WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR? WHAT IS RACE

Follow up from 10/21/20 Who Is My Neighbor Session 2: “What Is Race”

The main idea from session 1 was that “God made us different on purpose.” But in session 2 we read Galatians 3:23-29 where Paul tells us that in Christ there is no longer “Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female.” So wait. God made us different but now we’re the same?!? Not so fast!  

While growing into a Christian faith community, the Galatians were struggling with something we still struggle with today: taking the gifts of our differences and turning them into ways to divide (who is in or out, more highly valued or less, and worthy of God’s love or not). So… we are indeed different but Jesus breaks down all the ways we divide ourselves, loves us equally, and calls us to love ourselves and neighbors equally as well!  

Like the Galatians we try to divide ourselves by race or ethnicity, socioeconomic class, and gender. But what is race? Reflect: who taught you about race as a child and what did they teach you? Who taught you about race as an adult and what have you learned? Were we taught a lie? 

Watch this video on “Race, the Power of an Illusion”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyuKJAG11Cw  

So if race is not: based on genetics, defined by color or other physical attributes, the same thing as culture, the same as ethnicity, the same as religious identity… what is race and how did we get here?[1] 

How we got here (a brief history lesson followed)—Dividing by skin color became more popular during the 15th century European conquests. In the 16th and 17th centuries natural sciences grew and created systems to identify and classify everything (Latin names for plants and animals) including humans. Bernier (French), Linnaeus (Swedish), and Blumenbach (German) were noted for creating four categories and placing “Caucasoid” as superior. Anyone else see a problem with European scientists deciding white people are superior? Their studies (which have been debunked) were used to justify enslavement of other races and a hierarchy of white superiority in the US.  

I have an inflammatory question for you. If race wasn’t a category until the centuries of European conquest and expansion--which came first: race or racism?  

So what is race? Honestly, I still don’t really know. But I do know that it’s often an unhelpful way to classify ourselves and an unchristian way to decide which of us are better than others.  

What if it’s true that race is a cultural intervention to force specific values on different populations?[2]  What would our community look like if we stopped believing a lie and started treating each other as beloved children of God? And what unique message does Christianity have for the world today with regard to diversity?  

God’s peace to you as we continue to learn and grow together,

PB

P.S. If we didn’t divide ourselves by race, is it possible we would find some other way to divide ourselves and decide who’s better? I commend Jane Elliot’s classroom experiments to you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGvoXeXCoUY

[1] Barndt, Joseph. Understanding and Dismantling Racism: The Twenty-First Century Challenge to White America. Fotress Press, 2008.

[2] Definition of “race,” https://www.britannica.com/topic/race-human.