Thread by @andreharris89

The Story of Race is a Story of Labor. In fact, most Europeans colonized North America for land and economic opportunities, not for religious freedom. There was no concept of race at that time. People identified by country of origin not by skin color. #WhiteSavior doc thread 🧵:

In 1676, enslaved Africans joined with European indentured servants in a large rebellion against the colonial government in Virginia. #WhiteSavior

Alarmed by the natural alliance between the indentured and enslaved, the ruling class passed a series of laws that segregated and permanently enslaved those of African descent, while also giving their European counterparts new rights and status. #WhiteSavior

This divide and conquer strategy paved the way for what would become an organized system of racial chattel slavery. It was then that whiteness included all the benefits of society. #WhiteSavior

The first legal use of the term “white” appeared in 1691 in a document created by the colonial government of Virginia, used intentionally to differentiate people by the color of their skin rather than nation of origin. #WhiteSavior

In 1790, Thomas Jefferson put forth the first US national census, which placed the population into the categories of: Free white males, free white females and all other free persons. Enslaved Black people were counted as well but only as 3/5 of a person. #WhiteSavior

At its first seating, (1790) Congress pass the Naturalization Act, stating that only free whites could become US citizens. #WhiteSavior

The construct of race, as a way to assign value to human beings, became woven into the structure of the US - with whites more valued than others. #WhiteSavior

Whiteness became a culture in and of itself, to be defended at all costs. #WhiteSavior

European immigrants such as Irish, Italians and Germans were viewed as a threat and often persecuted. But they had one distinct advantage, they were light-skinned. So over time, by stripping away or hiding their ethnic heritage, they eventually assimilated to white #WhiteSavior

It seems the metaphor of the #MeltingPot in truth is a push for white homogeny rather than an embrace of diversity. The concept of race and whiteness as the norm is so embedded in our culture that it’s extraordinarily difficult for most white people to see the ways..#WhiteSavior

..they influence life in this country.

A 2016 national study of household wealth found that the median net worth of white families ($162,800) was 8 times higher than that of Hispanic families ($21,400) and 10 times higher than that of Black families ($16,300). #WhiteSavior

A 2016 study revealed that Black (61%), Hispanic (59%), and Native American (60%) children are more than twice as likely as white children (28%) to be living in low income homes. #WhiteSavior

We’ve been taught that the US was founded on religious liberty, which means the history of the American church is tightly bound to the history of American culture, including colonialism, racism, and white supremacy. #WhiteSavior

How is it possible that a religion founded in the boundless love and compassion of Christ could ever align itself with the ideologies that have only brought harm? It’s all in the interpretation. There is no concept of race in the Bible. Race is modern construction. #WhiteSavior

The white church in the US often interpreted passages about ancient religious divides as parallels to the racial divides that were deemed essential to the success of the American experiment. #WhiteSavior

In the age of colonization and westward expansion, North America became the “promised land.” The Pilgrims, the Puritans, and the Pioneers became “God’s chosen people,” and the nations they were subduing were the many indigenous tribes #WhiteSavior

In the case of slavery, we can trace the progression of this race-based theology through colonial law. #WhiteSavior

In 1656, an enslaved woman of African descent named Elizabeth Key won her and her son’s freedom in court partly on the grounds that she was a baptized Christian. At that time, it was English law that a baptized Christian could not be enslaved. #WhiteSavior

Shortly after an enslaved African was freed for being a baptized Christian, a new law was passed that eliminated this loophole clearly stating that baptism did not include freedom from the bonds of slavery. #WhiteSavior

Enslaved Africans embraced biblical narratives of Justice and freedom, finding hope in the story of God’s promise to deliver an oppressed people. #WhiteSavior

The Bible has long fueled Black peoples’ fight against injustice in the US, from the abolition of slavery to securing the right to vote to ending #JimCrow laws and on into today. #WhiteSavior

The church that came to the US came from Europe, and was built on colonialism and white supremacy was interwoven. The American church received a European form of Christianity that was very different than what you read about in the pages of the Bible. #WhiteSavior

The Eurocentric roots of the American church have created structures that focus on the experiences and perspectives of white people, a focus that creates all kinds of unseen biases. #WhiteSavior

God cannot be limited to one cultural expression. #WhiteSavior

The story of American Exceptionalism is about a noble war to end to end slavery in the US and extending suffrage to formerly enslaved peoples, of banding together to win a world war twice, a story of civil rights earned, equality before the law and at the ballot box. #WhiteSavior

The narrative of #WhiteSupremacy makes it possible to only see the story of progress. #WhiteSavior

America is a country that’s built on the genocide of indigenous people, that an entire economy is built on the Black backs of people who’ve never been given reparations, and has continued to reinforce those racist structures and systems for its own benefit. #WhiteSavior

Homeownership - the centerpiece of the American dream includes enormous benefits such as tax breaks and credit benefits to building equity which creates generational wealth. These advantages have been systemically denied to a majority of Blacks. #WhiteSavior

In the 1930s, as part of the #NewDeal, loan programs were created to help Americans purchase homes. In order to determine who received a loan, the government created color-coded maps, this practice is known as #redlining. #WhiteSavior

#Redlining heavily favored white communities. The federal government colluded with mortgage companies to redline and blockbust Black neighborhoods continuing to deny homeownership to many Black families. #WhiteSavior

Of the $120 Billion that was invested in suburban housing, less than 2% of that went to non-white families. #WhiteSavior

In the 19th century, the US government claimed that people of African descent were property. In the 20th century, the same government worked to ensure Blacks couldn’t own property. #WhiteSavior

Predatory and biased lending practices reveal a continuing systemic effort to withhold economic benefits from Black families that are readily available to white families. #WhiteSavior

When Christopher Columbus arrived to a new world in 1492, he brought with him a God-given right to take over any lands he found in the name of Christianity. Known as the DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY, this right was given to all European explorers by various papal edicts. #WhiteSavior

The #DoctrineofDiscovery was an agreement between the European nations in the 15th century that says that whoever “discovers” a land first and lays claim to the land, they own it. #WhiteSavior

The Doctrine of Discovery evolves into the theological authority to enslave non-Christian people and to strip their land of all their resources. #WhiteSavior

The earliest edict establishing the Doctrine of Discovery was the Dum Diversas issued by Pope Nicholas V in 1452, which gave colonizing Europeans permission directly from God to “capture, vanquish, and subdue the enemies of Christ, to put them into perpetual slavery” #WhiteSavior

The Dum Diversas allowed white Christians to establish themselves on a higher level than non-whites, based solely on their relationship with God #WhiteSavior

The Doctrine of Discovery was both a political and religious belief sanctioning centuries of slavery, genocide, and other atrocities worldwide. Even now, its tenets remain embedded in modern society. #WhiteSavior

In the 19th century, a series of Supreme Court cases updated the Doctrine of Discovery from the age of exploration to the time of westward expansion. #WhiteSavior

In the 1823 #SCOTUS case of Johnson v M’Intosh, the court ruled unanimously that Natives did not own the land that they occupied, as it belonged to the European nation that “discovered” it. #WhiteSavior

Johnson v Mc’Intosh provided the groundwork for westward colonial expansion via the land rush, the pioneer spirit, and the belief in #ManifestDestiny — an idea that white settlers had a right imbued by God to claim all the land of the continent, Atlantic to Pacific. #WhiteSavior

The hunger for land required policies for the removal or eradication of Native communities. These included forced relocation to reservations, forced conversion to Christianity, outlawing native spiritual practice, and child removal to boarding schools. #WhiteSavior

In the late 1700s, Richard Allen, a formerly enslaved devout Methodist and lay minister, accepted an invitation to preach at St. George’s Church in Philadelphia. Allen’s preaching was popular, causing growth of Black membership. #WhiteSavior

When Allen requested a second congregation for Black people, the white Elders refused. Instead, they built a balcony to segregate Blacks. #WhiteSavior

In 1792, a lay minister, Absalom Jones, challenged the segregation of St. George’s by sitting with white congregants. He was physically removed during prayer. In response, Richard Allen led the Black members out. #WhiteSavior

Richard Allen formed a new denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church (.@AMEChurchOff), the first independent denomination founded Blacks in the US. #WhiteSavior

In 1890, around 90% of Blacks in the US lived in the South. Over the next 80 years, nearly 50% would leave the South in the #GreatMigration of over 6 million people. Which fueled #WhiteFlight in response. #WhiteSavior

As of 2014, nearly 80% of Christians attend churches where they are among the overwhelming racial majority. The church is not required by law to integrate. Allowing Christians to intentionally choose to be segregated. #WhiteSavior

White churches must realize that their theology and practices are immersed in white cultural norms that alienate people of color. #WhiteSavior

Black churches, often focus on Christ as a source of hope and rescue in the face of ongoing oppression, a theology shaped by the history and experience of Black lives in America. #WhiteSavior

A white Jesus says that whiteness is good, whiteness is holiness, and that even the creator, the savior of the world who came down to love us, in physical form is white. #WhiteSavior

Everything about the history of Christianity from Europe to the US has been built around whiteness. It’s in the DNA of the American church. White Christianity is idolatry. #WhiteSavior

There’s a white Protestant obsession with reconciliation. Colorblindness is not a means of reconciliation, it’s denial. #WhiteSavior

The church of America has an aversion to lamentation. It has been lousy at engaging suffering and pain and lament. #WhiteSavior

Hey I’m watching White Savior: Racism In The American Church. Check it out now on Prime Video! watch.amazon.com/detail?gti=amz…