Black and White. Bad and Good? Not Anymore.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones…” but pain heals. Chicks dig scars, and all that. But words? Words cut deep. Words cause wounds that not even time can heal. And so, what we say matters. It matters what we say and when we say it and it really doesn’t matter what kind of flimsy excuses we come up with for why we say it. “Everybody says that,” just isn’t going to fly with me, not anymore.
Recently I have become more aware of the discussion centering on the systemic racism in our country which is (as the name suggests) ingrained throughout our society. I am continuously shocked by the fact that the counter argument to. “You are blind to your racism,” is, “No I’m not!” Guess what friend, if you could see it, you wouldn’t be blind to it! I am only beginning to have my own eyes opened, my own blindness exposed. I have become painfully aware of, among other things, my words; my language.
Twice within the last few weeks I caught myself using the expression “black and white,” to connote bad and good. I use it in mundane ways mind you; “Honey which shampoo should we get?”
“It’s not black and white, just pick one.” And yet when I said it, something happened within me that had not happened with this particularly expression before. I was shocked, uncomfortable with my own words. Why is black the colorful metaphor for bad? Why is white (obviously?) good? Where did this come from? I don’t know the answer to these questions but I am willing to bet that if we could find the origin of this phrase, systemic racism would not be far away. And so maybe (is the maybe really necessary?) I shouldn’t talk like this anymore.
So all of this was floating around my head last week as I preached on the middle portion of Psalm 51 and thus was struck in verse 7b when David prays to God, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. David here is obviously seeking a positive outcome, and the image he gives us for positivity is white! This raises the question, is David a racist? Perhaps more pertinent, is the Bible promoting racism? Well I’ll save you the suspense, the answer is no. Because while David uses the color white as the image of purity, he does not contrast it with black…he does not contrast it with anything. The rest of scripture becomes helpful at this point because Isaiah also uses white as the color of good (chapter 1 verse 18) and he does contrast it with another color…red. Come let us argue it out, says the LORD; though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. Red is the color of sin, while white is the color of purity. Of course it is worth mentioning that no one color is intrinsically good or evil, this is simply a metaphor…but the metaphor is red and white, not black and white. In fact the only time that I am aware of scripture contrasting black and white is Jesus in Matthew 5:36 and I think we could make the argument there that white is…I need to tread carefully here, because words matter…less desirable?
So what does this mean for you and me today? Should we stop using “black and white” as an expression? Duh. But perhaps the bigger question is should we replace it with “red and white”? We would certainly be more biblical in doing so! And I think even saying it sheds a much needed spotlight on the dark (notice I didn’t say “black”) corners of our history. (Light and dark are a consistent biblical metaphor for good and evil but it is not “white light” and black dark” it is simply, “light and dark.”)
The flip side of the argument I guess would be that you can’t change language easily. If you and I start saying “red and white” is that really going to change the way three hundred million people think? I don’t know, but what say we find out?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this blog and the way our language (even unwittingly) contributes to hate and racism.