Racism is a belief in the essential reality of race, the belief that race is real, beyond it's social reality. Racism is both a product of and an essential component of [[colonialism]], and race was invented in the colonial age. Racial categories include "white," "non-white," and "black," among others. Racism is a topic worthy of a more exhaustive treatment than what I can give it here. Sufficient for my work in [[Christian Spiritual Formation]] is the assertion that the races have been established by man, and are a poor substitute for the diversity of nations that God has established among humanity. See the following contrasts for more of my perspective. See also the page [[whiteness]]. | Races | Nations | | --------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | | Inherently heirarchical | Flat heirarchy | | Fewer categories | Nearly infinite categories | | Unhelpful generalization | Helpful specificity | | Established by Man c. 1700 | Established by God | | Enables power consolidation | Enables cross-cultural appreciation | It's my one-sentence view that God established the nations to help reflect the almost infinite diversity among human expression, a showcase of both God's creativity and ours. See how wonderfully diverse folk art is around the world. There may be a blog post on this in the future. Man established the races to enable the consolidation of power. This was a bad thing, in my opinion.