White Privilege and the Voice of Conscience

Punishment aboard a slave ship, 1792. Originally published in London, April 10, 1792. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, British Cartoon Collection, LC-USZ62–6204).

Reflection at Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace - June 2020.

If feels a little awkward and uncomfortable to be writing a Reflection at this time. As a white straight male born into a womb of privilege, the tide of attention and the spotlight of scrutiny are now, after countless generations, finally being turned upon all those like myself; and one might very well say, not before its time.

For the white community of the Western World, we are now being called to stand up and account for the collective racism and inequalities we have imposed for generations upon almost every color and type of human being who appears “other” than ourselves. And what is equally clear, as we are hearing in this new echo-chamber of truth-telling, is that to remain seated or on the sideline is to remain complicit. We are all being called.

And so I don’t really know how to begin this Reflection, asked of me several weeks ago by Rev. Rubi Omar, an African-American sister who I believe I had the honor of introducing to this group.

I might argue that I could not help being born as I was into a white family of privilege any more than a black man can help being born into a family of African heritage in south central Los Angeles. However, I don’t entirely buy that argument because I also embrace another even more compelling Law of Nature known as Karma which is to reap what we have formerly sown. It was a destiny neither I nor he could avoid, yet it should have nothing at all to do with privilege but rather of an individual soul’s self-determined experience. For as we heard so eloquently just a few weeks ago from professor of mythological studies, Dr. Zaman Stanizai in his explanation of Islamic mysticism, when it comes to life’s purpose we are most essentially an eternal soul temporarily occupying a physical body as a chariot, driven by our senses towards a destiny of our own making. The even more ancient Bhagavad Gita gave this exact same imagery of our human experience.

In other words, I could say that my soul demanded that I be born in a white man’s body under the very circumstances and conditions of my present incarnation. And in my next life, by the exact same Law, I might very well be born into the body of an African, be it male or female, gay or straight, in order to learn another essential lesson from life’s earthly experience and to reap what I had previously sown for better or for worse, not for any form of punishment or preferential treatment but for a reason most suited to the further evolution of my soul.

Such a spiritual and metaphysical philosophy, to my understanding, contains considerable wisdom and raises the question of why we should hate anyone or anything for any reason, least of all for appearing different from oneself?

As such, real “privilege” in my eyes is less about the color of one’s skin, or even of wealth to come to that. In fact, I am tempted to say that privilege does not truly exist except in our own limited, material perception of life. And so, if there is such a thing as a “privilege” in terms of an advantage in life, then it is the strength of our individual conscience, together with the determination and character of our own mind, to harness the emotions of our desires in order to attain the higher purpose of our life.

Privilege then, be it so understood, is the learned ability to heed one’s conscience; to intuitively know right from wrong, justice from injustice, and to act in accordance with that. This is the real privilege in life that has been carefully earned and developed by the individual and evolving soul. And such intelligence exists within people of all colors, of all ages, and of all persuasions.

Yet this kind of privilege comes not so much at a cost as with a responsibility. It needs to be heard and exercised in the world, and most especially at this time.

For which, St. Paul gave us some wonderful advice. It is not “puffed up”, he told us. It is not pleased with itself; and it is not loud like a clanging cymbal. Such privilege is kind, it is gentle, and it is always forgiving.

And that voice of conscience needs to make itself more clearly and strongly heard now than at any other time in living memory, for “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.”

Earlier this week, I briefly joined an anti-racist protest, sparked by the totally unnecessary death of George Floyd, an African-American man, at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers who now, in part response to those protests, find themselves held on various counts of murder; while I found myself among a sea of young people. I stood out, not for being white but for being old.

Whenever I have wrestled with racism and more especially slavery, this unparalleled crime in all our human history, I always come back to the all-important karmic question of how can the white man’s debt be truly repaid to his black brother? For the inclination in the past, whenever our collective conscience has been so nakedly exposed as it is now, has always been for the white man to determine what needs to be done, such that in the end next to nothing is done; not in any real lasting, or fundamental, sense.

And so if we are to take this time of poignant flood such that it can lead on to fortune for America and the wider world, it is my own sense that now is the time for the collective conscious voice of the white man to be silenced, and for us to turn around and face our African brothers, loosening any and all worn-out symbols of injustice from our past and allowing them to fall into the dust of life’s road where they belong, as we go down on both knees to hide our face in shame and with tears of grief as we finally reckon with centuries of heinous crimes and wrongdoing against our fellow man.

And when we are ready and able to speak, I believe it is for us to look our outcast brother in the eye and ask of him: “What would you have us do? Tell us what we need to know so that we can repay our debt.” And be ready to pay that debt in full with a loving brother’s hand.

This is my understanding of Karma, operating as an all-pervasive Natural Law in a timeless and yet well-ordered Universe. “We are such stuff as dreams are made of”, and so much more than we perceive ourselves to be; hitherto attempting to trick our higher nature into the false belief that we can cheat our fellow man while ignoring all along the Knowledge that we can never deceive God who sees all and knows all, and whose mills though they may grind slowly, grind exceeding small.

How the black man responds to us is up to him, but I suspect that in spite of all the countless beatings, lynchings, whippings, betrayals, murders, injustices and unspeakable acts of cruelty from all our sorry, blood-stained past, we shall encounter that which we have most abused – the nobility and impregnable dignity of our African brother’s soul.

I am ready for that time, and without it being met, it is my belief – conviction even – that we can only anticipate and expect, as the voyage of our collective lives unfolds, to be bound in further shallows and miseries; and an even greater roar and uprising against the immorality, lawlessness and indignities that we have hitherto sown against our brother. For riot, as we have been so eloquently informed, is the language of the unheard. Well, the unheard are now speaking and are unafraid, and it is the white man’s turn to listen, head bowed, as we kneel in silence upon the stony ground where we can finally understand that only Love - only Love - can conquer hate.

To hear this voice of conscience is life’s privilege; to act upon it is a responsibility. For it is not only the calling of our time but the calling of our soul.