There Will Be No Honest Talk About Race

It cannot happen because people cannot help themselves.

If you want to understand why we will move on from this issue without resolution just like the nation moves on from so many other difficult issues, just consider Louie Giglio. The man is highly respected, well regarded across racial lines, a prolific Christian author, and a humanitarian. He also is being shamed for daring to try to have an honest conversation about race with LaCrae, a Christian rapper.

Giglio tried to make a point that no one who says they want an honest conversation could oppose. He said slavery is a curse and white people treated that curse as a blessing. If they don’t want to use the phrase “white privilege” they should consider “white blessing” because inarguably white people were blessed (not in a religious sense) by the oppression of black people — white society profited and benefited from the oppression and got ahead of black society by keeping black society oppressed.

You, like I, may cringe at the word choice “white blessing” as much as we do at “white privilege,” but you cannot mistake his point and it is one a lot of people would agree with and a lot of people would say more white people should acknowledge.

Instead, Giglio is being shamed. You can hear him in full context and see the shaming via tweet with this:

Nicola A. Menzie @namenzie

Pastor Louie Giglio, rapper Lecrae and Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy "had an honest conversation about race and the Church" on June 14. Here's an example of why words and their meanings matter. "White Privilege" vs. "White Blessings"

Notably, the same woman is outraged that Giglio apologized, but did so to a “white” reporter at the Washington Post who happens to write on the religion beat in America and his highly respected within religious circles.

Nicola A. Menzie @namenzie

I read pastor @louiegiglio apologized to a White Washington Post reporter for his decision to use phrase "white blessing" instead of "white privilege" when talking white structural advantages of slavery. Has he published an apology to Black people, the actual offended party?

While this is all happening, the political left is set to further purge American society of symbols it finds racist like statues of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Yes, in Massachusetts, there are calls to tear down a Lincoln statute.

If you want to have honest conversations about race in America, shaming people for trying to have those talks by using words and phrases you don’t like is exactly why it won’t happen.

This is very much like the gun control debate. We have a mass shooting at an elementary school and people demand we have an honest conversation, but then insist the only solution is confiscation of guns. A whole lot of gun owners aren’t going to keep talking when the solution is already decided by a leftwing mob.

At this point, a lot of people are going to get the hint that the only people willing to have honest conversations about race are suckers about to get destroyed by the mob for daring to engage. Seeing what is happening to Louie Giglio will be all the confirmation they need.

Americans do need honest conversations — but purges and shaming can’t be concurrent to those conversations if you want honest ones.