Jesus - that you?

We gotta talk about it. It’s the big white elephant in the room. I grew up with it. You did too. We have to talk about the biggest, most popular icon to white supremacy, White Jesus.

White supremacy again? Don’t you ever write about anything else, Matt?

Of course, I do. But for too long white people have refused to acknowledge, let alone address, the systemic racism that millions of our fellow citizens experience every day. White supremacy provides the structural scaffolding on which our society is built. Until it changes, until white people accept its existence, we will keep talking about it.

Why do you need to worship a white man? Is there something about praying to a black or brown man that makes you uncomfortable? Why did white people need to steal and erase the most important aspect of identity: literally what a person looks like?

The Bible, weirdly enough, doesn’t get into what Jesus looked like. In Revelations, there is a description of Christ but it isn’t meant to be an accurate portrait of him as a man. So the main source for any information about Jesus offers little help. All is not lost, however, since there are still people living where Jesus once ministered. And guess what? They ain’t white!

At best, Jesus was a brown man, with the complexion of an Arab. Most likely, however, was that he had black curly hair and dark skin. He almost certainly did not have blue eyes. This is probably what he looked like, based on forensic anthropology.

Not quite what you picture when you think of the Big J, is it?

Why are white people so uncomfortable with the idea of changing images of Christ to reflect who he actually was and what he actually looked like?

One of the arguments I’ve heard is that the message is more important than the messenger and if altering a figurehead’s appearance makes the dogma more relatable, what harm is there in that? Well, I would wonder what Jesus would think about that. Would he be more likely to say “yeah, sure, make me white so whitey can accept my message” or “uh, no. Maybe let’s work on those racist feelings, since I am, you know, a person of color.” I would tend to think the latter but I will allow you to decide for yourself.

There has been a lot of hysteria from white people about “erasing history” and the like. It is utter nonsense to say that reframing and contextualizing icons from history fundamentally changes our ability to understand them. If anything, it only adds to our shared history and understanding of the moments they represent. So why not give the most famous person of color his due? What kind of country could we have had if Jesus had been depicted as a black man? The KKK would probably have to find a new religion. I wonder if all these white nationalists (nazis) realize who they pray to. Of course, they could simply choose to ignore it. Plenty of religious folks who do.

What about Black Santa? He was based on a real-life person and he wasn’t black. By the logic above, shouldn’t we have to get rid of Black Santa? Well, the thing is, we all pretty much accept that Santa isn’t real. He’s fiction. Yes, there was some truth behind his story but by and large, when you think of Santa, you think of flying reindeer, the North Pole, and red suits. None of that is real. Which means…

Oh, hey look. Another elephant right behind this one.

Now, if you want to take the stance that Jesus is fictional and therefore has no proper identity to steal from, that’s one way to go. I don’t think most Christians, especially white American Christians, would cotton that idea much. For whatever reason, Christianity has evolved from being a collection of stories and laws to guide your life to being something that must be taken literally. There was literally a boat big enough to save every species of animal. There was literally a woman impregnated by an angel. A human being literally came back to life. I could go on. And when this happened, Jesus and his stolen iconography went along with it.

I am curious how a white Christian reconciles this seemingly impossible situation. On one hand, if Jesus was a real person, why did we have to change his appearance to look more like us? And if we know we’ve done that, why do we repel at the notion of fixing this grievous and heinous racial act? On the other, if it is accepted that Jesus was fictional, what does that say for the rest of it?

Not easy questions to answer and I suspect part of the reason why white people hate being confronted by their obvious need to worship a white man. It isn’t just Jesus. Look at most manger scenes. Unless it’s a specific All The Colors of the Rainbow edition, they are probably all white. Maybe a few of the kings are dark. I’ve seen those. But honestly, that only adds to the weird racism of it all.

I’m a recovering Christian, so this isn’t really my shitpile to clean up. I’m just the dude who stepped in it. White Christians need to take a long hard look at themselves and ask if they’re really OK with stealing the racial identity of their god. Then ask how mad he’ll be when you meet him.