SoldierMan
Expert Member
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2019
- Messages
- 4,983
Best-Selling Devotional Has Prayer to 'Help Me to Hate White People'
How far have we come since Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech?Sometimes, I’m not so sure. While our society has made tremendous progress toward the idea that all men are created equal, anti-whiteness seems to be all the rage these days. And that is no less racist than hating anyone of any other color.
Yet, in the book, A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal, there is a prayer called “Prayer of a Weary Black Woman” that asks God to “help me to hate white people.”
Dear God,
Please help me to hate white people. Or at least to want to hate them. At least, I want to stop caring about them, individually and collectively. I want to stop caring about their misguided, racist souls, to stop believing that they can be better, that they can stop being racist.
My prayer is that you would help me to hate the other white people—you know, the nice ones. The Fox News-loving, Trump-supporting voters who “don’t see color” but who make thinly veiled racist comments about “those people.” The people who are happy to have me over for dinner but alert the neighborhood watch anytime an unrecognized person of color passes their house.
[…]
Lord, if you can’t make me hate them, at least spare me from their perennial gaslighting, whitemansplaining, and white woman tears.
Lord, if it be your will, harden my heart. Stop me from striving to see the best in people. Stop me from being hopeful that white people can do and be better. Let me imagine them instead as white-hooded robes standing in front of burning crosses.