An edited version of this article was published on Christian Today here.
This is the original…
The Curious Case of the Chelsea Football Star and Racism
It seems such a trivial story. The kind of story that only the most vacuous gossip tabloids would be interested in. A famous footballer allegedly gets drunk, throws up in the back of a cab, the police are called, and the footballer abuses them. Now the Chelsea footballer has been charged with ‘racially aggravated harassment’ of a police officer in London. What’s the big deal? And why should we care about any of it?
And then the news came of the phrase she is supposed to have used. ‘Stupid white B….”. It wasn’t just a sense of relief – it was almost hysterical joy that erupted on social media. Suddenly the phrase was being used all over the place with pictures of white male politicians being attached to it. And therein lies the seriousness of what is an otherwise silly and trivial story. It demonstrates the contradictions, inconsistencies and confusion within our culture caused by identity politics – especially identity politics fuelled by critical race theory.
Because in critical race theory – white people are always racist and can never be the victims of racism. Those of us simpletons who just understood racism as discriminating against someone because of their race or skin colour, are way behind the curve on this. As the Guardian, the Sydney Morning Herald, the ABC and numerous online commentators told us “To call someone ‘white’ cannot be racist” – because you cannot be racist against white people. Apparently to accuse someone who attacks someone because of their white skin colour of racism is to ‘gaslight’ the real victims. The Guardian is worried that our doctrine of racism is not pure enough. “Racism is no longer the ideology that accompanies racial capitalist systems of colonialism, slavery and imperialism; it becomes a matter of individual morality”
So, there you have it. Racism wasn’t really about individual morality. It all has to do with capitalism, colonialism, slavery and imperialism – which clearly are things that white people alone do. The progressives have drunk so deep at the well of critical race ideology that they seem unaware of the history of the human race. Red and yellow, black and white, may all be precious in Jesus’ site, but we also have all at some time or other engaged in slavery, imperialism and colonialism. I’ve even met some Chinese, African and Arab capitalists!
The term slave comes from the white Slavs – because so many of them were taken into slavery by Arab/African traders. No race or nation can be free from the charge of slavery. But there is only one Empire – which got rid of it – at great cost. And that was the British Empire whose conscience had been stirred by Christianity. The trans-Atlantic slave trade was horrific – and to be repented of. But equally we must note the role that the British played in getting rid of slavery in many countries of the world. Sam Kerr’s own country, Australia, has never had slavery – despite it being one of those capitalist, imperialist colonies – or dare I suggest that it was because it was one of those capitalist imperialist colonies?
But the crypto- Marxist critical race theory which has infected the upper echelons of our society means that you can say white is black, and even black is not black – especially if you are ‘the wrong kind’ of black. According to this ideology successful people of colour in the UK, like the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak or Kemi Badenoch, are just ‘Uncle Toms’. They are perceived as tools in the hands of the white oppressors!
Another example of this ‘double think’ comes from South Australia where a judge ruled in a case involving a woman attacking someone because they were white that being “white” per se is not descriptive of any particular ethnic, national or racial group. Nor is it of itself a term of abuse. White people are the dominant people historically and culturally within Australia. They are not in any sense an oppressed group, whose political and civil rights are under threat.’” Just think how inane that remark is and if taken to its logical conclusion (although logic does seem to have disappeared out of much of modern society – probably because it is seen as a tool of Western colonialism!) what it would mean.
Black, brown and yellow skin colours are all indicative of race. White isn’t. Although there is apparently still a white race which oppresses people. Go figure.
Although white people are not an ethnic, national or racial group, they still have the dominant culture in Australia where 90.2% of the population are white. So they cannot be oppressed. Try telling that to the white working-class poor. Does this mean that if I go to a country like Nigeria where blacks are the predominant culture, or China…that I cannot be racist in using racial slurs against black or Chinese people?!
Despite all the theory and the jargon there is a double standard at play here. Let’s return to Sam Kerr’s alleged abuse. Just substitute the word ‘black’ for ‘white’ in ‘stupid white B….” and then imagine how the Guardian, Chelsea, the BBC would have reported it. She would be outed as an absolute villain. But now because she has used the right kind of racism, she is a hero who can play the victim card.
This is why a rich sporting celebrity (Kerr is estimated to be worth $5 million) can portray herself as a powerless victim against a copper who was only doing his duty. In this brave new world skin colour trumps everything – Kerr is a ‘woman of colour’ because her grandmother is Indian. I’m not sure of the rules of the game but apparently having one non-white grandparent is enough to atone for the sins of the other three in being white. It also helps if your chips include being gay and a woman – in the great game, that’s like having an identity politics full house!.
Another incident noted by the commentator Konstantin Kisin, that also occurred in London, has added further evidence as to just how far down the rabbit hole our society has gone in this craziness. Imagine if I advocated as a playwright that only white people would be allowed into a West End theatre, because they were a different kind of audience? But that is precisely what Jeremy O’Harris told the BBC was going to happen at one of his theatres where a Black Out night would be just for black people.
https://twitter.com/KonstantinKisin/status/1763414605387223162?s=20
The only justification for this is to divide people by race and to exaggerate and tell falsehoods such as black people do not feel safe in going to the theatre.
I once sat in an art gallery in Sydney where a man who was whiter than me (and I am a pale Scot!) told us all that he felt uncomfortable being in a room full of largely white people! It was victim playing par excellence – and the 200 people in the room applauded him. I walked away thinking that Western society has gone completely mad. We are magnifying racism, increasing division by race and reinventing apartheid when we adopt this insane ideology.
The Church should be able to provide the answer for this. But sadly, much of the Church has also swallowed wholesale the Critical Race Theory doctrines. The Church of England for example is only speeding its inevitable oblivion by spending lots of money hiring ‘deconstructing whiteness’ staff!
There is a biblical answer to all this. It’s simple. There is only one race – the human race. To discriminate on the basis of colour is a sin. To divide the body of Christ on that basis is worse because it negates the witness of the Church. It is in the true church that you see the true unity of humanity – where all the barriers are broken down and we are all ‘one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3:28). I once stood at my church door and noted that we had an African, Chinese, Indian and a European on door duty. It wasn’t planned or rostered that way – it just happened. And I was so thankful. Because whilst the world talks about who is really black, a person of colour or racist – the Church of Jesus Christ just gets on with creating that multitude that no one can count – from every nation, tribe, people and language (Revelation 7:9).
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