{"id":39188,"date":"2024-10-30T11:38:35","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T18:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=39188"},"modified":"2024-10-30T11:39:54","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T18:39:54","slug":"faces-at-the-bottom-of-the-well-the-end-of-race-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/faces-at-the-bottom-of-the-well-the-end-of-race-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The End of Race Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n

People have divided themselves and others into groups for millennia. Ancient tribal and clan structures allowed families to share resources and protect one another from harm. As knowledge of agricultural practices took root, nomadic lifestyles were replaced with settlements. Social hierarchies formed organically and were based on wealth,\"\"<\/a> land ownership, and labor. A major consequence of this was the human invention of indentured servitude and slavery. Mostly extinct from the mid-14th<\/sup> century, contract and forced labor picked up again in the 16th<\/sup> century when the \u201cDiscovery of America, and of the Western and Eastern coasts of Africa, gave occasion to the revival of it\u201d[1]<\/a> as noted in John Wesley\u2019s book, Thoughts Upon Slavery.<\/em> Natural human groupings that later led to the unnatural subjugation of people are deeply intertwined, and while the 13th<\/sup> Amendment abolished slavery, society still perpetuates the sin of what has transformed into modern-day racism.<\/p>\n

For this assignment, I considered The End of Race Politics <\/em>by Coleman Hughes, arguing that America should have colorblind policies.<\/p>\n

The Author\u2019s Views<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coleman Hughes is a 28-year-old Black author whose controversial writings have been featured in The New York\u00a0Times, The Wall Street Journal, <\/em>and more. He also testified before the U.S. Congress in 2019 against race reparations, and last March, was metaphorically skewered on the daytime talk show, The View<\/em> by host Sunny Hostin, as she hammered against his argument for a colorblind America.<\/p>\n

Hughes acknowledges that, as humans, we see race. It is unavoidable, so we should always be aware of our biases\"\"<\/a> formed from our lived experiences. But he says, \u201cWe should do our very best to treat people without regard to race.\u201d [2]<\/a> In Dr. Martin Luther\u00a0King\u2019s I Have a Dream<\/em> speech, Hughes concurs that it\u2019s better to consider one\u2019s character and the deeper qualities of being human over skin color.<\/p>\n

In the book, Not So Black and White, <\/em>author Kenan Malik talks about identity politics and how \u201cToday, we think about race primarily in terms of skin color or the continent of origin\u201d[3]<\/a> (black, white, Asian, and so on). However, 19th-century leaders had different ways of grouping people, such as Black, White, Asian, laborers, and farmhands. Yes,\u00a0\u201c19th-century\u00a0thinkers looked upon the working class as a racial group.\u201d[4]<\/a> This thought caused me to look up current groupings categories utilized by the U.S. Census Bureau: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Middle Eastern or Northern African, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and White. Stepping back into the 18th<\/sup> century, we would have found categories such as \u201cfree white females,\u201d \u201cslaves,\u201d and \u201call other free persons.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

My Views and Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is so much more to be said about this topic, but alas, it is time to wrap things up. Hughes argues that \u201cColorblindness is the wisest principle by which to govern our fragile experiment in multi-ethnic democracy.\u201d [6]<\/a> He loosely argues that a social class system is a better gauge of accurately describing the population because poverty and wealth touch all racial and ethnic groups. While I agree, I still lean toward a Biblical view that emphasizes unity among believers.<\/p>\n

Galatians 3:28 says, \u201cIn Christ, there is no division based on ethnicity, class, or gender.\u201d[7]<\/a> Ephesians 4:3 encourages maintaining unity in the Spirit. In the New Testament, James 2:1-4 warns against favoritism and discrimination based upon wealth and that everyone should be treated equally, regardless of social status.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What a beautiful image! Yet, the reality is that those who are disenfranchised and need the most support are categorized into a variety of racial and ethnic groups. Still, there are flaws even in that system, and as the world advances into dimensions beyond simple racial and ethnic categories, it will become increasingly difficult to accurately categorize any one group, which is why leaders in the future will need to find a new path.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll close with a quote from Derrick Bell, a legendary figure and the first African American tenured by Harvard Law School, who said, \u201cFacing the inconvenient truth that America may suffer from an incurable, potentially fatal disease helps to clarify what we\u2019re up against.\u201d[8]<\/a> As much as I would love to think that we all should aim for a Christian Kingdom approach, I know other faith systems would disagree. How we navigate toward the middle will require God to blend our human strengths and deficits into a new story that reveals His glory \u2013 something we cannot see in our current state.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Wesley, John. Thoughts Upon Slavery<\/em>. Classic. Vol. XI. The Works of John Wesley. London: Lettel Books, 1773. P.3<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Hughes, Coleman. \u201cABC News: The View.\u201d The View<\/em>. Last modified 2024. Accessed October 30, 2024. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0xwEq38aL9M.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Malik, Kenan. Not so Black and White: A History of Race from White Supremacy to Identity Politics<\/em>. London: Hurst & Company, 2023. P. 4.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid. p.5<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Karklis, Laris, and Emily Badger. \u201cEvery Term the Census Has Used to Describe Americas Racial Amd Ethnic Groups since 1790.\u201d Washington Post<\/em>, November 4, 2015.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Hughes, Coleman. The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America<\/em>. New York: Thesis, 2024. P.xvii<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> \u201cBible Gateway Passage: Galatians 3:28 – New International Version.\u201d Bible Gateway<\/em>. Accessed October 30, 2024. https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Galatians%203%3A28&version=NIV.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n[8]<\/a> Bell, Derrick. Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism<\/em>. New York: Basic Books, 2018. P.xix<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Background People have divided themselves and others into groups for millennia. Ancient tribal and clan structures allowed families to share resources and protect one another from harm. As knowledge of agricultural practices took root, nomadic lifestyles were replaced with settlements. Social hierarchies formed organically and were based on wealth, land ownership, and labor. A major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3333,2979,3049,2843,157],"class_list":["post-39188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bell","tag-dlpg03","tag-malik","tag-hughes","tag-wesley","cohort-dlgp03","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39188"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39196,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39188\/revisions\/39196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}