In considering the problem of racism in America we would do well to study our history.

Three Black men, brilliant and articulate contemporaries whose lives spanned the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s, were great leaders in America: W.E.B. Dubois (1868-1963),

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), and George Washington Carver (1864-1943).

In addition to their common ethnicity and era, these three giants of American history shared a concern for the dignity of all human beings, grounded in the biblical concept of man made in the image of God. They took seriously the affirmation in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.” They also understood that education was vital for overcoming the ravages of slavery and racism, and lifting Blacks out of poverty.

Nevertheless, between these three, they had two very different visions for how to emancipate their community to take its place as citizens of a free society.

Dubois’s vision was primarily political; he was an early proponent of an activist civil-rights movement using civil disobedience to bring pressure on the public to rectify unjust laws and policies. Martin Luther King Jr. became the undisputed leader of this movement in the 50s and 60s that led to the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Today this pathway has been hijacked by Critical Race Theory and the neo-Marxist movement it is fomenting. One of the current efforts of this framework is the 1619 Project founded by the New York Times. They argue that the nation was born, not in 1776, but in 1619 when the first African slave set foot on the soil of what would become the United States.

“Reframing” American history

Nikole Hannah-Jones, New York Times Pulitzer-Prize reporter, developed The 1619 Project. The media giant states the objectives as follows:

The goal of The 1619 Project is to reframe American history by considering what it would mean to regard 1619 as our nation’s birth year. Doing so requires us to place the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are as a country.[1]

This revolutionary narrative is founded on the ideology of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and displayed on the streets by Black Lives Matter (BLM) and other quasi-political/religious activist groups. Scott Allen, writing in Why Social Justice Is Not Biblical Justice, notes that this movement “holds that existing social, cultural, and economic systems and institutions are so corrupted by racism that there is no possibility of reform. They need to be torn out, root and branch to make way for a new order.”[2]

An alternative path

The second pathway by which any person, including any African American, can be emancipated politically and economically is through education, entrepreneurship and economic empowerment. In other words, by people using their God-given gifts, talents, and abilities to create something new.

This path is represented by the 1776 Unites, which holds that America was founded on the promise of freedom for all, per the Declaration of Independence. 1776 Unites was founded by activist Robert Woodson of the Woodson Center. Its mission statement says,

1776 Unites is an assembly of independent voices who uphold our country’s authentic founding virtues and values and challenge those who assert America is forever defined by its past failures, such as slavery. We seek to offer alternative perspectives that celebrate the progress America has made on delivering its promise of equality and opportunity and highlight the resilience of its people. Our focus is on solving problems.

We do this in the spirit of 1776, the date of America’s true founding.[3]

In Scott Allen’s book mentioned above, he describes this movement as stemming from what he calls the Preservation Narrative, a system that “affirms the goodness of America’s founding principles and seeks to preserve them while desiring to continually improve our systems and institutions to more perfectly reflect these principles.”[4]

While these two paths may have originated in the same set of theistic assumptions and the common understanding that all human beings are imago Dei, made in the image of God, at one point they began to diverge.

How CRT got a foothold

As the West moved from theism to atheism, some people consciously or subconsciously affirmed the Judeo-Christian worldview, while others consciously or subconsciously affirmed the atheist-materialist worldview, which embraces consumerism and Marxism (both economic and cultural Marxism). This worldview denies the imago Dei nature of humans and reduces human beings to mere animals. No longer creators of wealth, humans are merely consumers of scarce resources.

With the embrace of atheistic principles, the first path was radically altered with the emergence of Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project, and Black Lives Matter. Those who consciously or subconsciously operate from the Judeo-Christian worldview have reaffirmed the founding year of the United States as 1776.

The presuppositions of the two paths are very different. They see the world differently, and they will create two very different societies. We are in a struggle for the soul of the nation. In the same geography, one nation seeks to survive while another struggles to be born.

These two nation systems are founded on two different sets of ideas:

THEISM VS ATHEISM

Open System vs Closed System

Creation of wealth vs Redistribution of resources

Biblical Justice vs Social Justice

Equality before the law vs Equality by economic outcome

Repentance and forgiveness vs Restitution

Content of character vs Color of skin

Unity of human race vs Neo-Tribalism

Blacks are responsible human beings vs Blacks are victims

Racism is first a moral problem vs Racism is first an institutional problem

Redeem the pledge of the founders vs Rewrite history and overthrow societal institutions

Let’s hear the other side!

Just as there were original founders of each pathway, today there are leaders of the two movements.

The first group is recognized by the captains of industry and the governing and intellectual elites as the rightful representatives and leaders of the Black community. They include Derrick Bell, Alan Freeman, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Richard Delgado, Cheryl Harris, Charles R. Lawrence III, Mari Matsuda, Patricia J. Williams and others. These are considered the spokespersons for the CRT that has captured so much of the imagination of the country. The governing elites regard all Blacks who embrace the alternative view as “Uncle Toms” and traitors. Their detractors call them the Racial Industrial Complex.

The second group, those ignored or canceled by the ruling elites, support the Preservation Narrative, the Judeo-Christian foundations of the country. These are men and women like Thomas Sowell, Justice Clarence Thomas, Carol Swain, Voddie Baucham Jr., Shelby Steele, Candace Owens, Robert Woodson, Dr. Ben Carson, Senator Tim Scott and others.

Perhaps, as we watch our country being torn apart, it would be good to at least hear the wisdom, ideas and solutions of those offering a second pathway out of the poverty in our inner cities and residual racism destroying our communities. Instead of cancelling them and dismissing their insights, let us acknowledge their personal achievements, and the wisdom they possess.

• Darrow Miller

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/20/magazine/1619-intro.html

[2] Allen, Scott; Why Social Justice Is Not Biblical Justice; Credo House Publisher, Grand Rapids, MI; pg. 144

[3] http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2020/03/1776-project-vs-1619-project-jack.html

[4] Ibid, Allen; pg. 146

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