A white man’s frank and repentant exploration of how racism finds a home in white folks’ souls.
Racism is not a feeling
How the white soul has trained itself to define racism solely as conscious hate (and how it needs a new catechism on race)
by Jeffrey A. Schooley
A long time ago, when my racist soul was left to benignly work its craft without any sort of moral scrutiny on my part, I had the notion that racism was a feeling. That I had this idea is not so terribly shocking, though it is a bit embarrassing. But I have to give myself a little grace here because this is what I was taught as a child—that racism is when white people hate black people.
Hate, as I understood it then (and even, to a degree, now), is an emotion. And so I assumed that racism was just a subset of the emotion hate. It was hate with a specific target. And to be fair to my elders (mostly my parents and trusted teachers), I’m not quite sure how I would describe racism to a precocious nine-year-old child either. Keeping it at the emotions level is certainly the safe play.
Yet when racism is presented as an emotion, the criteria for being a racist exists entirely and exclusively within the individual. This understanding led me to deducing fairly quickly that I was not a racist. While I had a limited sample size (even my younger self recognized the dearth of African Americans in my school), I got along swimmingly with Brian (one of three black students in my class and a bit of nerd, like me) and didn’t like Carlos so much (but that’s because he whacked me once really well in dodge ball). Thus I could declare that I was not a racist. And in so doing, I wasn’t met with any rebuke by my parents and teachers, so I figured all was well. Not a racist? Check!
My fear is that the white soul—unless prompted by education, experience, and the discipleship of Jesus Christ—never evolves beyond this nine-year-old understanding of racism. I fear there are white adults—leaders of communities, decision-makers, and otherwise upstanding individuals—who are just plain childish in their understanding of racism. If they ever feel insecure about their non-racist standing (maybe they caught themselves laughing too hard at an off-color joke about race), they merely go through their learned self-examination:
Q: “Do I hate black people?”
A: “No. Good, I’m not a racist. Whew!”
Yet I hope it is apparent to everyone that this catechism of racism is remarkably shortsighted. It teaches the white soul to be oversensitive to its own feelings. Also, as catechisms go, having just one question seems a little too easy to contain any real truth.
So the white soul is made oversensitive due to incomplete catechism. However, that is not where the conversation on feelings and racism ends. Paradoxically coupled with this oversensitivity is a profound insensitivity to the feelings of others.
If racism really were all about feelings, then it would logically hold that the feelings of others would be just as important as the feelings of the self. I would have to value as much my own feeling of not hating black people as I would have to value the feelings of black people who feel like white people (including myself, of course) do hate them. But the catechism never goes that far. It stops short of considering others feelings and, thus, is insensitive to them.
This is the reason that the “interwebs” abound with articles like this one (or, for that matter, this one or this one). All of these links take you to articles with basically the same title “[X-number] of Things White People Need to Stop Saying About [Black People].” While I appreciate the intended humor of these pieces and think the advice generally sound, the existence of such articles demonstrates that the most patient (if not slightly snarky) black souls in our society are working tirelessly within the narrow confines of the emotion-centered language advocated by the white majority.
I could go on a longer screed about how the nefarious nature of racism intentionally presents itself as merely a feeling so as to distract attention from the corporate, institutional, and systemic ways in which it actually operates. Indeed, I hope that I have at least attempted this sort of analysis in a past column. But could such a screed be heard in a world where emotions rule the day? Maybe only the angry, rant-y portions, but never the content.
As always, this column is dedicated not only to diagnosing what ails the white soul, but also to pointing toward the spiritual disciplines necessary to heal the white soul from the injury the world’s racism has caused it. And so this month’s spiritual discipline is catechism, which has always been the church’s fancy word for education.
Since the root of the in(over)sensitive white soul is a stunted catechism of one question only, more questions (and more complex questions) are needed. And more faithful answers need to be learned. In recommending this, I realize that the old “Q&A” style of catechism is out of vogue. But my fear is that today’s Build-A-Bear style of confession is not sufficient medicine for a sin-sick soul because the sickness that lives inside us all is not apt to recommend a dose of medicine that will kill it. Thus, I should hasten to add that the virtue of courage is going to be needed too. Otherwise, we may never be able to swallow the oft-bitter catechism that can heal.
Jeffrey A. Schooley is a teaching elder at Center Presbyterian Church in McMurray, Pennsylvania. He is also a PhD in Theology candidate at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Biking, Netflix, reading, teaching, and spending time with his wife and dog round out the rest of his life. He can be reached at ThinkLikeChristians@gmail.com.
BONUS: An incomplete catechism on race and racism
This “catechism” is incomplete on many levels. First, there is no presumption that all the necessary questions and answers can be found below. Second, catechisms and other confessional documents are never written by one person. As such, readers are strongly encouraged to add their own questions and answers in the comments section below.
A final, important note must be added. Confessions and catechisms are always responsive documents. They are always responding to a heresy or problem within the church. This catechism is a reflection of the church’s long-running sin of segregation in our sacred spaces.
1. Q: Why are there different races?
A: The diversity of races is a reflection of our Creator God, who is—in God’s Trinitarian Self—already diverse. As such, each race alone is an incomplete reflection of God, but collectively bears the image of God.
2. Q: Is race a social construction?
A: No, and yes. Race (as in skin pigmentation) and difference are the result of God’s creative handiwork. Race (as in stereotypes, inequalities, cultural norms, etc.) is a social construction. This construction is sinful when one group of people constructs the idea of race for another group in order to oppress them. It is blessed when a group constructs for itself its own meanings, thus participating in the act of divine creation.
3. Q: What is the purpose of the different races?
A: The purpose of the different races is the same as the purpose of all creation—to glorify God and enjoy God forever. Different races, however, are analogous to different sexes. Just as Adam was alone and miserable without Eve, so too are different races alone and miserable without one another. Race is therefore an invitation to relationship. (Note that this does not imply an analogy to complementarianism.)
4. Q: What is the cause of racism?
A: The fall of humanity after our first parents’ sin against God unleashed all evil, hate, violence, and malice, including racism.
5. Q: Are there any other causes?
A: Yes. The intentional and unintentional extension of our fallen condition through systems of social power—including the law, education, employment, housing, and more—are both the symptom and the cause of racism. What began with the fall of humanity has extended into all aspects of human relationships.
6. Q: Where does racism exist?
A: It exists everywhere—from our social interactions to our political systems to the emotional, psychological, and spiritual life of each person. This “pan-racism” means that any attempt to exclusively locate racism in one place fails to confront racism in all other places and allows those places to become centers of continued brokenness and despair.
7. Q: What hope is there for the victims of racism?
A: Jesus Christ is the hope for victims of racism. He offers healing and assurance of value and dignity in spite of the prevailing winds of culture. He also models in His death and resurrection the faithfully appropriate ways to respond to racism on any level. It is the victim of racism’s greatest hope to remember that the sin of racism was hung on the cross with Jesus, crucified with Him, buried with Him, but did not rise up on the third day. Racism—like all sin—remains buried in death, conquered by Jesus Christ.
8. Q: What hope is there for the perpetrators of racism?
A: Jesus Christ is the hope for perpetrators of racism. He loves the racist in spite of the racist’s racism. He reminds the racist of his or her dignity and chastises the racist for abusing this dignity with their racist actions. His chastisement is done in love as a form of a refining fire that purifies the racist soul and offers it new life in Jesus Christ.
9. Q: What is the process of seeking healing for the perpetrators of racism?
A: Perpetrators of racism must repent of their racism. In repentance they are offered grace. By grace they are made new. In being made new they cannot go back to the old life.
10. Q: Can repentance really solve the problem of evil that is racism?
A: No. Solutions for racism are found neither in the solitary repentance of the individual nor in the restructuring of institutions and systems of power that consistently spawn and spur on racism in the world. The only solution for racism is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Repentance—as well as systemic change—is offered not as a solution to the problem of racism, but as a response to God’s faithfulness through Jesus Christ. Racism is already dead because Christ is risen. Now is the time for following Christ and living into the new life He offers us.
11. Q: [Insert your question]
A: [Insert your answer]