Tackling White Privilege
By Rick Lawrence
Executive Director
At the dinner table a few nights ago, my wife, my 18-year-old daughter, and I were talking about “white privilege”—a volatile term that has been around for awhile, but grabbed the spotlight in 2020. After my daughter offered her own take on the built-in advantage white people enjoy in our culture, I said: “I think of it as an obstacle race, where some of the contestants at the starting line have to wear a 50-pound backpack. It’s not that some of those over-burdened racers might not finish well, but the odds are stacked against them.”
Of course, this is not a metaphor that many in our culture can easily swallow—it sounds like a negation of their hard work and enterprise. This is why the bridge-building work we need to do, across our racial chasms, seems so daunting. So, in another of our ongoing conversations about diversity and relational restoration, I asked Reachable Reconciliation founder Fred Oduyoye how he handles the “white privilege” issue in his coaching cohorts made up of ministry leaders (warning: the video ends a little abruptly because of [my] user error).
Continue vital conversations such as these when you embark on a five-month journey in a Reachable Reconciliation Cohort!
Fred Oduyoye will use his expertise to help you engage in the hard work of reconciliation.
The Cohort includes:
– 5 live online training sessions (90 minute) each month with your facilitator Fred Oduyoye
– Additional materials, assignments, and resources sent to your cohort between sessions
– A private online community to share in discussion, ideas, and connection