Defining Racism

Three rules to apply if you want to determine if something is about race.

I’m currently reading “So You Want To Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo. Why? Well, after reading “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo (highly recommended, by the way), a book written by a White person, from a White perspective, I wanted to read a book with a Black perspective from a Black author. Since my objective is to be better able to discuss issues of racism and social injustice, choosing this book made perfect sense, especially given the title.

So far it’s provided good insights and thought-provoking ideas. Ms. Oluo provides perspective through personal examples and easy to understand concepts.

Early in the book, she presented three ways to determine if something – a conversation, issue, attitude, etc – is about race. Here are her three criteria:

It is about race if a person of color thinks it is about race.
It is about race if it disproportionately or differently affects people of color.
It is about race if it fits into a broader pattern of events that disproportionately or differently affect people of color.
“So you want to talk about race” by Ijeoma Oluo

I’m reading through her examples now and it’s amazing to see how these three simple criteria are so powerful and can help people of all colors and backgrounds get beyond emotions and defensiveness and have real conversations about issues.

Our eldership in the Hampton Roads Church recently issued a letter to the church about systemic racism and social justice, and we announced that we’ll be forming a diversity task force. Our prayer is that we can better raise the voices of those who aren’t being heard and find ways to better understand the hurts and needs of our brothers and sisters so that we can be more unified to carry out our mission of spreading the gospel message. (The letter was read at the Sunday services and can be seen here.)

I’m continuing to read and think about social injustice issues and stay committed to having conversations so that all voices can be heard.