How to Fight Racism Video Study

For centuries, many segments of the church in the United States demonstrated complicity in the face of racism instead of courageously confronting it. In order to make racial progress, people must act. How to Fight Racism provides practical steps for churches, non-profit organizations, and individuals to combat racism today. This session gives an overview of the ARC of Racial Justice.

When we say "race" or "racism," what do we mean? What do they mean in social terms, but just as importantly, what do these words mean under the lens of Scripture? This session looks at what the Bible says about race and the humans in the image of God, or more specifically, what it says about differences between people groups and how to treat one another in light of those differences.

Before we can begin to fight racism "out there" we have to understand our own personal experiences with racism and the ways we have internalized racial social constructs. This session invites you to engage in the difficult task of introspection centering on your own background with race and racism.

Why exactly has the church in the United States failed when it comes to race? It includes dimensions like money, white supremacy, and violence. This session briefly surveys some of the major periods of racism in U.S. history (slavery, segregation, racialization) and the response of many Christians in the face of it.

This session deals with the dimension of relationships. It discusses biblical examples of how reconciliation is achieved focusing on the incarnation of Christ and instructions for reconciliation in the New Testament epistles. In addition, we will examine how believers can incorporate practices of lament into their congregational and personal lives.

Reconciliation entails more than making friends across racial and ethnic lines. This session offers practical steps for making friends from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Practical steps identify how to diversify one's social network, how to respectfully address racial differences, and warnings and encouragements about being a friend to someone of a different race or ethnicity.

This session discusses how to form communities comprised of people from different racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. It gives practical steps and examples for starting a book club or Bible study focused on issues of race, how to hire for diverse leadership, and how to construct a leadership pipeline that includes people from a broad array of social backgrounds.

This session explores the Bible to give a biblical basis for loving your neighbor out loud. It gives examples from Scripture as well as the black church tradition to show how believers have lived out the Bible's call for shalom. In practical terms, it lays out principles for how congregations and denominations can partner with organizations in the pursuit of systemic justice.

We will outline several issues of public justice including mass incarceration, public education reform, immigration reform, Native American advocacy, voting rights, gentrification, and other systemic issues of inequality. In each area, we'll look at practical steps for individuals to be part of the solution. This session provides steps for working for justice on an institutional level.

The ultimate goal of this series is to provide practical suggestions and engage more people in antiracist action. This session suggests several ways to do that including how to decide where to live, where to go to school or send your kids to school, and how to interrupt ignorance in your own social circles. Fighting institutional racism entails daily commitment to the task of fighting racism.

This session is a word of exhortation. Although we labor for a reality we may never see, we do not labor in despair or weariness. We know that Christ himself has torn down the dividing wall of hostile between God and humankind and between us and every other human being. Racial justice is not something we must achieve, but that which we must receive in faith.