Subverting systems of power and domination

I started writing today about the economic practices of the Protestant Church, mainly taken from McLaren's book, Everything Must Change and Max Weber's, The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, but I did not get very far, because the more involved in society I am, the more I realize that our economic practices (U.S.) can not be separated from the social construction of;"White Privilege"!  Although Weber sees this "Spirit of Capitalism" coming from the Reformation and Protestants embracing the work ethic of secular society, I personally believe that that supposition alone will not have much influence in our current society, unless one identifies with whiteness in the U.S., since whites hold dominant control over the means of production.  Wow, that sounded a lot like Karl Marx, but unlike Marx, I do not believe that whites (dominant class, bourgeois) are the problem!  I believe the system of "whiteness" (bourgeoisie) is the problem.

I know many people who work hard, but are extremely poor. What a paradox, one can be a hard worker and be poor?  If those people were part of the system of whiteness, would their hard word be of greater benefit towards advancing in the workplace? Of course the definition of hard work also needs to be deeply examined within Protestant circles, so that we as Christians do not demonize another group, simply by the delineation of "hard work or lazy", as if those are the only two categories we can choose from.  As McLaren says, "Some people are actually people oriented, not task oriented," but in an ever developing technological society, how do we strive to move ahead by focusing on being relational? (My words)  I am being facetious in my question.

I have written a lot on what it means to be "white" in the U.S. and this morning as I took a minor detour by going to Noah's Bagels in South Pasadena, I suddenly understood the intricacies involved in this process of "becoming white".  Simply by going to Noah's Bagels, I feel my "white-ness" affirmed, yet I leave sensing that this privilege has drained people of their ability to be, dare I say, "Human".  The dominant characteristic of my writing stems from my belief that not everything is "alright", and by dominant culture ignoring one of the most controversial issues of our day is not, dare I say, "Christian".  Our assumption of privileges in the Christian community is a direct result of social programs in this country which have been specifically created to benefit the people in power.  It is not a dismantling of the system which needs to take place, but a reconfiguration to include all people, not just some people.

I should do an anthropological study of people who frequent Noah's Bagels, it would be very interesting to understand there are cultural distinctions which are unique to white culture. Noah's Bagels in South Pasadena on a Saturday or Sunday morning is in my opinion, "a bastion of elite-ness".  "What draws me to go to this Noah's Bagels"?  I must say that something inside me wants to identify with people who hold influence and power and it is comfortable.  So, could you say I am a hypocrite?  Depending on what one considers a hypocrite.  A hypocrite is a person who "plays a part, simply to have people acknowledge that they are something more than it appears."  I fit that category sometimes, other times I do not. Once again, simplification of a complex world, NEVER works.  This is a time that I will use an absolute.

People go to Noah's Bagels with their families, but interact very little with each other, but the question must be asked, "Why not make an egg sandwich at home?"  It would be much less expensive.  Expense, is of course not the reason for going to Noah's Bagels.  Community is the reason people go, yet very little interaction with others actually takes place, yet humans still have an innate desire to be around other people, even if they will not talk to those people, or acknowledge another's existence.

I know many who believe that having "White Privilege" can be a catalyst for change and their dominant issue is not, "having power as the problem, but what we (whites) do with this power that matters."  I might believe that the underlying premise of such a statement, spoken by a Fuller student in a class with Dr. Love Sechrest called, Race and Identity in Paul, is a dangerous configuration of many different paradigms. I wonder if people understood that this same idea was also prevalent during slavery, where the cross was not something which demonstrates the evil in humanity, but it became a symbol of power placed upon the backs of those deemed "evil". If not for the mere fact that I know my own tendencies toward power and I know how "all consuming power can be," I would probably not be were I am today.  The underlying issues of power in a police department were some of the reasons that I left. Power has a way, as does violence of remaking the one participating in its system into its very image. This is why being "white", of course is not the problem currently in our society, since these sociological constructions are as real as our sexes, meaning I can not change them, but yet "white-ness" is something which derives out of a system, in which I can choose to NOT participate.

Walter Wink has written about the issues of personal and systemic power in three different books entitled, Naming the Powers, Unmasking the Powers, and The Powers that Be.

Although it is not a new phenomenon that those who have identified with "white-ness" in the U.S. have been part of a dominant majority; this majority have aligned themselves with a power system which has slowly subverted their allegiance.  I am speaking of the allegiance the Christian majority, since they are the ones who "run" the churches in the U.S.  I guarantee that when most pastor's started they were concerned about power, but the structure and design of churches have allowed pastor's to gravitate towards holding the dominate ideology over the subjects. Therefore, if we understood the power system which underlay the identity forming supposition of this "white-ness" in the U.S., we might not so closely align ourselves with this dominant structure.  We desire as Christians to be followers of Christ and although the argument has been made for centuries about how Christ and Culture intersect, rarely are systems of power the basis of the discussion, but it is my firm believe that Jesus clearly understood "power systems" and spoke about them frequently.