The Death of Race by Brian Bantum Research Paper

Introduction

In the book The Death of Race: Building a new Christianity in a racial world by Brian Bantum, the author argues that race must die for humans to live. The rationale for this thesis is that race has only managed to reap death since people have used God’s essence of racial difference to create a world in their image¹. Historically, the race has shaped humanity in terms of how to live, with whom to live, and how individuals see each other. Christianity is also threatened by race, especially if the racially oppressed find no reason to support a religion that has no clear definition of their identity. Overall, Bantum believes that race has even eclipsed the American story of the American society since religion can be associated with whiteness. Therefore, only through the elimination of race can the world flourish without certain races thriving at the expense of others.

Arguments for Author’s Position

The author has argued his position mostly by using personal experiences with race and attempts to feel differently from what people close to him felt he should. To justify the death of race, Bantum has successfully shown what is wrong with it and the problem it has caused, as well as attempting to illustrate how it has been misconceived. In the first chapter, the author states that “race is this act of conjuring,”² a statement that can be used to imply that the creation of the idea of race has been misleading. People only start to realize their race upon growing a conscience, considering that Bantum started to experience it when he was nineteen years old. In other words, the race has been a human creation that has been used to define people and a story that shapes ideas of what human bodies are for. Such a conception of race by the author helps support the argument that the world could do without it and that the world would be better off if race died. Overall, the race is not a natural thing or a history that matters to people.

The author also uses Christianity and its teaching to prove that race is an unnecessary human conception of what God created differently. From the creation story, the Christian belief is that the differences between people were an intention of God, with the basic example being the differences between men and women³. However, people have misused these differences to create an unequal world where life experiences are defined by them. For example, the American jails house more African American men, which shows how race and gender are treated within the society. Additionally, the stories of race have been used to justify violence against a certain group and the denial of what the American constitution described as inalienable rights. As a Christian, the idea of the image of God means the body and the differences, which means that Christianity has been using race wrongly all along. From this perspective, Bantum successfully makes a point that Christians should never allow race to define them differently than what God intended them to be.

Much of the focus of the author is observing race through the lens of our bodies and what they mean in a complicated and racialized world that is keen to dehumanize dark bodies. From the beginning of the first chapter, Bantum highlights that race is a story written on the body and one which turns the body into a story. In this case, the treatment that he and his parents have received from the community has defined who they are and how their lives have been poisoned. Bantum also describes the race as a “…cancer, a cell that shares a likeness to part of my world…”⁴ As is the case with cancer, the disease tends to multiply violently until it overruns the body, which is how race ultimately determines how a body is seen. The race is a social system since it is started and propagated by people until it reaches a point where it can control all aspects of human life and the dehumanization of others. Similar to cancer, the removal of race will leave a healthy body that can survive and thrive.

Lastly, one of the most important arguments to support his position is that race has only resulted in death, implying that race and human beings’ life are inversely related. This is a particularly successful argument considering that racism across the United States has been associated with massive deaths since the days of slavery. Other scholarly materials have also illustrated racism has historically resulted in the mass killings of other races, which include the native Indians who were killed during the colonization of the Americas⁵. The author is an African American, which means he fully understands how his race has been detrimentally suffered due to racism. In chapter 7, the death of race is seen as the ultimate solution where people refuse the lie about race and embark on living freely without struggling to be seen as human. The death of race is the beginning of independence and freedom that will ensure that no one will be defined by the colors of their bodies.

Key Lessons 5

Reading the book reveals several important things to learn, most of which revolve around the conceptualization of race. First, race is a social creation intended to create a system that suits some people who deem themselves to be in a position of power. Therefore, it is not a natural phenomenon associated with humanity, which supports Bantum’s position that the world can live without it. This lesson is vital considering that the author calls for the death of race and he has to have a justification for this. Bantum has managed to use Christian teaching to illustrate gender and racial differences were intentionally created by God, but not for humans to use these distinctions to build systems that dehumanize others.

The second lesson is that it is difficult for people to eliminate the use of color to racially classify people. Bantum had lived without knowing the existence of this phenomenon until it came to a point where he had to tick boxes that classified him as black and encountered people and scenarios that insisted on his blackness. This lesson helps understand why the author believes that the death of race does not necessarily mean becoming colorblind since people will always notice it. For Bantum, he did not see himself as black due to his complexion, but even this did not stop him from associating with the color black. Considering that color is the primary element in race, it becomes difficult to imagine race dying even if people were to no longer believe the lies propagated about race.

The third and one of the most important lessons is that even the dehumanized races have played a critical role in persisting racial prejudices. This is an argument that can be made from Bantum’s relationship with his parents and peers who insisted on his blackness. For example, Bantum states that the darker children saw his body like theirs even though he did not. These peers insisted that he was black, which is why he should work on the MLK assembly with the rest of the black children. This scenario illustrates that the African Americans have embraced the racial classification and feel no need to fight it or prove that their color is not inherently bad and worthy of dehumanizing. However, the same attitude can be interpreted to mean that this community understands the difficulty in making the privileged white perceive them as equals. In this case, uniting and proving to the world that being black is a good thing would be the most rational approach.

Lastly, the outcome of the racial system created by humans has been a death due to dehumanization and exploitation of people based on their color. This is perhaps the most important lesson considering the extreme implications of racism experienced in the United States and other such countries are South Africa, whose apartheid regime can be described as a chronic case of racism. In the United States, racism allowed the whites to enslave the blacks and European colonists to murder the Native Indians to propagate their own prosperity across the Americas. Even after the end of slavery, racism allows privileges to one race and disregards the others, which causes inequalities and gaps across multiple social and economic parameters. However, the criminal and sexual exploitation of the minority races are the main evidence of how race facilitates death.

Analysis

I consider chapter 7 to be the most significant since it makes a case for why race should die. The rationale is that the entire book has attempted to describe everything wrong with race and why it is an unnecessary human conception. In other words, all previous chapters have been leading to chapter 7, where the author can finally present his opinion on the subject. Additionally, the idea of the death of race appears to be vague without reading this chapter and understanding what Bantum meant by suggesting that race must die. Towards the end of the chapter, Bantum explains that the death of race is a point in life when people refuse to believe the lies propagated about race. The steps towards this end have been outlined in other chapters, including those arguing that the differences in our bodies were intended by God and not for people to use them to create a world of their own. This chapter finally illustrates that as long as people believe in race racism, the resulting dehumanization of bodies will never cease.

Several statements made by the author did make an impression on me due to the message they contained and the unique propositions and reasoning used. However, the quote that made the most impression is the one associating race with death, which evokes deep emotions of a race that has historically suffered due to skin color. Bantum states that “race is a form of death because it renders certain bodies to nothing but bone. It eats away the uniqueness and beauty of every individual and incorporates them into an ecosystem where such uniqueness is only possible for white bodies”⁶. This quote illustrates that there is nothing inherently wrong with certain skin colors and nothing special about others, which shows why prejudice and privilege cannot be rationally justified. All the evils that have happened to black people, including criminal and sexual exploitation, have been justified only by the fact that they are black. The saddest part is that Christianity has kept racial hierarchies in place despite these evils⁷. Therefore, likening race to death tends to summarize everything that is wrong with it.

I had my reservations about the argument that race must die since I did not understand the incentives provided for the oppressors to stop violating the liberties of the oppressed. The rationale is that the idea regarding the death of race is that people should stop believing the lies told about it and embrace their differences as God intended. The history of the United States illustrates that racism has always been propagated by the white majority to justify their sexual and economic exploitation of African Americans since the days of slavery. Today, slavery may have ended, but racism is a mechanism that offers privileges to the whites at the expense of other races. Personally, calling for the death of race is equivalent to asking the whites to give up their privileges. My argument is that is it impossible to achieve this goal, but that Bantum does not offer adequate incentives for the whites to give up their privileges. In this case, only the oppressed can start viewing themselves as free of race and embrace their differences but a similar outcome from the whites is difficult to expect.

What I found difficult with the book is the fact that the author calls for the death of race and the same time, reiterates that people do not have t be colorblind. In the United States, color is the platform upon which race is built, maintained, and propagated. Studies of Black Theology had also hinted that color is the primary item in racism, with examples from such countries as South Africa when apartheid persisted for several decades⁸. In this case, Black Theology has led to the realization that even the blacks are a significant race that can unite and fight against all evils done to them simply for being black. In other words, race cannot die as long people continue to identify themselves and others in terms of the color of their skin. I find this argument difficult since Bantum expresses that color has been used for classifying people. The death of race can only be achieved if people also resist the urge for classification based on color.

One thing I found challenging in the book is the fact that a person could not know anything about race until one grows up and the subject comes up. The life story and experiences of Bantum are evidence of the fact that even the oppressed have a role to play in facilitating the persistence of oppression based on race. Bantum’s parents were among the first people to let him know that he was black, even after living for several years without ever having such a thought. This knowledge challenged me since it is evidence that the story of race has been so convincing that even those people to whom it causes prejudice have believed it. However, there is also an argument that they have been left no choice but to accept it, considering that even government documentation classifies people along the same lines. It would not have been possible for Bantum to skip this knowledge, considering he had to tick some boxes that indicated his color, which is also about the same time that his parents made him aware of this fact.

Emerging Questions

Several emerged during my reading and that bear further exploration. The first is whether there can be a different system of demographic classification in the government and other official records that disregard the color of individuals. Even though Bantum does not believe people need to become colorblind, I believe that young African Americans will ultimately be made aware of their color and the consequences it carries for their life. The second is the role that white Christians have to play in dismantling the racial hierarchies that have persisted within this religion for millennia. The rationale is that Christians believe in the creation story and how God intended all humans to be in His likeness and that the differences in creation are intentional. In this case, one can expect that true Christians will understand that the human body is sacred and should be treated as such, regardless of color. Bantum does not offer insights into what role Christianity or theology plays in killing race, implying a question and gap that warrants further exploration.

Effects on Vocational Practice

The book changes how I would approach my theology practice and what lessons I would be seeking to impart to all Christians. Bantum has illustrated that race is a human conception that violates the treatment of God’s creation, which means that there is a need to teach Christian to learn how to respect the biblical teachings and embrace the differences that God intended to be beautiful. The ideas in the book can form the foundation for a new theological discourse that can be labeled as killing racism and which offers the right religious approach to this problem. The theological practice could be influenced by one’s understanding and interpretation of scriptures and other relevant texts. In this case, Bantum has offered a new approach to interpreting the Bible by holding a firm position that God did not make people different for them to suffer dehumanization. Therefore, a priority on teaching Christian to refrain from racism could emerge in my vocational practice.

Conclusion

Overall, the book by Bantum is one that forces the reader to reconsider their beliefs and, as a result, their approaches to practice. The author’s personal story is relatable, which explains why vocational practice can be modeled around the major themes of this book. However, the effects on vocation may depend on the perspective taken, either as an ordinary American or an African American who also relates to the same life experiences.

Bibliography

Bantum, Brian, The Death of Race: Building a New Christianity in a Racial World, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016).

Brecht, Mara. “A Widened Angle of View: Teaching Theology and Racial Embodiment.” Journal of Global Catholicism 5, no. 1 (2021): 20-29.

Hughey, Mathew. “Race and Racism: Perspectives from Bahá’í Theology and Critical Sociology.” The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 27, no. 3 (2017): 7-56.

Moore, Basil. “Learning from Black Theology.” Journal for the Study of Religion 31, no. 1 (2018): 86-95.

Footnotes

1. Brian Bantum, The Death of Race: Building a New Christianity in a Racial World, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016).
2. Ibid, 4.
3. Ibid, 20.
4. Ibid, 14
5. Mathew Hughey, “Race and Racism: Perspectives from Bahá’í Theology and Critical Sociology.” The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 27, no. 3 (2017): 9.
6. Bantum, The Death of Race, 108.
7. Mara Brecht, “A Widened Angle of View: Teaching Theology and Racial Embodiment.” Journal of Global Catholicism 5, no. 1 (2021): 25.
8. Basil Moore, “Learning from Black Theology.” Journal for the Study of Religion 31, no. 1 (2018): 87.