Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior to others. It is discrimination or prejudice based on race.
Race, on the other hand, is defined as a group of persons connected by common descent or origin. In the broad sense, we all belong to the same race because we are all descended from earth’s first two human beings, Adam and Eve. In “Reference,” an online publication, race is described this way: “Technically, there is only one human race, as humans today are 99.9 percent genetically identical.”
If we are all the same race, why does racism even exist? Historically, things like color of one’s skin, texture of hair, different facial features like eyes or nose, divided people into subgroups based on common traits they shared as a group.
Racism is usually built on a false, and often hateful, assumption. There can be no denying that humans come with many different features. For example, there are shades of skin from near white to almost black, with many hues in between. The question we need to ask ourselves is, “What difference does it make?”
Was Martin Luther King Jr. right when he said that it was not the color of a person’s skin but the content of their character that mattered? We all know he was correct. Slavery was a reality among the Hebrews and other nationalities in the Bible. But slavery in England and America was distinctively racist — blacks were enslaved by whites. In America, slavery was eventually abolished, but segregation continued to prevail. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made segregation illegal.
Today, even though racism continues to exist, it does so in the light of what Shelby Steele, African-American senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, says is “the greatest moral evolution regarding race in the history of America.”
Victimization is something various people claim today, and it is not always a race issue as much as it is a social phenomenon. Steele says, “To be a victim is to have no faith in your capacity to direct your own life.” He points out that a victim must make someone who is in a better position feel guilty for being in that condition. Glenn Loury, an African-American economist with a PhD from MIT, says, “Black people have as much potential as anybody, but human potential must be actually realized through the process of development.”
When speaking of human development, both Steele and Loury are talking about children being raised and educated in a home where both Mom and Dad are involved in their children’s lives. Therein is the problem for blacks and whites — the decline of the traditional family. Racism may continue to be a problem, but the key to our disintegration as a country is the fragmentation of our families. No amount of political rhetoric, liberal policies or guilt motivation can solve the problem of broken families. God was, and is, the answer to healthy race relations, good homes, and strong churches.
The answer to our problems cannot primarily be found in our government or even in our schools, but in our homes. More than ever, we need a revival of the family as designed by God: a man of God and a woman of God modeling for their children values, character, and love. Far too many churches (maybe most churches) are in trouble today because families are broken and in need of revival. Wouldn’t it be great if we had a revival of the family in America? People of all races obeying His Word, involved in the church and practicing the truths of Scripture in the home — the greatest classroom for building strong and healthy families, regardless of the color of their skin. Big Tech cannot get it done. Social media falls way short. People claiming to be a gender other than the one God gave them at birth only adds to the confusion and destruction, as does the entire LGBT movement.
Let’s pray that God will send us the kind of revival that starts in our hearts, moves to our families, and results not only in racial harmony but holiness of life.