Notes on Tara VanderWoude's talk at the Refresh Conference

 Race = a social construct, shifting over time, that determines how you are perceived by others

Ethnicity = heritage, the history of your experiences, your parents, your grandparents, etc; closely connected to first language / language spoken at home; determined by birth / family history; not fluid

Culture = multiple dimensions of society; we are all born into at least one culture which shapes us, but we may chose to identify with another culture(s) as adults i.e. culture is partially chosen by an individual and partly shaped by family and experiences (partially fluid); includes religion, geography, language, history etc.

Nationality = citizenship / residency; fluid to the degree that governments allow

Ethnicity and Culture are created by God and are inherently good, although the latter is corrupted by sin in ALL cases. Race was invented by humans to justify oppression. Nationality was invented by humans to solve the problem of political organization and governmental authority (i.e. under which ultimate earthly authority does someone reside?).

 Globally, there are more ethnic and/or religious conflicts than racial ones. The concept of Race - grouping ethnicities and/or cultures into superior and inferior categories - originated in Europe and is not widely found outside of the Western world, although the caste system in India has some of the same features. Islam divides the entire world into two camps: the Dar al-Islam, which is in submission to Allah, and the Dar al-___ which is at war with Muslims and Allah. The former Troubles in Northern Ireland, although purportedly religious, was an ethnically-driven conflict over a political question: whether their country should be part of the Republic of Ireland, as preferred by the historically Catholic Irish, or part of the UK as preferred by the historically Presbyterian Scots.   

 

One ongoing debate in the African-American community is whether it is more important to fight the concept of Race or to celebrate their Ethnicity and Culture. To an outside who hasn't learned to distinguish these categories, many statements and actions can appear contradictory. But in reality, they are complementary. One can decry the false construct of Race, while celebrating how God made you and embracing the African-American culture.

Barack Obama is not ethnically African-American: his father was a Kenyan immigrant who ultimately returned to Kenya, while his mother was a White woman from Kansas. But racially, he is perceived as Black, and he has consciously chosen - at least since his baptism and profession of faith at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago - to identify (although not exclusively) with African-American culture. 

Similarly, my son Judah-Jakori can be proud of his birthmother and his ancestors, can rejoice in who God made him to be and how he looks, and can embrace African-American culture, while rejecting the notion the belongs in a rigidly-walled box marked "Black" while I belong in a much larger and thinner-walled box marked "White."