Racial Reconciliation - General

By Jerry Price - Feb 6, 2006

Three Views Regarding Race

Perspective #1: The Civil Rights Strategy

The only fair and effective way to achieve racial equality is by scrupulously adhering to the principle of equality under the law. Racial justice requires a comprehensive public effort to break down discriminatory barriers, redress individual grievances, and ensure equal treatment in education, in the workplace, and elsewhere. The Constitution promises equal opportunity, not equal results. The government’s obligation is to ensure that the rules of the game are the same for everyone. Beyond that, no further public action to help individuals is consistent with our political beliefs.

Perspective #2: The Affirmative Action Strategy

It is not enough for government to be concerned with individual acts of discrimination. A nation dedicated to the principle of equal treatment has to recognize the enduring legacy of racial discrimination and compensate for it. Groups that have traditionally experienced discrimination, and continue to experience discrimination, must be given preferential treatment to facilitate progress toward racial equality. Racial justice is achieved when there is evidence of roughly equal results-for example, a proportionate number of individuals of various races who hold good-paying jobs.

Perspective #3: The Equal Opportunity Strategy

The major barrier to racial equality today is not racial bias or discrimination but poverty- related conditions that keep many members of minority groups from becoming literate and employable, and prevent them from moving into the American mainstream. Only when government provides the material prerequisites for a decent life-including quality early education for everyone-does equality of opportunity exist. The most promising way to achieve racial equality is by taking additional measures to provide an equal opportunity to everyone, regardless of race.

“Race: Discussion Guides,” http://www.publicagenda.org , Used by permission [Accessed October 4, 2005]

“Christ knows how to reshape a prejudiced heart. Many people need to be freed from the blindness of prejudice today. Truth frees one to behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

A. Charles Ware, Prejudice and the People of God (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2001), 18.

“A racialized society is a society wherein race matters profoundly for differences in life experiences, life opportunities, and social relationships. A racialized society can also be said to be ‘a society that allocates differential economic, political, social, and even psychological rewards to groups along racial lines; lines that are socially constructed.’”

Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith, Divided By Faith, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 7.

How does one become cross-culturally sensitive? In the book Intentional Diversity: Creating Cross-Cultural Ministry Relationships in Your Church, Jim Lo gives ten suggestions:

  1. Understand yourself—Our predispositions formed by our culture determine “how we perceive others, the way they think, and the way they do things.”
  2. Empathize with others—We must look at things not only from our own viewpoint but from the viewpoint of others as well.
  3. Loosen up—Don’t be afraid to reach out to people from other cultural backgrounds.
  4. Keep your sense of humor—Don’t be afraid to laugh at yourself and with others.
  5. Don’t be afraid of mistakes—Everyone makes them and most people are willing to forgive if asked.
  6. Do not make quick judgments—“People should put aside critical thinking until they have had an opportunity to see the other person’s viewpoint. This requires careful listening and patience.”
  7. Be tolerant of ambiguity—Not everything about someone else’s culture will be as clear and precise as we might like.
  8. Develop intercultural traits—Those suggested include curiosity, courage, friendliness, flexibility, and communication.
  9. Take a stand—Don’t tell, or allow others to tell, ethnic jokes. They are demeaning to those of other cultures.
  10. Recognize that we do not live in a colorless or cultureless world—Not everyone is the same. Allow people of other cultures to be who they are, not what you expect them to be.

Jim Lo, Intentional Diversity: Creating Cross-Cultural Ministry Relationships in Your Church (Indianapolis: Wesleyan Publishing House, 2002), 61-73.

A June 2003 Gallup poll revealed the following statistics regarding race relations:

  • Sixty-eight percent of Americans rate relations between African Americans and whites as good, while 30 percent say they are bad.
  • A majority of both whites and African Americans say relations between the groups are good, but whites are more likely to say this (69 percent) than are African Americans (59 percent).
  • Seventy-three percent of Americans believe relations between whites and Hispanics are good, and 24 percent say they are bad.
  • Hispanics are especially likely to rate these relations positively (84 percent do—even more so than whites, among whom 72 percent rate relations between these groups positively.
  • Sixty-one percent of African Americans say relations between whites and Hispanics are good.
  • Of the four pairs of groups assessed in the poll, Americans give the most positive assessment of relations between whites and Asians. Eighty-two percent of the public says relations between these groups are good, and just 13 percent say they are bad. This is a slightly more positive assessment than in prior years. For example, in 2002, 77 percent of Americans said white-Asian relations in the United States were good.
  • Whites (83 percent) give slightly more positive ratings to white-Asian relations than do African Americans (74 percent) and Hispanics (76 percent).
  • African American-Hispanic relations receive the lowest ratings of the four pairs assessed, with 60 percent of Americans giving them a positive review (30 percent say they are bad). Interestingly, African Americans (72 percent) and Hispanics (71 percent) give quite positive ratings of African American-Hispanic relations. The overall ratings are lower because whites (55 percent) tend to rate African American-Hispanic relations much less positively.
  • The latest ratings on African American-Hispanic relations are more positive than in recent years, and ratings have shown a steady increase in the three years the Minority Relations poll has been conducted (from a 49 percent “good” rating in 2001 to 53 percent in 2002 and 60 percent in 2003).

Americans Hold Improving View of Race Relations in U.S., June 30, 2003 [Subscription required]

Conflict between ethnic groups grows out of a mind-set that is developed over time by observing the attitudes and behaviors of others. This may happen by contact with other people—whether parents, siblings, or others—or by something we learn through other sources.

The first step in the process is the formation of perceptions. This is taking one experience and generalizing it to apply to all people in an ethnic group. When these perceptions are allowed to go unchallenged, we begin to “drift toward people who are like us and drift away from people who are different from us.”

The second step is developing stereotypes. Perceptions that are allowed to go unchallenged eventually develop into stereotypes. Stereotypes are a “fixed and distorted generalization made about all members of a particular group; a rigid judgment which doesn’t take into account the here and now.”

The third step is developing prejudice. This happens when we link a person’s ethnicity to an unfavorable stereotype and, because “we believe so strongly in our opinions that no matter what kind of evidence is presented to us, we will not change our minds.”

The fourth step is embracing ethnocentrism. “Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s own race is superior to all others.” Though a certain degree of ethnocentrism is characteristic of almost all cultures, the problem develops when “this kind of thinking pervades every aspect of our lives.” It is when we adopt the attitude that “our race, culture, color, gender, and so on are better than yours” that the problem is intensified.

Rajendra K. Pillai, Reaching the World in Our Own Backyard (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook Press, 2003), 24-32.

“The United States has a long history of ethnic and racial diversity in its population. That diversity has accelerated in recent decades, a trend which is expected to continue into the future.

“Race and ethnicity are important for many reasons including their relation to culture, identity, and well-being. Children of different races and ethnicities often show large differences in many areas of well-being including health, mortality, school performance and attainment, and access to family and community resources. These and similar disparities are also evident in adulthood.

“According to a recent report from the National Research Council, race is determined both by physical traits (skin color, hair, and so on) and by the ‘individual, group, and social attributes’ associated with those characteristics. It is distinguished from ‘ethnicity,’ which does not include physical characteristics as part of its definition.

“The federal government recently changed the way it defines and measures race. A key feature of the new definition allows respondents to identify themselves as more than one race. This new classification was used in the 2000 Decennial Census, and is being implemented in all Federal surveys and administrative data collection efforts.”

Racial and Ethnic Composition of the Child Population [Accessed October 4, 2005]

“We are slowly realizing that our neighborhoods, communities and workplaces are changing. We’re waking up to the fact that we now have new kinds of neighbors—they look different, they speak a different language, they eat different kinds of food and speak with a foreign accent. We know they aren’t Christians, because they worship other gods.

“North America has always been a land of immigrants, but now we have a new wave of people coming from countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East adding to the growing religious diversity in North America. We don’t have to go overseas to meet someone from another culture. Each one of us can now be a missionary in our own communities.”

Rajendra Pillai, Outgoing, Yet Careful Witness Can Reach Asian-Indians in U.S., August 15, 2003 [Accessed October 4, 2005]

According to a publication of the U.S. Census Bureau, home ownership among native citizens and naturalized citizens was near the highest levels since the data were first collected in 1994. Natives include those born in the United States, Puerto Rico, or outlying areas as well as those born abroad to American parents. Naturalized citizens are those who came to the U.S. through the process of naturalization. Although certainly to a lesser degree, many non-citizens also become homeowners. Numbers in the following table are percentages.

NativeNaturalizedNon-Citizen
Non-Hispanic White75.073.746.1
Hispanic53.862.732.2
African American48.551.422.2

Adapted from Figure 9 of Moving to America-Moving to Homeownership: 1994-2002 (U.S. Census Bureau), September 2003 [Accessed October 4, 2005]

“African American students have the highest levels of religious practice on America’s campuses, according to a survey of 112,232 students at 236 colleges being released today.

“The study, conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute, which is affiliated with the University of California at Los Angeles, said African American students led white, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian and Hawaiian students in seven out of 12 spirituality categories.

“One-third of the African American students polled said spiritual growth and following religious teachings are both essential, compared with fewer than one-fifth of the white and Asian students polled. African American students also reported higher levels of church attendance, prayer and belief in God . . . Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders came in second in four of the 12 categories: charitable involvement (27 percent), spirituality (25 percent), ecumenical worldview (24 percent) and religious struggle (15 percent).

“Asians were the least religious, leading in only one category—religious skepticism—and polling at the bottom of five other categories, including spirituality and religious commitment.”

Excerpted from Julia Duin, Black Students Are Most Religious (Washington Times), October 6, 2005

“Gallup’s annual update on race relations suggests that Americans generally live in areas populated with people from their own racial or ethnic backgrounds. More than 8 in 10 non-Hispanic whites say they live in areas where there are many whites, while at least 6 in 10 blacks and Hispanics say many people of their respective backgrounds live in their neighborhoods. Few whites, African Americans, or Hispanics say they live in areas highly populated by recent immigrants or Asians.

“The poll, conducted June 6-25, asked Americans how many people of various races and ethnic backgrounds lived in their areas – ‘many, some, only a few, or none.’ The results to this question among non-Hispanic whites, African Americans, and Hispanics suggest that these different groups tend to live in areas with relatively few of those from different backgrounds . . .

“Three main conclusions:

  1. Non-Hispanic whites are most likely to live in areas in which there are large numbers of their own race. Eighty-six percent live in areas in which there are ‘many’ whites. By contrast, only 66 percent of African Americans live in areas in which there are many African Americans, and only 61 percent of Hispanics live in areas in which there are many Hispanics . . . Looked at differently, these data suggest that a third or more of blacks and Hispanics live in areas in which their race or ethnic group is in the decided minority.
  2. Whites generally tend to live in areas in which there are less likely to be substantial concentrations of African Americans and Hispanics. Only about one in three non-Hispanic whites say that there are many African Americans or Hispanics in their neighborhoods. By way of contrast, 45 percent of African Americans and 52 percent of Hispanics say that there are many whites in their neighborhoods.
  3. Only relatively small percentages of members of all three of these groups say that there are many Asians or recent immigrants in their neighborhoods. The highest concentration of recent immigrants exists in Hispanic neighborhoods.”

Excerpted from Joseph Carroll, Who Are the People In Your Neighborhood? (Gallup Poll), July 12, 2004 [Subscription required]

Further Learning

Learn more about: Citizenship, Racial Reconciliation