Does Slavery and Racism Still Exist?
After reading the title, I know what some of you are probably thinking. “Duh! Of course slavery and racism still exist! Do you live under a rock?” No, I do not live under a rock, because guess what? There are people who will read the title and think, “No way!” or “Honestly, I don’t really know.”
A classmate of mine shared this past week that her children went to a private Christian school, and the majority of the students there were white. She said her kids made some of the nicest friends, but they would say things that were very racist, and they didn’t even realize it! My classmate said she went to the school and told them about this and asked them if they could do something to educate the students there about other races/ethnicities and racial biases, but they never did. This was a Christian school that wasn’t knowledgeable about other races and discrimination. I have never considered myself racist. In one of my college classes called Cultural Diversity, we talked about racism and discrimination, and I learned about things like racial profiling, which is suspecting a person committed a crime based off of their race or ethnicity, and unconscious racial bias, which is when a person is biased toward a person because of their race or ethnicity and don’t even realize it. For example, say I was walking down the street, and a black man was walking up the street, and I crossed the street or turned around. That could be considered an unconscious bias. However, for me, I wouldn’t be doing that because they are black; I would be doing it because they are a man and I am a woman, so I’m being cautious to keep myself safe. I have been unconsciously racist before though, and I didn’t realize that until after I took this cultural diversity class. I also learned about white privilege; people who are white have certain privileges because they are white. They are considered the majority, superior. They don’t have to worry about or go through things that black people, and people of other races/ethnicities, deal with just because of the color of their skin. The more knowledgeable we become about racism and discrimination, and all the different forms of those things, the more we can be aware of how we perceive and treat people of different races and ethnicities.
Many things have occurred over the last several years, and currently, that proves that racism still exists. A huge thing is the police brutality that has occurred against innocent black people: the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014; the killing of a black teenager, Trayvon Martin, in 2012; Eric Garner choked to death by police officers in July 2014; Dontre Hamilton shot to death by a police officer in Milwaukee in April 2014; John Crawford was shot and killed by a police officer in Ohio in August 2014; Ezell Ford, who was mentally ill, was shot 3 times by a white police officer in Florence, California, in August 2014; Dante Parker, a father of five, died while in police custody after being repeatedly stunned by a taser in Victorville, California in August 2014; Tanisha Anderson, died after police officers in Cleveland slammed her head against the pavement while taking her into custody in November 2014; Akai Gurley was shot and killed by a police officer while walking on a stairwell in a public housing facility in New York City with his girlfriend in November 2014; Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy, was shot and killed by Cleveland police after officers mistook his toy gun for a real gun in November 2014; In Tulsa, Oklahoma, in April 2015, Eric Harris was shot and killed by an elderly police officer who was trying to tase him, but thought his gun was a taser (2). There are many more innocent blacks who have lost their lives due to police brutality. There are people who are confronted daily by police officers, or are suspected of criminality, just because they are black. Even just going about their everyday lives, like shopping at the mall, getting a cup of coffee, having a cookout at the park, etc., black people are called upon as criminals, or bad people (1).
Does slavery still exist? Well, when one hears the world slavery, they usually think of black slavery in the south during the 1800s. Black people were subhuman species, inferior to whites in every respect, so slaves were never considered equal to their slave owners. These slaves were not even considered human; they were considered property and treated as such. They weren’t allowed to learn how to read or write; if they got married it wasn’t considered legal; the slave owners could separate the slaves from their children. The whites held a set of values that aimed to, not only keep blacks in the bondage of slavery, but to deprive them of any sense of humanity. Even after slavery was abolished in 1865, laws were kept and put in place that would still deprive blacks of their freedom; they couldn’t vote, come together for political reasons, or even freely travel. After the Civil War, “black codes” had a central foundation that, by law, any African American could be arrested if they were homeless or unemployed, which applied to many black people because housing and employment opportunities for them were very limited after the war. Later on, there were segregation laws that excluded blacks from using certain public facilities, water fountains, and public bathrooms (4). Today, more than 40 million men, women, and children suffer the exploitation of human trafficking and modern slavery. Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery that occurs when one person exerts control over another person in order to exploit them economically. In this scenario, the victim is controlled through manipulation, violence, or the threat of violence and cannot walk away. There are three main components to human trafficking: 1. The Action, which is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons. 2. The Means, which includes threat of or use of force, deception, coercion, abuse of power or position of vulnerability. 3. The Purpose, which is always exploitation. Human trafficking is further broken down into two forms: labor trafficking and sex trafficking. Labor trafficking appears in conditions that can encompass all models of labor and services, including domestic servitude, sweat shops, and farm laborers coerced to work without profit. Sex trafficking takes place in situations that surround the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), as well as all adults who participate in a commercial sex act because of force, fraud, or coercion (3).
What does the Bible say about slavery? Well, slavery is talked about all throughout the Bible. There were slaves and slave owners in both the Old and New Testament. However, slavery in the American South, and slavery in Bible times, were not the same. Unlike the American South, slaves were treated as equals to their slaveowners in the Bible and had a loving relationship between the two of them. In the Book of Philemon, it talks about a church member, who was also a slave owner, who had been reunited with their runaway slave named Onesimus. Onesimus had fled to Rome, and while he was there, he became a Christian through the ministry of Paul. In chapter 1 of the Book of Philemon, Paul says to the slaveowner, “He is no longer a slave to you. He is more than a slave, for he is a beloved brother, especially to me. Now he will mean much more to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord. So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.” The bible speaks very clearly about the relationships that should exist between slaves and their masters, especially if one or both of them are Christians. In Christ, differences are no more; in Him, all believers are equal. Paul speaks on this to the Galatians when he says, “You are all children of God through your faith in Jesus Christ. All who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus” (3:26–28). Racism did not exist in the Bible, and therefore slaves were seen as humans, unlike in the American South (4).
We all, as a family of Christians and the body of Christ, cannot remain ignorant about these issues and the people who suffer because of them. We are called to care for and love these people, the “least of these.” We need to feed the hungry and care for the sick, hurting, orphaned, widowed, marginalized, oppressed, and so forth. We need to study and become knowledgeable in order to understand, and once we understand, we need to take action. If you didn’t already, you now know the continuing and current issues of slavery and racism, and if you turn your back now, you are responsible for the problems continuing.
References: (1) “Viewpoint: Why Racism in US Is Worse than in Europe.” BBC News, BBC, 17 May 2018, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44158098.
(2) Quah, Nicholas. “Here’s A Timeline Of Unarmed Black People Killed By Police Over Past Year.” BuzzFeed News, BuzzFeed News, 1 May 2015, www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicholasquah/heres-a-timeline-of-unarmed-black-men-killed-by-police-over.
(3) “The Problem.” Allies Against Slavery, www.alliesagainstslavery.org/slavery/.
(4) Grunlan, Stephen A., and Milton Reimer. Christian Perspectives on Sociology. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2001.
