Blacks and Whites in Christian America: How Racial Discrimination Shapes Religious Convictions

8. Reconciling the Race Problem: Identity Politics and the Gulf between Black and White Protestants

168 8 Reconciling the Race Problem Identity Politics and the Gulf between Black and White Protestants In this final chapter, we turn our attention to beliefs among black and white Protestants that seemingly have little to do with religion at all. However, things are not always what they seem. In fact, it will soon become apparent that various dimensions of identity politics —that is, political beliefs and actions that are associated with a group of people that someone identifies with—are closely connected to both black and white Protestants’ religious identities. This is important because many people inaccurately associate identity politics with minorities only. To the contrary, controversial racial issues as well as past and present injustices and inequalities are ideologically meaningful to both black and white Protestants. For instance, we show that beliefs about the causes of racial inequality and levels of support for government policies aimed at reducing racial inequality strongly influence the manner in which black and white Protestants go about their religious faith. The results presented in this chapter suggest that we, as Americans, have yet to finally solve the “race problem” that has plagued our nation for centuries.1 What is worse: the gulfs between black and white Protestants ’ beliefs about the roots of racial inequality and the role that the U.S. government should play in reducing racial inequality are typically wider and deeper than those between black and white non-Protestants. This is primarily due to disparate ideological commitments to individualism and structuralism. As a result, the possibilities for racial reconciliation among black and white Protestants seem severely limited. Our goal in this final chapter is to develop the Justice building block SheltonEmerson_pp001-270.indd 168 SheltonEmerson_pp001-270.indd 168 7/30/12 10:02 AM 7/30/12 10:02 AM Reconciling the Race Problem 169 of black Protestant faith: (5) black Protestant faith is committed to social justice and equality for all individuals and groups in society. This last building block focuses on the vital role that political and social attitudes play in shaping the African American Protestant religious tradition . The black sacred cosmos is neither apolitical nor disinterested in issues relevant to race relations. To the contrary, it contains a racebased ideological viewpoint that emphasizes structural explanations for and solutions to the problems of racial inequality. Thus, in addition to being both theologically broad and definitive, the black sacred cosmos also embraces people-oriented domains of Christianity that can help with solving problems in society. Our Past and Present Race Problem: A Quick Review The United States has a long and ignominious history of black/white race relations. Although the first slave ships arrived in North America during the early 1600s, the term “race problem” (or “Negro problem,” as it was originally known) only emerged among whites in the aftermath of the Civil War. This popular phrase generally captured a range of issues relevant to the debate over whether blacks should have been granted full citizenship and participation rights following the South’s fall from power. For instance, the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal argued in his groundbreaking text An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944) that our nation’s race problem primarily exists within the hearts and minds of the white population.2 Although some blacks have always resisted slavery, segregation, and other forms of white racism, in general blacks have lacked the numbers , influence, and power to mount an adequate challenge to white supremacy. As a result, Myrdal (and many others in his wake) posited that the race problem largely boiled down to white people’s answers to xenophobic questions such as “What should we do with our black population?” and “Now that slavery is over, should blacks be granted equal opportunity and protection under the law?” Prior to 1865, few whites believed that America had a race problem (though obviously blacks and Native Americans saw this issue SheltonEmerson_pp001-270.indd 169 SheltonEmerson_pp001-270.indd 169 7/30/12 10:02 AM 7/30/12 10:02 AM 170 Reconciling the Race Problem much differently). In their hearts and minds, most whites supported a system of chattel slavery in which blacks were forcefully controlled and exploited for the purpose of providing free labor. The end of the Civil War provided an opening for reassessing and restructuring the dynamics of black/white race relations. Unfortunately, most whites continued to believe that blacks were a biologically...