White supremacy has been problematic in the United States.
As we celebrate AAPI Heritage during May, I am reminded of the hatred, damage and destruction that has been committed against Asian Americans by white American society throughout American history.
One of the largest mass lynchings in American history happened on Oct. 24, 1871, when a riot started in Los Angeles’ Chinatown and a mob of about 500 white men lynched at least 17 Chinese men.
Grace Ji-Sun Kim
Asian Americans suffered immensely as they worked as indentured servants under harsh contexts and many restrictions. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which restricted Chinese immigration and movement. And during World War II, the U.S. government forced Japanese people into internment camps where they lost everything and lived in terrible conditions. Most recently, the hate crimes committed against Asian Americans during the COVID pandemic were physical, psychological and even deadly.
All these forms of discrimination and oppression occurred due to white supremacy and systemic racism, which harms people of color.
Under white supremacy and white privilege, white people’s concern is prioritized and made more important than others. White people’s issues are protected way more than people of color, and laws are created to protect them. But we must understand that skin color is just a physical trait, just like blond hair or black hair.
Invented categories
Racial categories are not biological categories but are invented racial categories. Race and racism are social constructs created to protect white people and, therefore, white supremacy is dangerous, oppressive and costs lives.
“No person of any race or ethnicity has a biological or spiritual claim to being better than anyone else.”
As we reflect upon the devastation done to the AAPI community, we need to remind ourselves that no person of any race or ethnicity has a biological or spiritual claim to being better than anyone else. Race has served to separate society into different levels for the benefit of a few people who have been defined as white, to the misfortune of anyone considered nonwhite or of color. Society has socially constructed the category of race as an inequitable social and economic relationship that is structured by skin color, class, gender and nation.
Racial identity is not static but fluid and changes over time, as witnessed in the racial identity of being white. “White” is a relational term, and it is present only in opposition to other classifications in the racial pyramid, which is ordered and created by whiteness. By defining “others” as inferior, subordinate and less than others, whiteness is then able to define itself as superior, powerful and great.
Whiteness is a socially and politically constructed idea that is distinct but not separate from ideas of class, country, gender and sexuality. Coming to an understanding of the fluidity of racial terms and recognizing that racialization happens in society gives a deeper understanding of racism and the need for the term “whiteness.”
Whiteness is a learned behavior that is multidimensional and extensive and becomes a powerful tool for white people. Whiteness is not just about skin color; it is also about ideas based on beliefs, values and attitudes with an unequal distribution of power, influence and privilege based on skin color.
Whiteness in Christianity
In Christianity, the whiteness of Jesus is utilized to uphold white privilege and white supremacy. A white Jesus has been used to colonize, engage in holy wars, enforce enslavement, allow indentured servitude and engage in genocide. As we see this occurring, it provokes us to ask ourselves, “Why do we have a white male God?”
“No one has seen God, so how are we concluding and talking about a white male God and even implementing this image?”
Is a white male God used to legitimize white supremacy, whiteness and racism? Is God gendered and racialized as how we understand people to be? No one has seen God, so how are we concluding and talking about a white male God and even implementing this image into our liturgies, art, stained glass windows, hymns, prayers and sermons? The Bible speaks of a Spirit God, but we have come to believe in a white male God — which legitimizes white supremacy, whiteness and patriarchy.
The whiteness and maleness of God have been perpetuated throughout Christian history. We have come to believe God’s maleness and whiteness are a priority over everything else about God — such as God’s love, mercy, kindness and being the Creator of all things beautiful. We have created a white male God in the same image as those who hold power in this world.
This is a deep and serious problem as our image and understanding of God affects our faith, lifestyle, behavior, ethics and actions. Hence, our distorted views and understandings of God can lead to genocide, enslavement, war, sexism, racism, homophobia and other ills. A white male God prioritizes whiteness and maleness, and everything else that falls below is not important or can be dominated.
Theology influences actions
To fight injustice, we cannot continue to create images and metaphors of God that are used to harm, destroy and kill people. This is not the way of God but is the way of the white men.
Our theology impacts the world. We must understand the power of theology and that it should be used for good and not for evil. Our images of God are mere metaphors and are not real conceptions of God. We must understand this, if we want to follow God’s commandment to love one another, especially as we celebrate AAPI Heritage Month.
We do not know and cannot know the fulness of God, but we can try to gain a better understanding of God by expanding our ways of imagination and discourse about God. We have used metaphors, nouns and images from the Bible and within our experience to talk and think about God. Therefore, we need to retrieve biblical images of God that are not destructive but are loving and feminine — such as a dove, wisdom, Spirit and Sophia.
Images such as wisdom and the mother hen that are feminine, lifegiving and protectors will help us move away from the dominant masculine views and understandings of God that have been damaging for people of color and women, and work toward a caring, creating, gracious and loving God.
Grace Ji-Sun Kim serves as professor of theology at Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Ind., and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. She is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the author or editor of 24 books. She is the host of Madang podcast on Christian Century. This piece is inspired by her new book, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity.