Ask Me Anything: “What Is Racism?”

As I’ve written about some here on the blog (and quite a bit on my Facebook page), it’s time we as the church understand the history of racism in America past and present and address any complicity we’ve had toward it in our own lives and institutions.

In writing about this, people have frequently asked me the question, “What is racism” or “how do you define racism?” In this article, I’m going to respond to this question as well as a number of other related questions readers have asked over the last few months as it concerns the racial conflicts of our day.

Questions #1: “What Is Racism?”

Merriam-Webster defines racism as (1) “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race,” (2) “a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles,” and (3) “racial prejudice or discrimination.”[1]

In her book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations about Race, Beverly Daniel Tatum provides a shorthand definition of racism as “a system of oppression based on race.”[2]

Jemar Tisby points out in his book, The Color of Compromise, “racism can operate through impersonal systems and not simply through the malicious words and actions of individuals. Another definition explains racism as prejudice plus power. It is not only personal bigotry toward someone of a different race that constitutes racism; rather, racism includes the imposition of bigoted ideas on groups of people.”[3]

The fact is, like any word that attempts to define a human experience that is multi-faceted, we can’t define the word well without understanding the experiences the word is attempting to define (and the history behind those experiences). We might wish for a succinct, fool-proof definition. But the fact is, this human experience is anything but succinct, and it can’t be explained in a sentence or two.

It behooves those of us, then, who have not had familial history with this experience to allow our understanding of the word racism to be (1) shaped by multiple definitions and (2) molded as we gain further insight into history and people’s first-hand experiences.

Racism is not simply pointing out the color of a person. It can be. Especially, if pointing out the color is supposed to frame the picture in a way that makes people of that color look or feel inferior to people of another race.

Racism is not simply someone being unkind and rude toward another person who happens to be of another race.

Things that are considered “racist” often have deeply embedded history behind the connotation of the specific phrase or words stated.

For instance, telling someone to go back to Africa if they don’t like America—especially, when that person has never said they don’t like America—is racist because (1) it assumes that person comes from Africa simply because they are black (or because they are critiquing racism in America), (2) it preys on the history of slavery with no acknowledgement of the gross injustice slavery was, and (3) insinuates America “belongs” to the one who said to “go back” and who often happens to be of the race of the people that enslaved Africans and forced them to do the work that built significant parts of what America is today. Why would “America” not rightfully now belong to slaves (and their descendants)?

Besides, the people group that enslaved Africans took America from the Native Americans. It doesn’t originally “belong” to them either.

Now, I’m going to insert a massive caveat here because I am still in the process of learning what racism is myself.

I am white. I do not consider myself an authority on racism.

I do not presume to speak for people of color, neither do I come at this conversation with a feeling of guilt and a drive to vindicate myself by writing about racism. I write as a white Christian to fellow white Christians (and anyone else who cares to listen in) as an appeal to consider what our brothers and sisters of color are trying to help us see.

There is a lot of study I have done. I’ve had many conversations with various people of different ethnicities. I’ve delved into both national and local history enough to know that racial tensions often have a lot of different pieces pressing into them. I’ve merely scratched the surface as someone who grew up in a family entirely untouched by these racial issues that have existed since long before my birth.

I simply write about issues of race because, first of all, I’ve personally witnessed myself benefit from white privilege, and it never sits well with me since. Secondly, back in 2016, when I first started writing articles critiquing the status quo of Anabaptist churches, someone asked if I’d prayerfully consider addressing racism in the church. This led me to investigate it more and I discovered even conservative Anabaptist churches have been complicit to racism. Ironically, some of the same people who loved me critiquing the status quo of the Anabaptist church can’t stand when I address racism. A few of them have questioned the genuineness of my faith.

Thirdly, few white people seemed to acknowledge racism in conservative Anabaptist churches when I started in 2016, and as an author in the primarily white world of conservative Anabaptism, it seemed I could be a catalyst for getting the conversation going.

There are others who are addressing it now. People with firsthand experience. However, as I’ve observed the conversation get going, I’ve noticed a fourth thing that compels me to write about issues of race. That is, when black people talk about racial issues in primarily white Christian circles, they often end up getting bullied. People don’t believe them. Think they’re being emotional. Say they are playing the victim card.

I don’t continue writing about racism because I think I could somehow do a better job at convincing people of its reality than my black brothers and sisters. Rather, I continue writing because I have seen firsthand that it’s a real issue that exists—even within conservative Anabaptist churches—and I want to stand with my brothers and sister who experience it and attempt, with them, to appeal to our fellow brothers and sisters who haven’t been open to the conversation yet that we take this issue seriously.

Racism is sin, after all.

With that caveat now explained, I’m going to respond to a few other questions I commonly receive and then I’ll leave you with a resource list of things you can watch, read, or listen to in order to get a better grasp for yourself of the complex issue of racism.

Question #2: “Are we born inherently racist or is it something that we are taught?”

Racism is the result of a self-centered way of comparing ourselves with others. Comparing ourselves is self-centered, really. So, to the degree that we all are born into selfishness and sin, I suppose you could say we are born “inherently racist.”

Let me just flip it and say that to think of others and relate with them in a way that puts their interests before our own (Phil. 2) is something that happens by the renewing of our minds as God’s Spirit transforms us (Ro. 12).

We aren’t born inherently self-less, that’s for sure.

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