Arrogant and Ignorant: When white Christians think they are doing the Lord’s work in Grand Rapids

On Saturday, I was volunteering with GR Rapid Response to ICE to provide some crowd safety at the Glimpse of Africa festival at the Calder Plaza. The organizer’s of this event asked GR Rapid Response to ICE to have a presence in case Immigration and Customs Enforcement showed up to intimidate and apprehend members of the African diaspora community, African refugees.

While doing crowd safety, I noticed early on that a group of about 15 young white people, likely high school or college age, had walked passed me several times. Eventually, the group planted themselves in front of the main entrance to the Calder Plaza and then put up their large anti-abortion signs, all of which read…..”Human Rights begins in the womb.”

I thought to myself, how arrogant and ignorant it was for these young white Christians to stand at the entrance of a festival that was specifically for members of the African diaspora to celebrate their culture, their heritage and to let people in West Michigan know that they too make up part of the West Michigan community.

These young white Christians could have been part of Protect Life Michigan or Grand Rapids Right to Life, but ultimately that doesn’t really matter, since they seemed utterly clueless about the lived experiences of those who had organized the Glimpse of Africa festival, those who had information booths, vendors and those who came to support them.

Why would these young white Christian anti-abortionists make it a point to hand out their propaganda to people who were already marginalized in the White Supremacist West MI Nice culture and people who are feeling increased anxiety because of the Trump Administration’s anti-immigrant policies?

Ultimately, these young white Christians are practicing and perpetuating a form of White Supremacy. Those young white Christians clearly are oblivious to what White Supremacy is. If they took the time to learn what White Supremacy is and then examine their own beliefs and behaviors, they would never be standing near the entrance of a festival organized by people who are part of the African diaspora. 

In addition, if these young white Christians were interrogating themselves around White Supremacy, they might begin to think about why people from Africa are now living in West Michigan and how US foreign policy contributes to that dynamic. A quick look at recent research and analysis tells us some of the following important points about US Foreign Policy and Africa: 

From the Quincy Institute – “Technically, the United States is not at war in Africa. But the practice and terminology of the US-led War on Terror has changed, making the US military’s involvement more difficult to trace. In the past 15 years, the US government has quietly expanded its military footprint across the African continent, engaging in “special operations” with African troops in the name of security. Since the 2007 establishment of the Africa Command (AFRICOM), the defense department’s regional combatant command for Africa, the US has adopted a military-first approach to securing its interests on the continent. This has had disastrous effects.”

From a recent article in The Guardian – “A decision by the US government to incinerate more than $9.7m (£7.3m) of contraceptives is projected to result in 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions in five African countries.”

An article from the long time Africa analysis Nick Turse – “A new Pentagon report offers the grimmest assessment yet of the results of the last 10 years of U.S. military efforts on the continent. It corroborates years of reporting on catastrophes that U.S. Africa Command has long attempted to ignore or cover up.”

Lastly, I am not simply pointing out my disgust at these young white Christians and their White Supremacist practices, I believe that as white people we need to constantly interrogate our own perpetuation of White Supremacy and refute the notion that if I am a Liberal, a Progressive or a Democrat that I am not internalizing and perpetuating White Supremacy in one form or another.