Listen: Lead pastor of Renovation Church Leonce Crump Jr. explains why Black Lives Matter is separate from All Lives Matter
By Duncan RobinsonTuesday 2 Jun 2020Hope BreakfastNewsReading Time: 2 minutes
It is very hard to comprehend what is happening in the US. As a white, 40-year-old Australian man educated in a private school, it’s hard to understand privilege when you spend your life on the receiving end.
Four years in the States did very little to correct my understanding of privilege and systemic injustice in the US — but that all changed when I met a gentle giant and ex-professional footballer and wrestler, Leonce Crump.
Leonce is currently the lead pastor of Renovation Church in the historic precinct of Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia. He is passionate about civil rights and helped to translate the movement of Black Lives Matter in an eloquent and simple manner, to a person like me, unaware of my own privilege. Listen, above.
This might be a historic time of change within the US, as George Floyd becomes the ignition to bring about wholesale change to culture and justice. This is (and was) the hardest thing for me to understand, privilege is when you think something is not a problem because it’s not a problem to you personally. It’s why equality can feel like oppression. That feeling of discomfort is me losing a little bit of privilege for equality. I’ve never had to raise my children with an unhealthy caution around police officers.
“Privilege is when you think something is not a problem because it’s not a problem to you personally.”
It is an important reminder for us here in Australia, we are also not there yet with equality. It is the reason ‘closing the gap’ exists in Australia. Hopefully this snippet of my discussion with Leonce Crump offers some helpful insights into what the feeling is like in the USA right now and why #blacklivesmatter is so important.