Pastor Louie Giglio of Passion City Church in Atlanta hosted a recorded conversation about racism and injustice with rapper Lecrae and Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy that became overshadowed when Giglio referred to slavery as a “blessing” for white people.
“We understand the curse that was slavery, white people do and we say that was bad,” Giglio said. “But, we miss the blessing of slavery that it actually built up the framework for the world that white people live in and lived in. A lot of people call this white privilege and when you say those two words, it just is like a fuse goes off for a lot of white people because they don’t want somebody telling them to check their privilege — I think may be a great thing for me is to call it white blessing. That I’m living in the blessing of the curse that happened generationally that allowed me to grow up in Atlanta.”
The christian-based church, which has locations in Atlanta and Washington D.C., faced surmounting backlash online as people pointed out the racial bias and hypocrisy of religion.
“The very fact that some white people see their status on the totem pole in the United States as a blessing dismisses the horrific history that led to those “blessings”,” one commenter said.
“To hide behind christianity also further explains why some white people can’t see the flaws in their ideologies,” said another post. “Is it a blessing that you had to step on the backs of others to obtain your mighty and privileged existence?”
Some online critics are frustrated with what they felt was a lackadaisical response from Lecrae who seemed to be caught off guard by the pastor’s admission.
Although Lecrae tried his best to provide the perspective of black people, many watchers found his rebuttal overwhelmingly passive for a conversation about something that has caused so much pain for black people.
“We hate to use that term, privilege or blessing, but even the idea that you have the ability to dismiss is a privilege,” Lecrae said to the pastor. “You have the ability to not think about it. I cannot change my skin tone. I cannot live another day without recognizing my blackness.” Lecrae has responded to the criticism on Twitter. “The mans choice of words wasn’t the best but I got his point. Who’s putting their career, freedom, and life on the line…me. If anyone has the right to be upset it’s me.”
Some social media critics who clearly did not watch the entire hour-long video are calling for the rapper to apologize instead of the pastor. Baffling.
See the video below:
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