Whiteness Is Not Original Sin
The Weight We Carry Is Not Ours To Hold
I didn’t make the connection between original sin and whiteness. I first came across the connection between original sin and whiteness while reading “Woke Racism” by John McWhorter, and boy, did it ever resonate. Here is what he says in Chapter 2: The New Religion
One is born marked by original sin; in the same way, to be white is to be born with the stain of unearned privilege. The proper response to original sin is to embrace the teachings of Jesus, although one will remain always a sinner nevertheless. The proper response to white privilege is to embrace the teachings of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ibram Kendi, and Robin DiAngelo…with the understanding that you will always harbor the privilege stain nevertheless.
The parallel here is eerie, and reminds me of my early encounters with religion.
Original sin, as I came to understand it during my childhood days half-listening, half-daydreaming in the Methodist church pews, was the idea that we are born into sin because Adam and Eve chose to eat the forbidden fruit. It’s not just that we do sinful things; it is that we ARE sinful. It’s in our DNA, if you will.
So if we are inherently sinful, how do we get into heaven? Here is how I believe it works.
If we are sinful by nature, then we need a way to absolve ourselves from sin.
God was merciful, so it came down to earth in human form to sacrifice himself for all of humanity. Its death on the cross meant that we were “clean of sin” and it became “the way” to heaven.
But we were still sinful; susceptible to the many vices of the world. So we had to profess our faith in god and consistently (persistently?) pray for forgiveness every time we sinned.
In the end, it seems like nothing about our nature changed very much. The only thing that changed was that there was now a way for us to bypass our inherited deficit in order to live in paradise for all of eternity.
Shit. That’s high stakes. And kind of a raw deal to be born into, if we’re being honest. Thank God he works in mysterious ways.
I’ve always questioned the logic of original sin, heaven/hell, and, well, just god itself for many obvious reasons. I’m not the only one. However, I do agree with the idea of original sin because I believe that humans are inherently flawed. I mean, think about it. Has there ever been peace and equality among human beings from the dawn of time?
Being inherently flawed lends itself to shame, at least based on Brene Brown’s definition: the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love, belonging, and connection. And if we are unworthy of love, belonging, and connection, then we will never be accepted into a tribe, which means we will be isolated out in nature, which means we will die.
This is not a stretch. This is evolutionary biology (it’s science). Our brains are wired for social belonging because it can guarantee our basic needs: food, water, and shelter. If belonging is at risk (and therefore our life is at risk), we experience a trauma response; the brain hits the red alert and sends all hands on deck to do whatever we can to regain our place in the tribe, or find a new tribe.
But what do we do if we’re inherently flawed? Doesn’t that mean we’ll never be able to belong? Not unless we say and do all the “right” things in order to get into the good graces of the group, regardless of whether we genuinely believe they’re right or not.
The persistent fear of white folks getting it “right” is what made me stop in my tracks when I was reading Woke Racism and the part about original sin came about.
The dots connected instantly, a flash of insight reverberated in my body.
“THIS IS WHY WE FEEL THE NEED TO GET IT RIGHT!”
If we have been taught that whiteness is inherently flawed (which it is), we then make the connection that if we are white, then WE are inherently flawed, which means we are unworthy of love and belonging (shame). Thus, we are thrust into a never-ending cycle of asking for forgiveness for being white and trying to do whatever we can to earn belonging in the group (often an activist group or marginalized groups).
THIS is why I hear white folks so often say that they need to get it right.
THIS is why so many white folks just want to be given a step-by-step instruction manual for how to be anti-racist.
THIS is why there is so much performative allyship; white folks do whatever we can to get into the good graces of the group.
THIS is why we publicly and privately self-flagellate, apologize for our white skin, and yearn to be seen as “one of the good ones” by our Black and Brown peers.
We are trying to make up for being flawed, earn absolution, and secure our belonging.
As much as this is human nature and done with good intentions, the result is, at best, ineffective allyship and, at worst, greater harm being done than if we were to do nothing at all.
This will be hard to hear for most folks, so I understand if many drop off at this point.
But there is hope if you care to read on. Here are three ways to address this religious trauma that many of us have carried over into our anti-racism.
Whiteness Is Not Original Sin
It’s important to distinguish here what “sin” we are talking about. For these purposes, I’m referring to the sin of oppression and dehumanization of other human beings through supremacy and domination. For that, whiteness is not guilty. This sin has existed and been carried out by humans since the dawn of time, well before race was invented.
I will also say, however, so that it does not sound like I’m trying to excuse or absolve whiteness, that for the sin of oppression and dehumanization of other human beings through supremacy and domination based on skin color, whiteness is guilty. This is a fact that no one can deny.
So at this point, we’re splitting hairs a bit, but these are important hairs to be split. If we are to refer to all forms of oppression, whiteness is not original sin. If we refer to racial oppression, whiteness is guilty as hell. But often we conflate Oppression (upper case O) with oppression (lower case o). We take on the burden of the world’s sin as if it were our own cross to bear.
At the end of the day, what’s important to remember is that whiteness is bad, not us as a person. Oppression, violence and domination existed well before race was invented. And being born into white bodies does not mean we have inherited some sort of genetic moral deficit. Are we responsible for the “sins” we commit on the daily? Of course. But we are not guilty for the sins of the world.
We are all inherently worthy of love and belonging.
I’m just going to leave it at that: we are all inherently worthy of love and belonging. Period. This is true no matter who we are or what we have done.
Our job is not to get things right, it’s to genuinely engage in the cause.
In the end, this desire to get it right, to earn absolution, only causes us to become more self-centered and self-serving. We’re consumed with the thought of whether we’re doing “enough” to deserve forgiveness. It’s not unlike faith: do I believe enough? Am I following god enough? Am I living in accordance with the holy text enough?How will I ever know?
All of our actions become motivated by a sense of self-purification rather than a genuine desire to do meaningful work that makes an impact. In extreme versions, this literally can become a debilitating obsessive-compulsive behavior, constantly ruminating over whether or not we’re racist and if we’re a good person. But mild versions can creep into all of our lives if we’re not careful, especially if we grew up in a religious environment and/or experienced religious trauma.
This merits a whole article, really, but the best “advice” I can give is to find ways to genuinely engage in the cause. This can look like getting clear on a cause you care about, understanding your strengths and the roles you can play in the work, focusing on what you can control, and developing a strong sense of self-worth to give you the emotional fortitude and resilience necessary to sustain yourself.
This is not easy, and it involves healing from trauma and shame. But the result is a grounded and altruistic approach that reduces harm, maximizes impact, and cultivates a healthy community.
What it also takes is a transition from religion to spirituality.
From “I have to get it right” to “I desire to be in right relationship with others.”
From “I am a sinner” to “I am fallible, and I am worthy of love and belonging.”
From "Whiteness is my original sin" to "Shame is not my foundation."