Talking About Race
Talking About Race: Gospel Hope for Hard Conversations
By: Isaac Adams
[This was on my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2022]
“Friends, just because we’re honest, doesn’t mean we’re edifying; just because we’re hurt, doesn’t mean we’re right.”
“Why is there so much defensiveness and division, suspicion and strife on racial matters among those who claim to be united in Jesus?”
This is a good question isn’t it?
We should have more in common with brothers and sisters in Christ of a different race or ethnicity than we do with non-believers of the same race as ourselves.
Adams suggests— could it be we are all wearing a mask?
“We struggle to discuss racial matters with others outside our own ethnicity. Even if members of different ethnicities sit in the same churches, too often, we wear masks, metaphorically speaking, to avoid one of our greatest difficulties: sharing with each other what we truthfully think about race and racism.”
I wanted to read this book because I find myself getting frustrated when I think about conversations about race.
It seems like meaningful and gracious dialogue rarely happens these days, and if it does, you don’t hear about it. We only hear about the extremes, about the critiques, about the canceling. That can’t be all that ever happens!
Did this book answer all of my questions? No. [e.g. Where do we currently see systemic racism? What is black culture, what is white culture? How should I engage with the Black Lives Matter organization? How should we expect police to react in certain situations and does that differ than how we as individuals view a situation? How do I hear and listen to others’ stories if I shouldn’t ask them questions because it forces them to relive or justify their pain?]
There were times I didn’t know if I agreed with Adams, times where I had more questions and needed more information, and times where I still wondered how this would look like in my own personal life. But it is still definitely a book worth reading and one that I know I’ll recommend often.
What I liked most about Talking About Race is that Isaac Adams gets it. He has a good grasp on the nuances and perspectives people bring to the topic and recognizes the complexities of a person. He communicates encouragement and gracious admonishment to all sides. No group is immune from sin. We all need more of Jesus in how we treat people.
Isaac Adams writes this book with the flavor of pastoral counsel. He is wise and caring and it shows.
The first part of the book presents a ‘fictional’ event— a viral video of the shooting of a black man— and then presents a handful of ‘characters’— both majority and minority persons— and their reactions/feelings about it and then how they actually communicate those feelings to others.
I felt Adams did a fair and balanced job of articulating their thoughts, intentions, motives, and struggles. No character is presented as flawless or ‘right.’ He identifies both things that are praiseworthy and things that are not helpful, hurtful, or sinful. He also offers encouragement— how he would counsel this person in this conversation and relationship.
I often feel misunderstood in how I communicate about race but I felt like one of his characters resonated with me in a lot of ways. I think most readers will have a character that represents many of their feelings. And so his encouragement is for us— not to give up on these conversations, not to lay blame, not to feel hopeless, but to enter into them ready to offer grace, assuming the best.
Part 2 discusses why we should talk about race across color lines, why it’s hard, how we should do it, forgiveness, and then a brief section on talking to our kids about it. (Which is better than Jemar Tisby’s book How to Fight Racism: Young Readers Edition)
Audience and Purpose
He is writing this book to Christians who believe their Bibles and love their churches.
“To white Christians who aren’t sure how to pursue racial reconciliation (or whether that’s even the right term to use). To black Christians who are tired of receiving white Christians’ indifference, ignorance, or scorn. To Hispanic and Asian Christians who’d like to talk about more than the black-white dynamic. To pastors trying to navigate all these waters.”
He offers a few disclaimers about his book.
It is not a book of statistics. It is focused on the American church. And it is not exhaustive. He does not purport to be addressing the biggest or the only problem in the church. And he is not suggesting that the only solution is talking.
He refrains from bringing in any politics other than to tell us to always pursue truth impartially, not wielding truth as a weapon to “protect our interests or our party.” We tell the truth. We don’t use it.
To these ends I think he holds the line well. His pastoral heart is very evident and I believe this book fulfills its purpose of helping people in the church communicate better about an important topic.
Color Blind, Conscious, or Consumed?
I think a lot of my feelings about race conversations are reactionary. If I feel like the culture is really pushing an idea or concept, my reaction tends to be pendulous, swinging, perhaps, too far in opposition.
For example, I often feel like everything is made about race. Always is an exaggeration. But we tend to see a skewed reality in the media which influences our perception. So when race is talked about so much it makes me want to talk about it less because otherwise it feels all-consuming.
Adams makes a really good distinction.
In one ditch we have color-blindness— I don’t see color. Saying things like ‘I don’t see you as a my black friend, you’re just my friend.’ A person’s race, and thus background and culture, is ignored.
“Color blindness is motivated by good intentions. A lot of color-blind people mean well. They see color blindness as loving their neighbor. They see color blindness as a positive step away from being color consumed, as racist societies are by necessity.”
In the other ditch we have people who are color-consumed: “Seeing everything through the lenses of race/ethnicity.”
This is the perspective often grounded in critical race theory. There is a training of people to read race into every conversation.
Being consumed is also the position that race is ultimate. That our racial identity is our most important identity. It puts matters of race above the gospel.
We should not be in either ditch.
In between the two ditches is the road of color-consciousness: “Celebrating how all people are fearfully and wonderfully made and showing no partiality while compassionately honoring different experiences.”
Conversations about race should be had, and he argues, should be had more. But they shouldn’t be the only conversations we have. We can’t let ourselves be consumed by this topic in which it becomes ultimate.
“Don’t be consumed by this conversation. Be consumed by Jesus.”
“nothing about our identity— our gender, our class, or our ethnicity— determines our status or rank in God’s kingdom. That doesn’t mean we lose those parts of our identity when we become Christians, or that those parts are no longer important or real, but that those parts of our identity are not ultimate.”
I really appreciated that Adams made this distinction. I think as humans it is natural for us to react as a pendulum and to avoid one ditch we swerve and end up in the other. We need to stop swerving and start adjusting.
Three Important Questions
Adams offers a lot of practical questions and thoughts in each chapter when it comes to communicating better from a variety of perspectives but here are three good questions/statements to keep in mind that somewhat summarize the main drive of his book:
Here’s Where You’re Right
What Did You Mean By ____?
Does the Other Side Have Legitimate Concerns?
When we affirm where our ‘opponents’ are right it helps keep defenses down. We are being fair and honest. People usually aren’t all right or all wrong. It is helpful to identify the good and right things of both sides. It shows that you are listening and understanding and can have an open dialogue.
Clarity is essential. Terms are loaded and mean different things to different people. Make sure you’re defining what you mean by words that could have baggage. Avoid buzzwords. If you're feeling defensive about something they said, ask clarifying questions.
Identify if their concerns are legitimate. Be humble and open to critique. Are there thoughts or behaviors that you need to adjust? Can your perspective be corrected? Again, people aren’t usually all right or wrong. Where could you be wrong? This is hard and requires a lot of humility. But if we’re willing to concede we don’t have all the answers, that goes a long way to a helpful conversation.
Other Highlights
He talks about whether one of the characters should leave their church because of a mishandling of this topic. I thought his list of questions to ask before leaving a church were really good. I liked how he reminded us that we have freedom in this matter.
Sometimes there is guilt put on people who leave their church to go to another one because sometimes the reasons are consumeristic. And people turn ‘finding the perfect church’ into an idol— though each church has it’s own mess because it’s full of sinners. But a lot of times people leave for good reasons. I went through my own journey leaving a church and it was a really hard thing to do. So much of what he says regarding when to leave resonated with me.
Especially this:
“The truth is that either decision requires faith. It takes faith to leave, and it takes faith to stay.”
His chapter that focuses on how pastors can navigate the situation was really good.
He reminds pastors to keep preaching the gospel and reminds us how important a strong pulpit it. Pastors can’t stop teaching the Bible.
“If we talk about racism more than we talk about Jesus, what are we teaching our people to care about most?”
He reminds pastors to major on the majors and minor on the minors. There is freedom of conscience in a lot of matters. (See Finding the Right Hills to Die On for more on this)
He cautions against making diversity of your church into an idol.
“Diversity, pursued wrongly, can obsess on outward change when what our churches may need is inward renewal.”
He encourages pastors to focus on their local church and community and not assuming national things are what’s happening in your own church and community. Address the needs and concerns in your local area.
He advocates for allowing sadness in church. It’s okay and good to lament. We weep with those who weep. Whether or not we agree on all points of an issue, if a tragedy happens, we mourn tragedy. (More on lament in the book Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy)
And above all— pray, pray, pray.
“When someone asks what the church is ‘going to do’ on racial matters, the pastor’s answer could be very simply: ‘We’re going to pray a lot and lament a lot and talk a lot.’”
“A sin is a sin is a sin. And black people can say ethnically hateful things just like white people can, just like Hispanics can, just like Koreans can, and so on. Racism is a sin anyone can commit against anyone.”
There’s not much to say about this as it’s pretty clear, but I appreciate that he said this and acknowledged that racism is a sin and no person is immune from sin.
“We often seem more troubled by the accusation of racism than the presence of racism.”
I thought this was interesting to ponder. I think this is accurate. I think we see so many accusations and big deals made of certain interactions that aren’t actually racism that overshadow the real racism. It then trains people like me to be focused more on accusations then actual instances of racism. Microaggressions are taking away from the awareness and concern of real racism and injustice.
“Some of us need to realize that we argue more with the caricature in our mind than the person in our presence. In other words, we project a national conversation onto one person and speak to them as if they hold every belief we find objectionable. But we shouldn’t do this, nor do we need to.”
This is really convicting to me! The culture right now is very into grouping people. We are already biologically predisposed to group and categorize people so we are good at this. But it’s not helpful when it comes to unity and good communication. We can’t assume that because someone is part of a certain group we have identified them with that they hold some specific/complete set of beliefs. It’s easier to view people as caricatures than individuals but that dehumanizes them and makes it easier to be mean and dismissive instead of loving and attentive.
“We can think of the evil of abortion. Abortion is a racial-justice issue. It disproportionately affects minorities. It is entrenched in legal structures. It is a state-sanctioned violence.”
This might be the first time I’ve heard anyone mention abortion when talking about systemic racism. But he’s correct— it’s a structure and it’s state-sanctioned. I love how he emphasizes that a biblical position is to be both pro-life and pro-racial-justice. Political parties may try to position these issues as opposing beliefs, but they are not.
The Best Last Thing
“We have to remember that with God all things are possible. That doesn’t mean we keep ourselves in toxic environments or harmful situations, but it also doesn’t mean we lose hope in God’s power and allow ourselves to grow bitter. Could it be that one reason conversations about race across color lines are so difficult is that we’ve lost hope in God’s sanctifying power and therefore have given up on one another?”
This was one of the things John Piper emphasizes in his book Bloodlines and I think it’s very important.
Do we truly believe that God is powerful? Do we truly believe in the power of the Holy Spirit? The power of the Gospel?
Then we should never give up hope for racial justice. We should never give up on each other. God is working and he can do immeasurably more than we could ever hope or imagine. Of course earth is not a substitute for heaven and we should not seek to create our paradise here on earth, but that doesn’t mean we are resigned to the status quo.
We need to be faithful in what God has called us to, trusting and believing in his power to make all things right.
“We can rest in this truth: our job is not to completely eradicate the world of racism; it is to faithfully follow the One who will. And vengeance and perfect justice belong to him.”
Recommendation
There are many books out there about race and talking about race. (You can also check out 11 Important Books on Racial Justice.)
I think this is a really good one to read. It’s insightful, it’s fair, it’s perceptive, and it’s gracious.
It’s not going to immediately make every conversation easy and productive and edifying. After all, we’re still selfish sinners. But it gives us a really good starting point with both practical questions and statements and a proper mindset as we go into these conversations.
I think this would especially be a valuable resource for pastors.
This book just released January, 2022. You may purchase a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.
Share this book review to your social media!