Lecrae Responds to Backlash Over Pastor’s ‘Blessing of Slavery’ Comments
Written by SOURCE on June 16, 2020
Lecrae wants to make one thing very clear: He did not condone a white pastor’s recent comment about the “blessing of slavery.”
The Christian rapper received backlash this week after an on-camera conversation with Chic-Fil-A CEO Dan Cathy and Atlanta megachurch pastor Louie Giglio. During their sit-down, Giglio shared his thoughts on white privilege and how we should rebrand the term to avoid triggering white guilt.
“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,” Giglio said. “And so a lot of people call this ‘white privilege’ and when you say those two words it’s like a fuse goes off for a lot of white people because they don’t want somebody telling them to check their privilege.”
He then continued his argument by speaking directly to Lecrae: “I know that you and I both have struggled in these days with ‘hey if the phrase is the trip up, let’s get over the phrase and let’s get down to the heart, let’s get down to what then do you want to call it,’ and I think maybe a great thing for me is to call it ‘white blessing’. That I’m living in the blessing of the curse that happened generationally that allowed me to grow up in Atlanta.”
Though Lecrae made an effort to shed some light on the Black experience—pointing to the discrimination he’s endured since childhood—many people criticized him for failing to call out Giglio’s offensive comments.
Lecrae responded to the criticism on social media Tuesday, insisting he was not OK with Giglio’s remarks and had a separate conversation with the pastor to express his disapproval.
“First of all, I want you to know I wasn’t OK with it. Even as I sat there, I was very uncomfortable and I was processing on, like, ‘Oh man, how do I — what do I say in light of this?’ It’s been a lot of times where as I’ve navigated white supremacy or racial injustice where I been trying to figure out where I wanted to lash out, honestly, in anger,” he said. “… I ended up having a conversation with him subsequently. You know, right after we talked and then I talked to again last night and let him know my views and my perspectives. Obviously, I wasn’t OK with it. And we can’t just be virtual signaling and just doing this because it’s the ‘in’ thing to do to talk about race on platforms. And I didn’t have any ulterior motives, other than to help and articulate some of what’s going on in our world …”
Hear Lecrae’s full response below.
