I had the good fortune of hearing Professor George E. Tinker, Native American theologian, speak on the matter of violence and war in the United States.  Though it has been decades since I heard him, I remember vividly his analysis of our relationship with violence as an addiction.  He said that getting over an addiction takes as long as the addiction existed.  That idea has always stuck with me, and I believe it is a useful paradigm for us when we think about racism and white supremacy, which to be sure is a form of violence.

As a white person, it seems to me that we white folks think of racism in a couple ways.  One popular approach is historical: once there was racism; blacks suffered under slavery and Jim Crow, but now the laws have been changed, and they no longer suffer from those things.  Racism is something from the past. An important corollary to this approach, often unstated, is that since I did not live in the past, therefore I am not racist. 

Another approach more popular in progressive circles is the idea that racism continues into the present and that indeed I can be a racist.  I have been socialized in a certain way, and even if I don’t want to be explicitly racist, I have implicit biases that make it difficult to overcome racism in myself and in society.  If I read enough, listen enough, and engage enough, I can grow and at least become less racist and continue to work on eradicating it in my thought and behavior.  The progressive approach seems to see people on a racist spectrum.  I can put myself on the spectrum, and I can move up and down the spectrum depending on my behavior and personal growth.  Knowing my own history, I am inclined to see some validity in this approach.  In addition, I think the idea that we can grow is very important, that we are not locked into a moment in time when we may have not done enough to love our brothers and sister.  While this progressive approach seems to me much better than the historical approach, nonetheless I still think it falls short in some important ways.  Implied in this line of thinking is that if I just read enough Ta-Nehisi Coates or spend enough time with black people, I will be cured of my racism. We should all read as much Ta-Nehisi Coates as we can and clearly we need to spend more time together in meaningful interracial settings, nevertheless I have to say that I do not think this mindset will fully cure me of my racism.  Or at least it does not give me a complete understanding of how my racism works.  As evidence of this, witness how we respond when we are confronted with our racism.  Our response usually comes in the form of “but I have black friends,” or “but I’ve read The New Jim Crow.”  Let me be clear – books do have the power to impact how we live our lives; moreover, friendships across differences are crucial to understanding our world and valuing the people in it.  So yes, it is good for me to have black friends and to have read The New Jim Crow, but this type of approach leaves out some important factors. 

I believe we need to add to this approach an analysis of racism as an addiction.  By thinking of my racism as an addiction, I then become aware that it is something that is always with me, always a possibility, a seductive possibility at that.  However many diversity trainings I attend, there is always a voice in my head that can say to me, “just stick with the white guys – you’re one of them; it’ll be easier, and they’re likely to win.”  And I can yield, and have yielded, to that seductive voice, no matter how many times I pick up my Malcolm X or attend Dr. King Day marches.  Racist behavior is always an option for white people.  And for that reason, like an alcoholic at an AA meeting, I need to be able to stand and say, “Hi, my name is Thomas and I am a racist.”  When racism is always an option, a spectrum paradigm does not work.  Racism as an addiction is not a joyful awareness; it is not a particularly optimistic approach.  But I do think it is a realistic approach.

Viewing racism as an addiction allows me to confront the magnitude of the problem.  For over 400 hundred years, people of color have been systematically enslaved, imprisoned, and denied basic rights and freedoms.  To put it lightly, the United States has not been a place that has made it easy for people of color to flourish here.  This has been done to make it easier for white folks to flourish and to keep working folks economically divided along racial lines.  400 years is not going to be undone by a single law, or book, or an interracial dinner party, however helpful those things are.  We have been socialized in ways that we don’t easily understand.  Overcoming the addiction of racism needs to be a daily practice for white folks; the choice to be anti-racist needs to be made every day, and we need a heightened awareness that our default choice has been to be racist.

Two points follow.  First, this is going to be a long road for us white folks.  There are going to have to be a few late nights and some early mornings to make some headway on this.  Simply electing a black president doesn’t get the job done.  White folks just want to be able to check a box and then say, “racism managed, what’s next?”  We will have to habituate ourselves to anti-racist ways of being.  Racism is the example that proves how hard it can be for a person to fundamentally change.  We may want amazing grace to come down upon us and change us overnight, and perhaps for a few that is possible, but for many of us it will be a constant struggle.  As we come to understand one thing, we may find that we need to understand yet another.  The racism is just that deep in our culture – remember, there are 400 years to reckon with, and the longer an addiction is held the longer it takes to overcome. 

Second, just because this is a long road for white people does not mean it should be a long road for people of color.  This is not an argument for patience.  We all need to be liberated now.  The reckoning of how much needs to be worked through by white folks is not a call for people of color to be tolerant while white folks sleep off their racist addiction.  As Dr. King taught us in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, there can be no delay in justice or in liberation.  Further, I suspect, though I cannot be certain, that white folks reckoning with their past would likely hasten the liberation of our brothers and sisters of color.

So I would like to combine the racist/anti-racist spectrum with the addiction paradigm.  Here is how I visualize the addiction/spectrum approach to racism.

Liberation from Addiction

Racist——————– ↕ ——————-Anti-Racist

Addiction to Racist Behavior

This is not an X/Y graph with quadrants and the ability to move up or down the Y axis.  It is a line with racist and anti-racist at the two ends of the line, and on either side of that line is liberation from our addiction and addiction to our racist behavior.  So wherever one is on the line, there is the possibility of being on one side or the other of the line: it’s a simple either-or.  We can imagine an individual who is an aspiring anti-racist who succumbs to their addiction when they feel uncomfortable or challenged.  We can also imagine someone overtly very racist, a member of a hate group for example, who decides to leave that hate group; that strikes me as a very meaningful act of liberation from an addiction.  I must confess that I do not know how one consistently or entirely avoids the addiction to racist behavior or what is the key to becoming and staying liberated from racist behavior.  I can only point to Ibram X. Kendi, who teaches us that there are no non-racists, for such a person can only stand for the status quo which is a racist society; there are only racists and aspiring anti-racists.

What’s missing here?  A lot of course, but particularly an analysis of racism as a system.  Everything I have discussed comes from the perspective of the individual.  Individual behavior and actions clearly matter, but focusing solely on them will not solve our problem, which is bigger than any individual behavior.  Still I think considering racism as an addiction provides us with some tools to question the thing I’m addicted to – 400 years of racism – which can then lead me to some understanding of the bigger picture beyond myself.

Resources

George E. Tinker, “Dreaming a New Dream: Cowboys, Indians, Global Violence and the Gospel.” Plenary address at Call To Action National Conference, Milwaukee, Wis., Nov. 5, 2000.

George E. Tinker, Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation, Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2004.

George E. Tinker, American Indian Liberation: A Theology of Sovereignty, New York: Orbis Books, 2008.

Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Anti-Racist, New York: Nation Books, 2019.

John Biewen, Seeing White.  Podcast from Scene on Radio featuring Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika.