Source: Rick Diamond / Getty
is in the hot seat after his appearance with Atlanta
mega-church pastor
Louie Giglio and
Chick-fil-A CEO
Dan Cathy to discuss the topic of race relations took an awful turn.
On Sunday (Jun 14), Giglio sat down with rapper
Lecrae and Dan Cathy to have an open and honest conversation around how racism has plagued the city of Atlanta and the nation.
During the conversation, Giglio stated that instead of the phrase “white privilege,” he would rather say “white blessings” as a way to show the importance that language plays in the discussion. To get things started, Giglio opened the conversation by saying:
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“I feel like on the inside of the church we’re fighting this historical context you [Lecrae] talk about. In other words, we love the blessing of the cross but we don’t love to sit in it and realize this is what gods asking me to do, to die to myself, and live for him, whatever context that’s going to look like for me. But I want to flip that upside down because I think the other side of it is true with our nation’s history,” Giglio said. “We understand the curse that was slavery, white people do, and we say ‘that was bad,’ but we miss the blessing of slavery that it actually built up the framework for the world that white people live in and lived in.”
Visibly taken aback by the remark, Lecrae responded to the “blessings” claim with a surprisingly soft response that left many fans scratching their heads.
“It’s very real for me to wake up and look at movies or tv and not see people that look like me,” Lecrae said. “So when I hear my white brothers and sisters talk about this “blessing” of slavery, it’s because I realize that many of you feel like you’re absent of culture.”
While Lecrae’s passionate explanation wasn’t the issue, many felt that his approach was too “soft” in regards to being a response to the disrespect hurled by the Pastor’s comments.
Lecrae responded to the backlash with a detail response to the statement made by the pastor and addressing the backlash from fans.
Still, there were quite a few fans and critics that weren’t here for the conversation at all after the Giglio’s comments and called for Black folks to walk away from the faith altogether if they are unable to hold the church clergy accountable.
After facing backlash of his own, Giglio took to Twitter to clarify his comment, stating he was “not seeking to refer to slavery as a blessing—but that we are privileged because of the curse of slavery. In calling it a privilege/benefit/blessing—word choice wasn’t great. Trying to help us see society is built on the dehumanization of others. My apology, I failed.”
Check out what Black Twitter ha to say below.
