Is racism in the U.S.A. different than it is in any other part of the world? Some one can claim that "racism is racism." There is a degree of truth to that. But here I would like to focus on some of the peculiarities of racism in America. I also would like to maintain the theological perspective on this phenomenon call racism, i.e. evaluate it in the light of Scripture, tradition, experience, and the different branches of human knowledge, especially the social sciences.
What is racism? There are many definitions that could be given. Some think of racism as mere contempt for or hatred of a race other than one's own. This contempt and hatred is based on emotion and lack of objective information about other races.
Others think of racism is hatred of another race due to the cruelty and inhumanity imposed by people of one race on people of another race. In this case what we would be dealing with is what some people call "counter-racism," or "racism in reverse."
Then we have those who believe that racism is the belief in the inherent superiority of one race and the inherent superiority of the other races. Based on this belief, we then have the case of one race being the one to have control of all the institutions of society. In the U.S.A. this would be called "white supremacy."
This paper deals with the third definition of racism given above. In other words, we deal with the idea that one race is superior to others, and therefore having the right to relegate people of other races to a secondary position in society.
There are statistics that will serve as a background for this paper. The purpose of these statistics will be to demonstrate that the notion of white supremacy is not something that has been concocted by people "of color."
Young African American males were twenty-one more times likely to be killed by police than their White counterparts between 2010 and 2012, according to federal statistics. The under-recorded, under-analyzed racial disparities between female victims of lethal police force may be even greater. Federal data show that the median wealth of White households is a staggering thirteen times the median wealth of African American households- and African American people are five times more likely to be incarcerated than Whites (Ryan Gabrielson, Ryan Grochowski Jones, and Eric Sagara, "Deadly Force in Black and White," ProPublica, October 10, 2014, Rakesh Kochbar and Richard Fry, Wealth Inequality Has Widened Along Racial, Ethnic Lines Since End of Great Recession, December 12, 2014, Pew Research Center, www. pewresearch.org /fact-tank/2014/12/12 racial-wealth-gaps-great recession, Sabrina Tavernise, "Racial Disparities in Life Spans Narrow, but Persist," New York Times, July 18, 2013.
But these statistics should come as no surprise. Most Americans are probably aware of these racial disparities in police killings, in wealth, in prisons-in nearly every sector of US society. By racial disparities is meant how racial groups are not statistically represented according to their populations. If African American people make up 13.2 % of the US population, then they should make up somewhere close to 13% of the Americans killed by the police, somewhere close to 13 % of the Americans sitting in prisons, somewhere close to owning 13% of US wealth. But today, the United States remains nowhere close to racial parity. African Americans own 2.7% of the nation's wealth, and make up 40% of the incarcerated population. These are racial disparities and racial disparities are older than the life of the United States (Leah Sakla, "Breaking Down Mass Incarceration in the 2010 Census:State-by-State Incarceration Rates by Race/Ethnicity," Prison Policy Initiative, May 28, 2014, www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/rates.html, Matt Bruenig, "The Racial Wealth Gap," American Prospect , November 6, 2013.
In 2016, the United States celebrated its 240th birthday. But even before Thomas Jefferson and the other founders declared independence, Americans were engaging in a polarizing debate over racial disparities, over why the exist and persist, and over why White Americans as a group were prospering more than African Americans as a group. Historically, there have been three sides to this heated argument. A group we can call "segregationists" has blamed African American people themselves for the racial disparities. A group we can call "anti-racists" has pointed to racial discrimination. A group we can call "assimilationists" has tried to argue for both, saying that African American people and racial discrimination are to blame for racial disparities. During the ongoing debate over police killings, these three sides to the argument have been on full display. Segregationists have been blaming the recklessly criminal behavior of the African American people who were killed by police officers. According to this outlook, Michael Brown was a monstrous, threatening thief, therefore Darren Wilson had reason to fear him and to kill him. The life of this dark-skinned eighteen -year-old did not matter to Darren Wilson. Assimilationists have tried to have it both ways. Both Wilson and Brown acted like irresponsible criminals ( Ibram X. Kendi, "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America." New York: Nation Books, 2016, p. 2).
For nearly six centuries, anti-racist ideas have been pitted against two kinds of racist ideas: segregationists and assimilationist. The history of racial ideas is the history of three distinct voices and how they have each have rationalized racial disparities, arguing why Whites have remained on the living and winning end. while African Americans remained on the losing and dying end (Ibid.).
When we look back on our history, we often wonder why so many Americans did not resist slave trading, enslaving, segregating, or now, mass incarcerating. The reason is clearly speaking, racist ideas. The principal function of racist ideas in American history has been the suppression of resistance to racial discrimination and its resulting racial disparities. The beneficiaries of slavery, segregation, and mass incarceration have produced racist ides of African American people being best suited for or deserving of the confines of slavery, segregation, or the jail cell. Consumers of these racist ideas have been led to believe that there is something wrong with African American people , and not the policies that have enslaved, oppressed, and confined so many African American people (Ibid. p. 10).
Not all individuals who happen to identify as African American, Caucasian, Hispanic, or Native American are equal in all ways. The point is that there is nothing wrong with African American people as a group, or with any other racial group. There are lazy and unwise and harmful individuals of all ethnic, national, and racial ancestries. There are also industrious and wise and harmless individuals in all groups. But no racial group has ever had a monopoly on any type of human trait or gene-not now, not ever. Under our different-looking hair and skin, doctors cannot tell the difference between our bodies, our brains, or the blood that runs in our veins. All cultures, in their behavioral differences, are on the same level. African American's history of oppression has made Black opportunities-not African American people-inferior ( Ibid. p. 11).
How do we in the Christian and other faith communities respond to how racist ideas have engendered racist actions and policies? This is a very difficult question to answer because within the faith community itself, we have the existence of racism. There are people at both the leadership and congregational levels who embrace, consciously, subconsciously, and unconsciously racist ideas. As a community of faith, we are called to reevaluate our beliefs and practices in order to determine whether or not they are rooted in or promote racist ideas
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!
Rev. Dr. Juan A. Carmona
Past Professor of Theology
Tainan Theological College/Seminary
