A Christian Response to Systemic Racism, Part One

Racism is evil.

     On one hand, I am shocked I have to say that in twenty-first century America. On the other, when you look at human or even Christian history, it is a truth that humans refuse to learn. The first conflict in the early church was about race. Jewish Christians were divided into two groups—Hellenistic Jews who lived a more liberal lifestyle, spoke mostly Greek, and generally lived outside of geographic Judea, and Hebraic Jews who followed the Torah more strictly, spoke Aramaic, and were born and raised in the Jewish homeland. In Acts 6, these native-born, native-language speaking, law-following Jews were leaving their Hellenistic sisters out of the church’s food relief program. The apostles had to intervene and appoint the first deacons to sort out the mess.

          Racism liters all United States’ history. For every William Penn who founded Pennsylvania with the desire to live in harmony with the First Nations people there, there were dozens of settlers who just wanted their land. Slavery came to the Untied States at Jamestown within a few decades of its founding and spread like a cancer across the southern states and territories. In the north, they were less comfortable with the idea of owning another human being but would never want their children to go to school with, serve in the same regiment with, or marry a person of color. When we look where we were then to where we are now, it is easy to pat ourselves on the backs for a job well done. But America’s sad history with racism is far from over. Just last month, the director of the FBI identified white supremacists as the deadliest domestic terrorist group and an August FBI report identified these racism groups as “the most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland.”

          The threat of violence by these groups and people who share their ideology against black Americans is allowed to continue through a system that enables racial divides, gives special privileges to white Americans, and adds barriers to the success of Americans of color. This is systemic racism. Systemic racism is a sociological fact, not a matter of opinion. Yet, to clarify it, let us look at some examples.

          Leo-Cedarville in Allen County Indiana is the state’s richest zip code. Less than 3% of its adult population did not graduate high school; 75% of its household have two parents in the home; most residents own their own homes; and its high school has a student-teacher ratio of 17.9. Its poverty level is 0.7%. It is 96.9% white.

Eleven miles away is Indiana’s poorest zip code in Fort Wayne (46803), where more than half of people live below the poverty line. Less than a quarter of these households have two parents living there; only 35% of residents own the homes they are living in; and more than 30% of residents did not finish high school. 46803 does not have its own high school but funnels into Northside where is there is a 23 to 1 student teacher ratio. 46803 is more than 60% non-white and more than 45% black.

Any comparison between the two zip codes reveals that the majority black kids born into 46803 have a harder time of it than the nearly all white kids of Leo. They have less stable home lives, have less educated parents to help them with their homework, are surrounded by poverty, and at school are receiving a poorer education. This is not a situation that these kids can just “pull themselves out of” by hard work and a can-do attitude. The system is set up against them.

And this case study is representative of reality across the board. White Americans and black Americans use marijuana in roughly the same rates, yet black Americans are almost 10x more likely to be arrested for it than white Americans even in the same city.  Black Americans make an average of 15% less than white Americans for working the exact same job. What is worse is that this gap increases as black Americans moved up the economic and educational ladder. Black Americans cannot just work hard and learn their way out of it.

But does that mean white Americans are responsible for this problem or is it just bad luck? Let us look at another example: children born out of wedlock. Nearly 30% of white children are born out of wedlock in the United States, which seems like a staggering number until you realize that nearly 70% of black children are born out of wedlock! Statistically, children born out of wedlock suffer more than those born to a married couple--- they are less likely to have two parents involved in their lives, they experience poverty at a higher rate, they experience abuse and unstable homes at a higher rate, etc. So how did the black community in America develop such familiarity with it? Slavery. Slaves marriages had no legal status in the United States. In the eyes of the law, the owners, and most churches, slaves were not married, no matter how much two people loved each other. Additionally, one or both members of the couple could be sold at anytime and the female member of the couple (and sometimes the male) could be used by the owner for his own sexual pleasure—legally and with many churches in the south turning a blind eye. After a hundred plus years of this, it is reasonable that black culture in America would not consider marriage between parents a priority. Children born out of wedlock is a self-propagating system, meaning that a child born out of wedlock is likely to repeat the cycle in their own lives. So, one hundred and fifty years later, the black community is still dealing with an epidemic of fatherless homes because white Americans refused to acknowledge the sanctity of their marriages.

    In James, the author describes a situation with one Christian brother comes to another hungry and cold, and the better off Christian says to his brother, “Go in peace, keep warm and well fed.” That is a kind sentiment, right? The kind of thing you expect a Christian to wish for another? James did not think so; he lampooned that Christian asking, “what good is that?!” (Jm 2:14-17).  What good is it to see you brother or sister suffering or unjustly treated and send them “thoughts and prayers” that all will magically get better. Systemic racism is not a problem that white Americans can look at and say, “I hope it works out” or “I’m glad I’m not part of that.” These are problems that require systemic change in cultural expectation, laws, educational opportunities, school boards, and personal interaction--- to name a few. Before their first game this year, Indianapolis Colts coach Frank Riech stepped forward and took a knee. He stepped forward because combating systemic racism “requires white leaders stepping forward to bring about real change to eliminate discrimination and equal the playing field in all areas,” and he knelt in a position of humility “to acknowledge the injustice and inequality that is present, and to find the courage and resolve to make the changes needed.” Whatever you think of the timing of his actions, I think James would approve of the heart of it.

Sources                 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/06/04/the-blackwhite-marijuana-arrest-gap-in-nine-charts/

https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2019/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/us/politics/fbi-russia.html

https://www.ceousa.org/issues/1354-percentage-of-births-to-unmarried-women

https://www.unitedstateszipcodes.org/46803/

https://www.unitedstateszipcodes.org/46765/

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nfl/colts/2020/09/13/nfl-week-1-colts-wear-black-lives-matter-t-shirts-pregame/5744102002/