Beyond Racial Gridlock: Embracing Mutual Responsibility is a product of several years in specializing in race, ethnicity and biracial families at the University of Texas by George Yancey Ph.D. He is currently a professor of sociology that now focuses on academic bias and anti-Christian attitudes in the United States. This book is an in-depth and holistic discussion of the need for a Christian approach to resolving the tensions, healing the pain, and reducing the effects of racism. Dr. Yancey contends that the Christian faith provides a unique answer to the problem of racism that the four most prominent secular approaches to resolving racism lack.
The first half of Beyond Racial Gridlock is a clear and robust exploration of four current approaches to resolving racism: Colorblindness, Anglo-Conformity, Multiculturalism, and White Responsibility. This section covers the strength and weaknesses of each and a critique of the ways the church has adopted these approaches for better and worse. The second part of the book focuses on moving the church toward constructing a Christian solution to racism through examining the unique effects of sin on majority and minority groups, Jesus as the ultimate reconciler of humanity, the hindering effects of fear on majority and minority groups and the practical application and the outworking of a Christian solution.
Part one starts with the individual and internal focused approaches to racism and ends with the structural and external focused approaches. The first two models have internal and individualized components. In the Colorblindness model, if we emphasize racial issues, we will continue to have racial problems. (29)” As a result, diminishing the focus on race diminishes racism. The second model, Anglo-conformity, could also be called “the American Way.” To solve the socioeconomic disparities that cause racism, educational and intellectual development and success are utilized to overcome racism. (42) Multiculturalism is the first of the two structural and external focused approaches. This approach celebrates all cultures and recognizes the need of those cultures to be affirmed. (63) The final model, White Responsibility, at its core supposes “the responsibility of majority group members to surrender excessive power” and “right the effects of historic racism.” (66)
Part two of the book starts with a revisit of the need for a new model to resolve racial gridlock. According to Dr. Yancey, racism is a moral issue that must be addressed by a moral solution. The broadly used four solutions do not address the underlying cause of the moral issue of racism and some ignore it altogether. The colorblindness and anglo-conformity ignore the moral dimension of racism, while the white responsibility and multiculturalism models provide incomplete solutions, “underestimates sin’s power to continue to poisin our society.”(94) In this part of the book he expounds on his proposition that, these approaches to resolving racism are inherently incomplete, because they do not address the underlying problem of human depravity and sin. (79)
The next chapters discuss the doctrine of depravity within the Christian faith and the holistic solution to depravity accomplished by Christ on the cross. At its core the gospel helps us understand how broken we are and how much we need the work of Christ. In addition to the work of Christ destroying the power of sin over us, Dr. Yancey spends a whole chapter discussing Christ as the “Ultimate Reconciler,” who serves as an example to everyone. Jesus lived in position of social privilege and social poverty, yet did so without sin. Like him, we can practice “mutual responsibility” and balance social power with relationships.
It takes humility and maturity to write the way Dr. Yancey has written this book. He ventures into tumultuous waters and provides a solid framework to navigate them. Dr. Yancey embraces the open-ended complexity of the discussion of racism, admits his inability to solve it on his own and invites the reader to participate with him in moving the church toward a Biblical solution. He is also willing to critique both the majority and minority groups tendency to sin and overlook or take advantage of one another.
I found the structure of the book lead to a pragmatic approach to this issue. Jesus as the ultimate reconciler, the subject of chapter nine, was a solid hermeneutic for a biblical approach to solving the issues of racism but its location in the second half of the book made this robust theology feel tacked on as a means to justify a Christian approach to racism. I also found this chapter lacked acknowledgement of the need for the Holy Spirit to convict hearts and empower us to pursue change.
This book is a much-needed discussion of the solutions to racism at the forefront of American culture. As someone who has experienced the outworking of each of these approaches, I found myself understanding the people and experiences of those times in church, social and educational settings with a new perspective, compassion, and appreciation. I highly recommend it to better understand the rhetoric filling our news and social media and as a means to move toward a personal and corporate approach to engaging in resolving the problem of racism. This book will challenge you to follow the ultimate reconciler, Jesus Christ, who exemplified living with social privilege, experiencing racial oppression and desiring justice yet did not sin. You’ll be stretched to consider others needs above yourself and search your heart for the unique ways sin impacts the way you relate to others as a member of the minority or majority groups in America.