The book of Exodus includes a story about reparations for slavery

Christian interpreters of the Bible usually see themselves as God’s chosen people. We relate to people like Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Rachel. When reading a book like Exodus, we naturally think of ourselves as the Israelites rather than the Egyptians. Since childhood, most of us have been taught to read the Bible this way. It allows us to feel like we’re on the right side of history. We prefer not to identify with the bad guys.

In an essay called “Why I Stopped Talking about Racial Reconciliation and Started Talking about White Supremacy,” Korean American writer Erna Kim Hackett characterizes such interpretive practices as “Disney princess theology.” In a quote from the essay that went viral in 2020, she points out why it’s so problematic that White Christians see themselves as the princess in every story:

For the citizens of the most powerful country in the world, who enslaved both Native and Black people, to see itself as Israel and not Egypt when studying Scripture is a perfect example of Disney princess theology. And it means that as people in power, they have no lens for locating themselves rightly in Scripture or society—and it has made them blind and utterly ill-equipped to engage issues of power and injustice.