ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν ἡ πάλη πρὸς αἷμα καὶ σάρκα, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὰς ἀρχάς, πρὸς τὰς ἐξουσίας, πρὸς τοὺς κοσμοκράτορας τοῦ σκότους τούτου, πρὸς τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις.
…I just do. It’s in my bones. Literally. People hear the phrase “structural racism” and some people react like, “I can’t see it so it doesn’t exist.”
But there are lots of things you can’t see. Some of them are totally visible. You can’t see them because they’re too obvious. The task of a humanities scholar is to look at the obvious stuff. The deep-seeming stuff might often be a product of misdirection. Aiming away from what is hiding in plain sight.
If you’re white, and wondering what structural racism is, just look in the mirror. Go on, take a look. Don’t look too hard. A glance will suffice better than peering.
My byline shocks you? Whiteness doesn’t like being outed. Demons generally don’t. They operate demonically, that is to say, as invisible hands pushing dominoes and waves of influence. It’s in the Greek word daimon (unseen influence). Structural racism? You could also say demonic racism.
It’s what Paul is getting at with “principalities and powers.” He might as well have said “structural issues.” The nouns imply substances, not people. Engrained stuff. Neural pathways. Architecture. Not people. Systems.
I know, because I am inhabiting this vessel right now. The specter is also in my head. The demon gets a fright when seen. As evidence, just try outing it with LEFT white people. Fireworks.
(Paul means systems not people. People are (patriarchal symptom incoming) masculine nouns. A lot of Greek nouns can be masculine, feminine or neuter. The feminine noun versions are not to do with people. They have to do with substantial, structural, systemic STUFF…
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