"Dear White Peacemakers" | Grace Jackson '24

“White Peacemaker, my prayer is you’ll do this nonviolent work within yourself, first by calling yourself a Beloved and then by acknowledging your fragility.” (170) 

This semester as Perkins Fellows, we have been reading a book called Dear White Peacemakers by Osheta Moore, from which the above quote is drawn. Osheta’s book has been revolutionary for me in the way I view social justice and my faith. Osheta calls White Peacemakers to acknowledge both our Belovedness and our Brokenness as central to seeking social justice. 

My experience of social justice prior to the Perkins Fellows was generally from a secular perspective and very works- oriented. I spent a lot of energy in high school striving to educate myself on the history of racial injustice in America and develop programming to share this information with others. I know the Lord used that time in my life to grow in me a vocation and a passion for racial justice work, but I did not often pursue this work from a gospel-centered perspective. I was often filled with shame about committing microaggressions, unintentionally contributing to systems of inequality, and even just being white. I was constantly filled with anger at the White American church for their apathy (at best) in addressing systemic racism and confessing their (our) history of racism. While the Lord does at times condone anger (James 1:19), he never encourages the kind of deep judgment I held for my fellow brothers and sisters in my efforts to distance myself from white apathy, redolent of the analogy of the plank and the speck we see in Matthew 7:3-5.

Osheta’s gospel-oriented way of viewing social justice is new for me. I am still very much working through my sins of saviorism, pride, and judgment of my white brothers and sisters. I am learning and growing to view even the most heinous white supremecists as both Beloved and Broken, as I unpack and confess my own sins which Jesus equally died for. 

Osheta also gives us an example of what it looks like to confess racial sins. The idea of confessing racial sins is new to me and also very uncommon within both the church and our American culture. In a society which loves to cancel and cut away toxicity, what a witness it would be for the church to embrace an approach to social justice that is both radically just and radically merciful! In the words of Osheta: let’s “dismantle racism with both grit and grace.”  

photo: Grace (right) with Perkins Fellows Ashley Prillerman (center) and Megnot Abebe (left).