Texas pastor Joel Webbon isn’t just preaching ignorance—he’s reviving an old, deadly script that has always justified violence against Black people. In a viral clip from his Right Response Ministries podcast, Webbon urged white Christian parents to give their children “the talk”—not the conversation Black families have about surviving encounters with police, but a talk steeped in racist fear-mongering. He told his followers that Black strangers are “30 times more dangerous” than white ones, claiming white parents who don’t teach this are “depriving their children of factual, truthful information that could save their life.”

It’s chilling to hear a pastor frame blatant racism as a moral responsibility. Webbon’s comments aren’t just offensive—they’re a reminder of how propaganda cloaked in religious language has always been used to uphold white supremacy. And this isn’t happening in a vacuum. His comments went viral because they tap into an old American lie: the myth of the dangerous Black person, a stereotype that has justified segregation, over-policing, mass incarceration, and violence for centuries.

Webbon justifies his fear campaign with cherry-picked statistics, citing an uncited claim that white people are “31 times more likely” to be victimized by a Black person than the reverse. Even his reference to 2019 FBI data—which showed 566 Black-on-white murders compared to 246 white-on-Black murders—ignores context. When you account for population size, systemic inequities, and law enforcement’s long history of racial bias in charging and reporting, those numbers tell a very different story.

Crime statistics reflect structural inequity, not innate danger. Neighborhoods that have been redlined, economically neglected, and over-policed for decades tend to have higher crime rates—regardless of race. Black Americans are more likely to live in these neighborhoods because of discriminatory policies, not because of some genetic predisposition toward violence. Meanwhile, white Americans, who make up the majority population, are overwhelmingly responsible for most violent crimes, including mass shootings and domestic terrorism.

Yet somehow, men like Webbon spin these numbers to reinforce the idea that Black people are inherently threatening. It’s the same rhetoric that made “super-predator” myths popular in the 1990s and that fueled racist policing strategies like stop-and-frisk. This “danger” narrative has always been weaponized to justify surveillance, profiling, and the use of deadly force against Black bodies.

It’s particularly disgusting that Webbon refers to his racist lesson as “the talk,” a term that Black families have used for generations to describe the life-or-death conversation parents have with their children about surviving in a racist society. Black parents teach their kids to keep their hands visible during traffic stops, to avoid sudden movements, to de-escalate interactions with authority figures, and to navigate a world that sees them as a threat before they even open their mouths.

This isn’t paranoia; it’s survival. From Emmett Till to Tamir Rice, countless Black children have been killed because white fear turned deadly. And that fear has often been fueled by rhetoric like Webbon’s. He frames his words as protection, but all they do is perpetuate the cycle of suspicion and danger Black Americans already live with every day.

What makes Webbon’s comments even more dangerous is their platform. As a pastor, he’s using religion to legitimize racism. Historically, white supremacists have always leaned on Christianity to justify their views—slaveholders once used scripture to defend slavery, Jim Crow supporters claimed segregation was “God’s will,” and white evangelical churches have long been complicit in perpetuating racial inequality.

When pastors like Webbon preach this kind of message, they aren’t just sharing an opinion; they’re shaping entire communities. His audience is primed to see his words as spiritual wisdom, not bigotry. That influence is dangerous because it doesn’t just reinforce bias—it sanctifies it. It tells white Christians that fear of Black people is not just acceptable but moral.

History shows us where this kind of rhetoric leads. Every generation has had its scapegoats, and every generation has seen blood spilled because of racist fearmongering. White mobs lynched Black men for “looking at” white women. Segregationists insisted Black people were “inherently criminal” to justify apartheid laws. Today, we see the echoes of this narrative in the way police officers approach Black men and women, in the way juries excuse vigilante killings, and in the way Black victims are often blamed for their own deaths.

This isn’t theoretical. Webbon’s comments come at a time when hate crimes are rising, white supremacist groups are recruiting more openly, and far-right rhetoric is seeping deeper into mainstream discourse. His message isn’t a fringe take from a backwoods preacher; it’s part of a broader movement to normalize racial hostility.

Webbon’s comments are racist propaganda—plain and simple. They’re not about protecting white children; they’re about reinforcing racial hierarchies. They’re about teaching white kids that Black people are inherently dangerous, ensuring those kids grow into adults who fear, distrust, and potentially harm their Black peers.

The tragedy is that this narrative hurts everyone. White kids who grow up fearing Black people miss out on relationships, empathy, and truth. Black kids who grow up in a world that sees them as threats are left navigating trauma and danger they didn’t create. And all of this is fueled by leaders who claim to follow a God of love but preach hatred in His name.

We don’t need more pastors giving “the talk” to teach white kids to fear Black people. We need faith leaders to have a different talk altogether—a talk about America’s history of racism, about how systems of oppression shape the numbers Webbon weaponizes, about empathy, justice, and truth. We need adults to stop lying to children, not by telling them racism doesn’t exist, but by telling them exactly how deeply it does.

Black families have always had “the talk” because they had to. White families now face a choice: do they want to raise their kids in fear, perpetuating a legacy of ignorance and violence, or do they want to raise them to be better than this?

Joel Webbon has made his choice clear. It’s up to the rest of us to reject his message and fight for a world where safety doesn’t come at the expense of someone else’s humanity.