“What do you preach at Christmas?” Stephanie asked me, a Presbyterian minister in the United States.
"I preach about light—that with Jesus, light came into the world. That the shepherds themselves were surrounded by light."
“That’s beautiful, ” she said, “but I can’t really preach that here.”
“Why not?” I asked, surprised.
“Because light is associated with white – and darkness with black.”
I was puzzled. "That can't be true," I said. "That's just silly."
"In a world where racism is part of history and still has an impact today, that's not stupid," she replied calmly. "Don't you have racism in your own country?"
"Yes – more against migrants. In the past, also against Poles or Russian Germans."
"Well, Poles are Slavs — and that’s where the word ‘slave’ comes from slave …“
“Ooh.” I grew thoughtful.
Stephanie continued:
„It’s not that I can’t use light/dark, but that I need to make sure that dark is not always and only equated with evil/sin/bad and white is not always and only linked to good/holy/pure. When they are always used those ways, combined with the very color-based racist language in US history, we can’t help but reinforce those harmful messages – unintentionally.“
She told me about studies in the US where children are shown pictures of white and Black children — without any context.
They’re asked: “Which child is good, which is bad?”
Many point to the Black child and say, “That’s the bad one.”
Not because they were taught that directly — but because they’ve absorbed it from language, images, stories and the culture around them.
“So if I can try to reduce some of that imprinting of stereotypes in this one small way, I will.”
I slowly began to understand how nuanced and profound these statements were—and gained great respect. I realized: "We," that is, all white people in Germany, have the choice whether or not to engage with racism. We don't suffer from it.
But those who are confronted with racism or other prejudices every day — they have no choice but to engage with it, to find ways of coping.
As Debby Irving describes in her book Waking up White We often act as if it is none of our business.
There is a great deal of racism and discrimination embedded in German language and culture.
“White Vest,” “Who’s Afraid of the Boogeyman?” and for those of us who go to the movies: In Star Wars, “The Dark Side of the Force” is always evil.
The N* word, many say, is “not so bad after all”, because “N*kisses (english: Chocolate-coated marshmallow treat) are delicious, aren’t they?
People of colour also experience discrimination here – starting with comments like:
“Where did you learn to speak German so well?” “Uh, from my mother—she’s also black, by the way, and was born here.”
In church history and in symbolic systems such as yin and yang, white is considered active, masculine – black is considered passive, feminine.
Unconsciously, it is deeply rooted in our cultural history: light = good, darkness = evil.
The African-American biblical scholar and Episcopal priest Dr Wil Gafney points out that while light and darkness are often read through a racial lens today, this was not the case in Jesus’ time:
"This good news is framed in the stark language of light and dark, shadow and glory. And it is far too easy for us as Americans to hear those words through our history of race and racism. We are taught from a young age that everything light and white is good and everything dark and black is bad. Even when we are not thinking about it, it is in the back of our minds. Race is always in the room for us. But it wasn’t for John, Jesus and their world.”
It’s astonishing how deeply language shapes us.
I felt ashamed of my ignorance — especially because I see myself as progressive.
And at the same time I realised:
Light and darkness are also prejudices.
Light can be glaring or scorching.
Darkness can be shelter – and the place where we see the stars.
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