They say that it’s the mark of an educated mind to change positions when presented with new information. About a year ago, I, like most Bible-literate Christians, disavowed of Critical Race Theory (CRT). I believed (and still do) that it is inherently racist, and its goal is to exalt one race above another. So what did it take for me to change my stance on it? In short, a compromise with biblical principles. But before we get to that, let’s start with the basics.
What is Critical Race Theory (CRT)?
Critical Race Theory, or CRT, is an academic and legal framework that denotes that systemic racism is part of American society—from education and housing to employment and healthcare. Critical Race Theory recognizes that racism is more than the result of individual bias and prejudice. It is embedded in laws, policies and institutions that uphold and reproduce racial inequalities. According to CRT, societal issues like Black Americans’ higher mortality rate, outsized exposure to police violence, the school-to-prison pipeline, denial of affordable housing, and the rates of the death of Black women in childbirth are not unrelated anomalies…It was, in part, a response to the notion that society and institutions were “colorblind.” CRT holds that racism was not and has never been eradicated from our laws, policies, or institutions, and is still woven into the fabric of their existence…Building a more equitable future requires an examination of how the shameful history of slavery, caste, and systemic racism were foundational to laws and institutions that exist today.
Between the Black and the White
So it goes, CRT says, that since Whites majorly control all levels of government, including local school curricula, students learn a “whitewashed” version of U.S. history. Most high school textbooks either leave out, or unjustly gloss over, serious events in our history as they relate to U.S. race relations, such as Black Wall Street and subsequent race massacres (East Saint Louis [1917] and Tulsa [1921]), the murder of Emmet Till [1955], the story of Selma, Alabama [1965], and FBI involvement of the assassinations of political leaders Malcolm X [1965], Martin Luther King, Jr. [1968], Fred Hampton [1969], and too many more to name.
In the case of CRT, the abbreviated version is this: White supremacy, wretched as it is, is the root cause explanation of today’s social ills. It can explain why Blacks have been historically and statistically more likely to become incarcerated, have shorter life spans, lower graduation rates. CRT is a ‘root cause’ to explain why Blacks are underpaid, overworked, and face discrimination in an economic system made by and for Whites.
Therefore, the story continues, Whites should exalt Blacks, while renouncing one’s White Privilege, and atone for the sins of one’s forefathers (who may or may not have–but is presumed they did, is based on the color of one’s skin–been racist, owned Black slaves, or supported legal systems that benefited Whites merely because of one’s skin color.)
It’s that atonement that I, and many other Christians, take issue with. It’s a “reverse-racism” that seeks to balance the scales to correct social disparities. Before continuing with this blog post, I’ll make two things painstakingly clear:
- While I believe that Critical Race Theory can contribute to a holistic and well-informed understanding on current racial issues, I do not, and will not, take the conciliatory or repentant stance in which I should consider myself less-than others for the sake of atonement.
- I believe that any philosophical system that requires negative emotions to be brought about, i.e. shame, guilt, and fear, is neither Christlike nor biblical.
That said, I believe that a reasonable person could reconcile CRT while still honoring our Black family in Christ. Critical Race Theory is, as I would say with Christian mysticism, not an incorrect story, but only an incomplete one.
Why I Changed my Views on Critical Race Theory
When I understood that CRT wasn’t just a malignant philosophy, but was actually a tool for a more educated and matured conversation, I became less vindictive towards it.
I suppose that some may refer to CRT as the ‘dark’ side of our history. CRT can explain the social determinants of health to help research scientists and sociologists alike understand why the 2020 coronavirus pandemic disproportionately affected African-American communities. CRT allows health organizations to better understand, and therefore measure the impacts of, environmental health conditions on Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) communities. CRT provides a historical context for the social, legal, economic, and political systems in place that extract wealth from Black communities (and reinvests those gains in White ones).
These stories aren’t fabricated, they’re heavily documented. And without a right understanding of CRT in our apologetics tool belt, Christians (or really anyone in a political debate) are going into the conversation with only half the story.
CRT is potent, but at least it provides all the information needed to provide a more insightful understanding into our pasts–for both Blacks and Whites. It is the truth, the whole truth, as distilled and acidic as is it. What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light (Luke 12:3), and the truth shall set us free (John 8:32).
CRT is a Razor
The more I read CRT-inspired literature, it confirmed what I already knew about it. But, like battles with demons, now that I knew what to call this philosophy, I could take control of it. CRT sounds like a great and noble thing: It provides truth, understanding, and deepens conversations between Blacks and Whites. What’s not to love? As it turns out, CRT is like handling plutonium. It can be a dangerous, volatile matter if we don’t know how to handle it properly. But if we do, it can be a very efficient way to cut through the conversation.
Before I learned how to properly handle a CRT conversation, I felt more pessimistic about the world around me. I felt more sad, more ashamed, about the city I lived in (St. Louis, Missouri, which has a long history of segregation and White supremacist laws and political leaders). It became easier to sympathize with my Black family in Christ, rather than empathizing with them.
Before I learned how to properly handle a CRT conversation, I felt more pessimistic about the world around me. I felt more sad, more ashamed, about the city I lived in (St. Louis, Missouri, which has a long history of segregation and White supremacist laws and political leaders). It became easier to sympathize with my Black family in Christ, rather than empathizing with them.
I felt like Adam and Eve, with a newfound knowledge of the surrounding evil in the world around me. I was suddenly more aware that I was naked, ashamed, and born with an original sin that I couldn’t wash off.
For weeks, I questioned: Is it better to know this side of history than to be ignorant to it altogether? Is this a weight that I can bear, spiritually and mentally. I’m reminded of the words that I penned in DIÆSPORA, my open letter:
See, I used to think that I was special, part of the elect.Simply by virtue of the fact that because I was white, surely it couldn’t happen to me.And so I didn’t stand up for my black allies, but still I cried that I was cultured because I know the plight of the struggle.I went to South Africa, I touched the walls of Mandela’s jail cell, I saw scars of Apartheid. I knew the diaspora, if only conceptual.I knew it was out of reach, because it wasn’t something with which I could identify.So I knew that, surely…surely, it couldn’t happen to me.But because I did not stand up for my black family, the time has now come that there is no one to stand up for me.I used to think that the government was racist, that white supremacy was the meaning to the hierarchy.And yet I benefited.I turned a blind eye to the internal bias while my brothers and sisters groaned and cried. … I failed to realize that the systemic white pride was just Phase One in something much more widespread and diabolical.That the division of surreptitious tactics would be turned on to white people next.That the phenomena were the means and signs and the end in mind was much more teleological.That the master in disguise was the omnipotent “they” the whole time,alpha to omega.That the motives of the all seeing eye was not black versus white,but it was much more color blind.
I had just become more ‘cultured’ than I thought I was, and I was now in the proverbial ‘Valley of Despair.’ How would I get out? Only with the only person who knew the Valley better than I did.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for You are beside me (Psalm 23).
Why Critical Race Theory is Not the Full story
With a newfound knowledge, I entered a Valley of Despair. But with an old knowledge, I knew that I, and others who were leading others into the Valley, could also be led out. A knowledge of CRT shouldn’t leave people stranded in the shadows. It should lead them straight to the Savior.
And that’s precisely why I believe that if CRT is going be part of any curriculum or conversation, then the conclusion cannot be that we, as humans, can make things right. Humans cannot solve the problems we’ve created, because we’re living in a world that we didn’t create.
There have been no scenarios that I’m aware of, in which a philosophy that elicits emotions like shame, fear, and spite can lead to peace, justice, and equality. Not Marxism, Communism, or any liberalism. What makes Christianity different is the immediate pivot to grace, and resigning ourselves to a benevolent authority who created this world, but is not tainted by the sin in it.
CRT exposes humankind’s sinfulness. But if we leave the story there, there is no arc towards redemption. Unless discourse explicitly and genuinely says that Whites are not responsible for bearing the sins of our forefathers, there can be no reconciliation.
It is sinful, disrespectful and un-Christian-like that the sins of the father shall be visited upon the son (Ezekiel 18:20), specifically because of Christ’s crucifixion. “All this should make us intensely committed to education for exultation – at home and at church,” says Pastor John Piper. “Great and lasting things are at stake for future generations not only because of what we teach, but also because of what we are.” (italics original).
All discussions on CRT must resolve with a call to action that encourages us—both White and Black—to elevate towards a higher power. Humans will never be good enough to absolve ourselves of our own evil, greedful, prideful nature any more than a sick person can give themselves an antidote without seeing a physician (Mark 2:17). To borrow from a legal analogy, an arbitration needs an arbiter.
How to Give Equal Airtime on Critical Race Theory Conversations
In closing, here are one piece of advice that I’d give to any educator or layperson seeking to learn just enough about CRT, but not enough to completely given themselves up to it:
For every piece of literature we consume on CRT, read two on the goodness of God.
I’m learning to look past the history of those who came before me. I can’t answer for nor control the evil acts they committed. I can only be responsible for those of my own. I found such hope in learning the thoughts from abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, and pastors like Charles Spurgeon, A.W. Tozer, and John Piper. Wherever the inspiration may come from, it must be present. CRT illuminates a dark history in our past. And to get out of the Valley of Despair, we need a light worthy of ascending to.
Help me support the fight against racial injustice. I’m donating 50% of the proceeds from DIÆSPORA to the NAACP LDF.
St. Louis, MO, USA
