The Truth About Race: Debunking the Social Construct Theory
I have heard some say, race is a social construct. Oh, that was me. I used to think that. Actually, what I thought was that we create separations based on how people look that really don’t exist. I latched onto the social construct idea because of its use of a self-defined instead of objective reality to describe race. What is self-defined is the way cultures define the worth of people based on their differences, particularly their physical features. (I know, it sounds strange.)
However, race, while defined, is not constructed by our society. Sure, we may assign labels, Black, Asian, etc. but God designed those differences, and thus He created “race.” All the races of the world were written in the DNA of Adam and Eve. The races have always existed. The Bible says on the sixth day of creation, after God created humanity, He said that it was “very good” (Genesis 1:31).
On the other hand, racism is a concept that exists because of our keen observations of our differences and how we decide we should relate to one another. So, while race is not a social construct, racism is. For every good and beautiful thing God has created, there is perhaps a perverted counterpart. Racism perverts the beauty of ebony skin, smiling eyes and golden hair. We have so many reasons to celebrate! We are different, but not really.
In God’s retelling of history, He makes it quite clear that His goal is to redeem the nations. He describes the expanding circle of creation from the creation of the first woman and man to the creation of nations. The Bible rarely refers to people by the color of their skin. The long lists of ancestries, tribes and nations dominate how people are described. These descriptions are not unlike our current use of race. But they are mere descriptors, not value assignments. To top it off, God accentuates His vision with a picture of Heaven after Earth where people from every nation, tribe, people, and language worship Jesus together.
God’s creation of the races has always been very good! Our perversion of that beauty, racism, is very bad.
