There's need for balance in the race relations conversation

The state of racial discourse in the U.S. seems to be “America is fundamentally racist to the core” on one side and “Systemic racism doesn’t exist anymore and racial issues are overblown” on the other. 

The former exists predominantly on the left, the latter predominantly on the right. I’ll be the first to confess that I’ve held both views before at some point in my life before realizing how each camp has a point and gets things wrong. 

As an Asian man, there is also a sort of an “intramural” debate within the broader Asian American community, with conservatives tending to emphasize the fact that they or their parents came from old-world countries where there was nowhere near the opportunity to flourish, and how they are eternally grateful for their new home – the United States. Liberals, by contrast, tend to emphasize America’s long history of overt white supremacy, where no small amount of racist legislation was aimed explicitly at keeping Asian Americans down or out of the country. 

Conservatives also emphasize Asian and African immigrant success as proof that white supremacy and its legacy is no longer the serious issue in America that it once was.  Meanwhile, liberals emphasize that Asian Americans have a very different history in this country than African Americans. Conflating the two groups is wrong, they maintain, because it downplays the effects of centuries of state-sanctioned anti-black racism that African Americans continue to experience.

I could go on, but the point is that the narrative surrounding race is so polarized between left and right that some feel compelled to pick one narrative over the other.

Yet what if two things are true at once and we can walk and chew gum at the same time?

I know I’m going to be accused by people on both sides of being a “third-way squish” (or something like that), but I believe the truth is more nuanced than either narrative. While the long shadow of 350 years of overt systemic racism still hovers over us in many ways, America is indeed a place where anyone of any race can work hard and find success.

For example, redlining went on for many decades in United States history, and not just in the South.  As a result, many neighborhoods remain segregated today with many black people suffering from lower access to resources and quality education due to that legacy.  Even though redlining is no longer legal, the length of time it was allowed still factors into why many black people in certain contexts deal with the disadvantages through no fault of their own.

Another example is the GI Bill. After World War II, white veterans were given tremendous education benefits and were able to accrue generational wealth and property to pass down to their descendants.  However, state governments cheated black veterans out of their benefits, which is why they haven’t been able to pass down generational wealth like their white counterparts. As a result, many descendants of white WWII vets were able to gain access to education and resources to build the predominantly white suburbs we see outside of cities in a way that black descendants of WWII vets could not, which left them in segregated areas they were already confined to, which compounds the already existing effects of the legacy of redlining. 

In both of these scenarios, policies today are completely racially neutral and have no racist intent like the policies of times past, though the suffering from previous years lingers. As Christians, it behooves us to be mindful of these structural issues and their long-term effects and take them seriously instead of merely dismissing African Americans as not working hard enough to improve their lot in life.

Compelling evidence exists of overt discrimination in many areas today, from relatively egregious situations like hiring discrimination, non-lethal police force, and in the criminal justice system, to less egregious situations like dating (which is not racist per se but is still racial bias). Instead of being dismissive like Job’s friends were (Job 4-25), we should weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15) and help racial minorities create a more just society that upholds racial equality.

On the other hand, overall racial progress has indeed improved and conditions are much better than they were in the past.  Minorities should be grateful for this and seize the opportunities available to them to better their lives and those of their families.

Back in the day, discrimination was overt, and black people were explicitly denied access to property and education that whites had access to. There are no “off-limits” neighborhoods for black people anymore. Black people can go to school, attend college, and have access to resources to generate wealth that previous generations could only dream of having. There is a reason that people of all races around the world try so hard to come to America — it’s because they rightly view America as the land of opportunity and flourishing. The reality that Asian households have median incomes higher than that of white households and the fact that African immigrants tend to be some of the most successful Americans prove that, unlike in decades past, minority Americans are not hopelessly crushed under the heel of white supremacy anymore.

These examples are not exhaustive, and much more could be said on both sides, but the bottom line is, that when it comes to racial discourse in America, we need much more thoughtfulness and nuance. It is too easy to dismiss or downplay realities that don’t fit our preferred narrative, whether it be the right-wing narrative of racism barely existing anymore, or the left-wing narrative of racism being almost everywhere. Nuanced voices of this sort include Dr. Jarvis Williams of Southern Seminary, who thoughtfully explained these dynamics in a sermon he gave at his church in 2020, and Christian sociologist Dr. George Yancey, author of the 2022 book Beyond Racial Division.

Yes, systemic racism is real and is the cause of many racial disparities in America today. And yes, white privilege is real in that there are still some contexts in which being white will give you an advantage. But it’s not the full story. 

There are also situations where being white gives no advantage whatsoever (and may even be a liability in some cases), and not all disparities are caused by racism. Assuming that they are is dangerous and unhelpful. 

If Christians want to be productive in the race conversation, we must wrap our heads around the complexity of all of these truths, each of which has merit and is held in tension with each other, and then act accordingly.