Beyond Racial Division: A Unifying Alternative to Colorblindness and Antiracism

by George Yancey

Publisher:

IVP

, 2022

Overview

Efforts at colorblindness and antiracism have not been very effective in addressing racial tensions in the United States. Colorblindness ignores the realities of race and the history of injustice. On the other hand, antiracism centers racial concerns and in so doing often alienates people who need to be involved in the process.

Sociologist George Yancey offers an alternative approach to racial relations where all parties contribute and are mutually accountable to one another for societal well-being. He provides empirical rationale for how collaborative conversations in a mutual accountability model can reduce racial division. History and societal complexity mean that different participants may have different kinds of responsibility, but all are involved in seeking the common good for all to thrive. Avoiding unilateral decisions that close off dialogue, Yancey casts a vision for moving beyond racial alienation toward a lifestyle and movement of collaborative conversation and mutuality.

Key Features

• Offers an alternative approach to racial relations where all parties contribute and are mutually accountable to one another for societal well-being
• Provides empirical rationale for how collaborative conversations in a mutual accountability model can reduce racial division
• Casts a vision for moving beyond racial alienation

Contents

• Introduction
• We Need a New Path
• The Mutual Accountability Model
• Reality of Institutional Discrimination
• Why Antiracism Fails
• The Empirical Basis of Mutual Accountability
• The Theological Basis of Mutual Accountability
• Doing Mutual Accountability in Our Lives
• Toward a Larger Movement of Mutual Accountability

Praise for the Print Edition

Dr. George Yancey argues that the two paths of colorblindness and antiracism have not worked and will not work to solve the country’s problems and heal its pain resulting from a racialized society. Dr. Yancey contends that the path of colorblindness ignores racialized problems, and the path of antiracism causes a racially hostile society to be even more hostile and polarized instead of bringing ethnically diverse people together. Dr. Yancey argues for a third path that he calls ‘mutual accountability/responsibility’ or ‘collaborative conversations.’ This approach invites ethnically diverse image-bearers to be proactive and take personal responsibility to enter into collaborative conversations with the intent of working together with all ethnically diverse image-bearers of goodwill to solve racialized problems. For those interested in getting off the paths of colorblindness and antiracism, Dr. Yancey’s book offers a third path to help God’s image-bearers get closer to the promised land of both racial healing and a racially fair society.

—Jarvis J. Williams, associate professor of New Testament interpretation at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

There is not a more theologically sound, empirically informed, well-reasoned, or more rational voice addressing the complexities of race, class, and culture in America today than that of Dr. George Yancey. In Beyond Racial Division, he navigates nuance and effectively challenges readers to get beyond rhetoric to results in their engagement of diverse others. As did Christ with arms outstretched, Yancey herein seeks to unite motivations and to hold Christ-followers in tension so that we might walk a more productive path for the sake of the Gospel, and in so doing lead others away from painful polarization, beyond the crippling distinctions of this world that otherwise divide.

—Mark DeYmaz, cofounder, president, and CEO of the Mosaix Global Network, author of Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church

Product Details

• Title: Beyond Racial Division: A Unifying Alternative to Colorblindness and Antiracism
• Author: George Yancey
• Publisher: IVP
• Print Publication Date: 2022
• Logos Release Date: 2022
• Pages: 215
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Racism › Religious aspects--Christianity; Post-racialism; Race relations › Religious aspects--Christianity; Common good; Racism › United States; Reconciliation › Religious aspects--Christianity
• ISBNs: 9781514001851, 9781514001844, 1514001853, 1514001845
• Resource ID: LLS:RCLDVSNCLNTRCSM
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:35:00Z

About George Yancey

George Yancey, (PhD, University of Texas) is professor of sociology at the University of North Texas, specializing in race/ethnicity, biracial families and anti-Christian bias. He is the author, coauthor or coeditor of books such as Compromising Scholarship: Religious and Political Bias in American Higher Education, Dehumanizing Christians: Cultural Competition in a Multicultural World, There Is No God: Atheists in America, Beyond Black and White, Beyond Racial Gridlock and Just Don't Marry One. He is working to start the first academic unit on a secular campus that focuses on research that serves Christians and Christian organizations.