Is Racism Motivated by Ignorance or Something Deeper?

The sports world buzzed the last few days with the story of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Sterling’s longtime mistress recorded him telling her not to bring black men with her to his basketball games. Players, commentators, coaches, and other owners reacted swiftly to his comments and called for action from Commissioner Adam Silver. (Today Silver banned Sterling for life and will move to force him to sell the Clippers.) Even President Obama weighed in on his trip to Malaysia saying, “When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t really have to do anything, you just let them talk.”

President Obama’s comments echo a long line of responses to racism in America in the last forty years. They inevitably point to the progress we have made in race relations in our nation and say those who still harbor racist sentiments are “ignorant” or “behind the times.” Unfortunately, saying those who harbor and express racist sentiments are simply “ignorant” lets them off the hook. The word ignorance assumes a person does not know better and sufficient education or exposure to people of other cultures would change their minds.

Something much more sinister is involved in racism than mere ignorance. Settled racism proceeds from the heart. Racism comes from hatred for other people or other groups of people. To label racism as ignorance is to suggests a lack of information is the problem. The Bible locates the problem in the heart where we choose to harbor ill will and hatred towards other people.

For far too long, we have acted as if people’s sins were either intellectual or environmental. We assume people are born a blank slate and the right amount of education and nurture will necessarily send them in the right direction. We have enough evidence now that this is simply not the case. No amount of education and no amount of exposure to cultural diversity can eradicate the bent of our hearts towards hating and mistreating other people.

For the Christian, shaming racists because of their racism is not the answer either. While castigating people for the horrid opinions they hold and things they say might make us feel better, this is not the Bible’s remedy for solving the problem of racism.  We approach people with racist sentiments the same way we approach people trapped in any other sin, by offering the Gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.

If Jesus died for our sins, then it necessarily follows that He died bearing the guilt for the hatred we have carried against other people. When a person comes to Christ, God forgives our sin and counts the perfect life of Jesus to our account. The person trusting in Christ stands before God thoroughly justified and forgiven. Then this person begins to be changed from the inside out. Their new standing before God demonstrates itself in practical ways. So for the person who carries hatred for another race, they need to see the love of Christ towards them and begin to demonstrate that same love to the people who they previously hated. They will walk in repentance over their past hatred and seek to grow in likeness to Christ.

Paul’s letter to Titus demonstrates this reality. He says in chapter 3, “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” This shows the change I have been talking about. In particular he says we were “hated by others and hating one another.” What is the next word? “But.” This shows that our hatred is not the end. The last word is the love of Christ that cleanses us, fills us with the Holy Spirit, and forever changes the way we relate to other people.