We were told we couldn’t be good on our own but God could make us good if we just accepted Jesus. Being perceived as not good meant we didn’t have Jesus and we’d lose our belonging to God and each other. So we learned to appear good at all costs.
(1)

This is but one way in which Christianity was used to uphold white supremacy. White supremacy culture says the standards of whiteness are good and we can’t be good on our own (especially if we are POC) but our allegiance to whiteness makes us good. (2)

And we all learned the appearance of goodness is the goal, whether it be through allegiance to religion or allegiance to the the standards of whiteness -which often intersect-. But like whiteness and religion, the appearance of goodness is meaningless and harmful. (3)

Good is not the goal, healthy is. And healthy people don’t care about appearing good for others because their belonging doesn’t hinge on external acceptability. Their belonging is to themselves. (4)

What is our response when we do harm? Do we do the healthy thing? Do we acknowledge what we did? Do we learn from it? Do we do whatever we can to repair damage? Do we admit biases we may have encountered? Or do we rush to defend ourselves to appear good? It’s important to know.