pm already) and came across these wise Mennonite dudes who had some good things to say. I particularly love this quote about white privilege and the need to be intentionally anti-racist:

As Tatum points out, to be white in America and do nothing about it is to participate in passive racist behavior; the equivalent of standing still on a moving walkway. No overt effort is being made, but the conveyor belt moves the bystanders along. Unless a person is walking actively in the opposite direction at a speed faster than the conveyor belt—unless they are actively antiracist—they will find themselves carried along with the others. To be white and actively antiracist means seeking to interrupt the advantage system; to change the structures of power that give advantage based on skin color. In the language of Ephesians it is to struggle not against flesh and blood, but against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places … by taking our stand against the devil’s schemes.

So THANKS, random Mennonite dudes, for so clearly stating what has been on my mind these past few days . . .

(and I suppose that next week I should do my own thinking/writing about the issue–well, the THINKING isn’t the problem; it’s the writing that takes effort.)