Jesus: White like You, Not like Me.

     If I were white, I would be sure of quite a few things. If I go inside of Sephora or any cosmetic store, I would be sure to find a wide variety of makeup of which I can choose one to match my complexion. If I go to the mall, I will see mannequins that look like me. I could go inside of a store and find people who are white like me on magazines. I can go to any gift shop and find greeting cards with white faces on them. Without a shadow of a doubt, I could go inside any Christian store, and find a white Jesus. If I were white, and had kids who were white, they would know for sure that Jesus is white just like them because that is what he is most commonly and incorrectly portrayed as. These unearned certainties that white people encounter on a daily basis are called white privilege (McIntosh,1988) . The collage of photos above illustrates white privilege in that every Jesus I found was white.

     I walked around FCS numerous times thoroughly looking everywhere, and I did not find a Jesus portrayed as any other color but white. The majority of the figurines (besides Mary and Joseph) in the store were portrayed as both white and black. For every white angel, there was a black angel in the "African American Art" section. (Yes, FCS had a section of heavenly black figurines separated from the white figurines!) Even the Archangel Michael had a black equivalent for the white figurine. But for the people of color, there was no Jesus of color.

     The previous paragraph brings up another issue concerning white privilege. Why is there a section labeled African American Art, but the section of white figurines is not labeled at all? If I were white, I would not have to worry about a section being titled "Caucasian Art". It is as if having white biblical figurines go without saying, and there is no need to label that section. This reinforces white as being the norm and everything else is in need of being labeled to give it meaning and purpose. Once again, people who fall in neither of the "either or" categories are marginalized as well. This privilege system produces dominance, exclusion, and discrimination based on race (McIntosh, 1988).