{"id":437,"date":"2012-04-25T21:45:56","date_gmt":"2012-04-26T01:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=437"},"modified":"2012-04-25T21:45:56","modified_gmt":"2012-04-26T01:45:56","slug":"what-is-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2012\/04\/what-is-racism.html","title":{"rendered":"What is “Racism?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

If a representative of our generation was made to stand before an alien tribunal and identify the worst of evils, there can be no doubt that it would be \u201cracism\u201d to which he would allude.\u00a0 It would be better for a person to be convicted in the court of public opinion of child molestation (to say nothing of murder or rape) than to be judged guilty of \u201cracism.\u201d\u00a0 This is particularly true if the person is regarded as white <\/em>(witness George Zimmerman).<\/p>\n

\u201cRacism\u201d is of a uniquely evil nature.\u00a0 Of this, we are sure.\u00a0 But what exactly is <\/em>this most incendiary of crimes against humanity?\u00a0 What exactly is \u201cracism?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRacism\u201d as Doctrine of Innate Inferiority<\/strong><\/p>\n

Originally, \u201cracism\u201d is the term that was reserved to describe the position that individuals were intellectually and morally superior and inferior to one another depending on the racial groups to which they belonged.\u00a0 Thus, a white person who regarded all <\/em>black people as inferior to himself simply and solely because they were black would be considered a \u201cracist.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The problem, though, with defining \u201cracism\u201d in terms of this <\/em>belief is that while the doctrine of innate inferiority is doubtless false, <\/em>it is not <\/em>clearly evil.\u00a0 <\/em>It would <\/em>be evil, though, if one of two things were true.<\/p>\n

(1). If all <\/em>false beliefs were evil, then this <\/em>false belief would be evil.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the idea that false beliefs are evil because they are false is ridiculous.\u00a0 Furthermore, if it is the erroneous <\/em>nature of the doctrine of innate inferiority that renders it immoral, then there is nothing uniquely, or even distinctively, about it that makes it so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(2). It may be argued that the doctrine of innate inferiority is evil because it is the basis for racial persecution.<\/p>\n

This line too is dubious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whether this doctrine is either necessary or sufficient for racially-motivated hostility is an empirical question that has never been asked, though it has been answered.\u00a0 Conventional wisdom aside, thoughts are not <\/em>always \u201cthe basis\u201d for our actions.\u00a0 Think about it: a stranger cuts you off on the highway and you envision doing all manner of evil to him.\u00a0 But just because you have these ugly thoughts running through your mind at the moment, do you ever truly think that there is any real chance of your acting on them?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thoughts are not always the basis of our actions.\u00a0 But let\u2019s, for argument\u2019s sake, say that they are.\u00a0 Why assume that the doctrine of innate inferiority will necessarily translate into racial animosity and cruelty?\u00a0 After all, we encounter beings, whether humans or animals, who we judge to be inferior in some respects or other all of the time.\u00a0 I do indeed hold that the man who is chronically unfaithful to his wife is morally inferior to I who am faithful to mine. And I believe that I am morally and intellectually superior to my goldfish.\u00a0 This, though, does not in the least motivate me to treat anyone or any thing <\/em>cruelly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In any event, it is the conduct that warrants praise or blame\u2014not the ideas accompanying the conduct.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRacism\u201d as Racial Hatred<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some say that \u201cracism\u201d is a matter of hating <\/em>the members of other races.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First of all, unless \u201chatred\u201d is always evil, there is no a priori <\/em>reason why this <\/em>type of hatred is evil.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Second, just because a person hates all of the members of another race does not mean that he will then make it his life\u2019s mission to persecute the objects of his hatred.\u00a0 Hatred, like any other emotion, expresses itself in numerous ways\u2014none of which can be determined in advance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Third, presumably, racial hatred is immoral because race <\/em>is a morally irrelevant concept: an accident of birth like race is neither praiseworthy nor blameworthy.\u00a0 Well enough.\u00a0 But this being so, then it follows that \u201cracism\u201d is not <\/em>uniquely horrible, for it is the irrelevance <\/em>of race that renders racial hatred impermissible.\u00a0 This means that hating people on the basis of race is no more and no less evil than hating people who are left handed, short, tall, obese, thin, pimple-faced, etc.\u00a0 Thus, there is nothing distinctively, let alone uniquely, evil about hating others on the grounds of race.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRacism\u201d as Racial Discrimination<\/strong><\/p>\n

To discriminate on the basis of race\u2014now this <\/em>is \u201cracism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not so fast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The problem with this approach is that it is indiscriminate in its application of the term \u201cdiscrimination.\u201d\u00a0 Is there something especially evil about using race as a criterion <\/em>when making a decision?\u00a0 Or is it only evil when race is permitted to trump all other considerations?<\/p>\n

Considering that there isn\u2019t one among us who hasn\u2019t assigned racial considerations some <\/em>role in some of our decision-making\u2014just think of the decisions to date, marry, and procreate\u2014I think it is safe to conclude that the racial discrimination to which the champions of this understanding of \u201cracism\u201d object consists in relying upon race as the sole<\/em>, or even primary<\/em>, standard in life.\u00a0 Or so they\u2019ll say.<\/p>\n

So be it.\u00a0 The next question is: Why<\/em> is it abominable to use race as the primary or sole standard in decision-making?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The answer, I would think, is that race is as irrelevant as eye color.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet if <\/em>this is so (and it is far from obvious that it is), then there is nothing particularly horrible about racial discrimination or \u201cracism.\u201d It is the irrelevance <\/em>of race that renders the latter immoral.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Racial discrimination or \u201cracism,\u201d then, is no more and no less immoral than discrimination on the grounds of eye color.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

From this analysis, there are a\u00a0couple of\u00a0deductions that we can make.<\/p>\n

The first is that \u201cracism\u201d is most definitely not a unitary phenomenon.\u00a0 The forgoing accounts of \u201cracism\u201d are irreducible to one another: each stands by itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Secondly, upon considering each statement of \u201cracism,\u201d we are compelled to paraphrase the author of 1 Corinthians and cry out: \u201cWhere, oh \u2018Racism,\u2019 is your sting<\/em>?\u201d\u00a0 Each of these readings fails to accommodate the notion that \u201cracism\u201d is something especially awful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jack Kerwick, Ph.D.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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