Singer Jamie Grace slams racism in church, shares what a pastor said about her skin color
Popular Christian singer and YouTube star Jamie Grace has been very vocal about her various encounters with racism while Americans across the nation protest racial injustice. Most recently, she shared her experiences of racism in the church.
“If I had known Jamie Grace was black, I definitely would not have brought her here…” she wrote on social media, revealing that a “white pastor” said this to someone from her team while they were setting up Grace’s photo banner in the lobby of the church.
Grace is one of the few black singers who has had success in Christian contemporary music, whose audiences are predominantly white. She said after a few weeks of posting about racism, it has come to her attention that many of her supporters and friends did not realize racism still existed.
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“The quote above represents one of many personal experiences. Sadly, racism is very much thriving in many Christian communities. My question to YOU is, what will you do about it? How will you search your heart to make sure it is clear of discrimination and bias?” she asked.
“And if you have checked, and it’s clear, how will hold your community accountable? How will you actively raise anti-racist children? How will you uplift the voices of black men and women beyond a retweet or post on social media?” she continued.
Grace encouraged her followers not to respond on social media but rather to actually put their words into action.
“Unsure of where to start? If you have the day off of work today, watch ‘When They See Us’ on Netflix. If you have a few hours or even minutes, check the ‘Live About It’ or ‘Anti-Racism’ highlights on my Instagram,” she instructed.
“If you had the time to read all of this, but are unable to take at least 3 minutes to see or save the resources listed, please consider unfollowing me. I do not share this story to cause shock and awe followed by lack of action. Thank you so much for understanding.”
Earlier in the month, Grace kindly confronted Grammy Award-winning Christian singer Lauren Daigle about her reaction to the murder of George Floyd.
Grace responded to Daigle and asked her to consider taking her comments and support for black people even further. Daigle broke her silence about the death of Floyd with a 53-minute response after being questioned about it by some of her friends.
“Thank you for posting this, Lauren. I know we haven’t talked in a while but I hope you know that I support you and know that your voice is beautifully influential. I know that you said this is difficult to process and you didn’t watch the video in its entirety as you don’t want this to feel normal, but might I ask, whether you watch it or not - please don’t withhold from feeling it ALL. Allow yourself to feel it all. As black people, this IS normal to us. And we don’t have the privilege of to not acknowledge the normalcy,” Grace told Daigle in the comment section of her video.
“This is not a killing movie or violent video game, this is potentially my reality every time my husband goes to Chick-fil-A or the gas station. This is the conversation that our sons and brothers have as young as 8, learning to seem less ‘scary’ so they can come home from school,” she said. “This is ‘n***er’ shouted from the very churches I am booked to lead worship. And whatever our white peers need to do to feel what we feel - we need you to press into it and feel it. We want change. And I genuinely believe in my heart that you do too. But that change begins with empathy, so that the change is not FOR us, but WITH us.”
