One Race, One BloodChikamu

I’ve known that I’m black for as far back as I can remember, so the question of whether race exists was never an issue for me. I knew the color of my skin, and I knew the insanity it triggered in some people. So it would’ve seemed ridiculous for someone to tell me that race doesn’t exist when I saw it in the mirror every day!

At the same time, I had no doubt about my dignity as a person of color. Maybe other folks didn’t think I was worth anything, but I knew deep in my heart that I was. When I became a committed Christian at age twenty-seven, I realized that the reason why I always had that sense of self-worth was because God had planted it within me even while I was in my mother’s womb. “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them” (Ps. 139:16).

But even before reading the book of Psalms, I understood from the Genesis account God’s intimate interaction with Adam when He created him, breathing into him the very breath of life. I understood that God was literally breathing dignity and character into this man Adam.

From this one man, Adam, who was created in the very image of God, the entire human race sprang. So I knew in my heart that I had great worth. And then I started to hear normally intelligent people suggest that race, as we know it, really doesn’t exist. They said there is only one race—the human race—and that man had created the concept of racial categories. At first, I thought it was one of those well-intentioned “nice Christian” things to say, kind of like “I don’t see color.” But then I began hearing it from other folks—professors, theologians, and scientists. Suddenly, familiar scripture passages took on a different meaning; for example:

•  Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness . . .” (Gen. 1:26)

•  “Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? . . .” (Mal. 2:10)

•  “And He made from one man every nation of mankind . . .” (Acts 17:26)

•  " . . . there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all." (Col. 3:11)

None of these disprove the existence of race, but they seemed to point to something greater in God’s design for humanity. As I studied the Bible, the threads came together in unexpected ways, and I was forced to pay attention. Did I have the wrong idea about race?