Racism in America
Last week, I recorded a new episode of "Ask a Creationist," and I dealt with the question, "Is evolution racist?" I reviewed the history of racism both in evolutionary thinking but also in creationist thinking. On the creationist side, I looked at some nineteenth century American slavery apologetics that were written from a creationist perspective. I intended to remind viewers that evolutionists do not have a monopoly on racism, and I also wanted to affirm that most of today's creationists and evolutionists are not guilty of the overt, outrageous racism of the past. At least that's what I was going for, but as you know, modern racism is a touchy subject that invites strong reactions.
First of all, here's the video, in case you missed it.
We got some strong and angry reactions to this video, but I'll just leave that aside. I'm sad that people would be angry about the truth, but I think a lot of that anger comes from things they think I say or advocate that I actually do not.
First question comes from a long-time viewer who was very grateful for the video but (sort of) faulted me for a "false equivalence:"
But where I think the false equivalence comes into play is that Christianity actually provides the framework we need to even say that racism is wrong in the first place. Christianity (and by extension creationism) gives us the foundation to say that all men are created equal, that they are made in the image of God, that the creator has made us all of "one blood", that prejudice and injustice and inequity are sins and deserving of judgement. Evolution (at least naturalistic evolution) doesn't provide anything like that foundation. Evolutionists who espouse universal human dignity are certainly correct, but they don't have a coherent reason for being correct.
Well, that's an interesting perspective. At the same time, I find myself returning to the point of the video: Regardless of the intrinsic advantages of anyone's philosophy, there's something intrinsically wrong with us that drives us to twist and distort what we say we believe to serve what we want to be true. I will say that I certainly never meant to imply that evolution was somehow equivalent to creationism.
On Facebook, I was asked how evolution could not be racist if species evolve by one part (or "race") of a species having an advantage over another. Even if evolutionists aren't racist today, doesn't it teach the advancement of evolution by a kind of "racial conflict?" I think this gets to the problem of our cultural conception of "race," which is determined by very little of biological relevance. Modern examples of evolution supposedly happening in human populations (e.g., heterozygous advantage in sickle cell anemia) have very little to do with what we perceive as race.
Another viewer asked a complicated pair of questions:
First off, I was raised to love America. Not to worship it, but to be thankful that I live here. After reading some things over the past few weeks, I’m not so sure how I should feel about that. I’ve seen where Columbus was a genocidal maniac and many of our founding fathers were racist. It seems like in many ways our country was born and thrived on the back of racism. Should we then discount all the other good things about our past history? Also, I was born and raised in a small town in Alabama and I still live here. I love it here. I love everything about where I live. The people are some of the nicest you will ever meet. However, my state is definitely known for racism being prevalent. How should I feel about the history of the state?
I can't tell you how to feel, and honestly, I'm not sure I can navigate all of this conflicting emotion either. Perhaps we should still love the good things of our past and our communities, while we also wish those good things could be shared by anyone and everyone. I think also about the history of the Church, where Jesus calls us to a path that we rarely live up to. It doesn't make Jesus or his way bad. It just means we still have work to do.
Another viewer asked this:
I listened to the monologue on Racism, and you seemed to at least imply that racism is a activity and mindset exclusively carried out by white people. Is that your belief and can you justify it?
No, that's not remotely correct. As I said in the video, I wanted to focus on my own culture to address racism as it affects us here and now. Of course racism exists in other contexts and other cultures. Yes, there are modern slavers, and yes, there is much racial and ethnic tension all over the world. But focusing on the problem outside my front door never means there are no other problems.
Maybe I live in a little bubble but most people that I know are white because of where I live and how I grew up, but I could not care less what color your skin is and most, if not all, my friends/family are the same. But in today’s west my white skin automatically accrues a history to which I and most in this generation have not had any hand in directing, perpetuating, and certainly not originating. I am expected to “beg God for forgiveness” for my skin color?
OK, now I'm getting into an area that I'm not remotely qualified to address, but I'll say what I can. Like you, I grew up in a mostly white world as well. My family are Yankees through and through. We were never slave owners (as far as I've researched), and my g-g-g-g-g-g uncle died fighting for the Union in the Civil War. My g-g-g-g-g grandfather and his family shared their home with a freed slave after the war. We were the "good guys," if there were such a thing.
But... None of that changes the culture we have here in the United States. Most of us today are NOT guilty of kidnapping Africans for slaves, or selling slaves, or lynching, or segregation, but we still live in a culture that was shaped by those influences. There are still people alive today who remember segregation and the end of segregation in the south. Here's another horrifying thought: The last recorded lynching of a black man by KKK members happened in 1981 in Mobile, AL (read all about it). That's my lifetime. These aren't distant memories. Black people in America had to grow up with this trauma, while white people did not.
Today, I see a black community that clearly and repeatedly communicates their ongoing pain at their treatment in society, and they ask us to listen. Here are some voices I've tried to listen to (and these are not endorsements of their political/religious/social views, so don't even start with me):
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. This book is ostensibly about the revolution in molecular biology made possible by HeLa cells, but it surprised me at how much it also communicated what life was like for this family.
Here's an interview with attorney Bryan Stevenson from Fresh Air on NPR. I happened to be driving through Alabama the first time I heard this. It was deeply troubling.
Here's Neil DeGrasse Tyson's essay "Reflections on the Color of my Skin."
Here's an essay from Master's University graduate Barry Moore "What can my white friends do?"
So no, I don't bear any guilt for creating the world I inhabit, but I do bear responsibility for perpetuating it. Jesus cared very much about the downtrodden in his culture. He blasted the scribes and lawyers for creating burdens no one could bear and not lifting a finger to help. I don't know much about public policies or what remedies we should pursue, but I at least can see that things can't keep going like this. And I can magnify voices pleading for help. Maybe someone cleverer than I am will discern a way forward.
Thanks for reading.
Have you read my book? You should check that out too!
