On the surface, a common person’s understanding of racial conflict is limited to what one can do or not do or the privileges some enjoy and others are deprived. This course examines theories of discrimination such as 1) intentional, explicit, 2) Subtle, unconscious, automatic, 3) Statistical discrimination and profiling, 4) Organizational process. These theories amplify the impact of discrimination in specific domains: labor markets and employment, education, housing and mortgage lending, criminal justice, and health care.
Students will realize how different theories of discrimination affected their life and shaped their worldview in choosing friends, career, education, life style and place of residence. This is the type of class, which enables students to understand the cultural dynamics: social, educational, judicial, and political systems of their country. Students will discover how the theories of discrimination influences prejudice and enhance racial conflict in a culture.
Man is not an island. Humans are created as a social and relational being. To have a meaning of existence and enriching relationship with others, proper biblical understanding of humanity is crucial. This course approaches racial conflict not as an impossible obstacle, but as human failure that can be redeemed by the love and power of God.
Considering the Scripture as final authority, biblical anthropology and the concept of Imago Dei (the image of God) and the fall of man is crucial topic of discussion to understand racial conflict. The particular creation of man, the constitutional nature of man, and man after the fall is essential to understand oneself and others. Other areas of concern include human dignity, freedom, depravity, culture, and society. Hamartiology (study of sin) concerns the biblical doctrine of sin including its origin, nature, transmission, effects and judgment is included in the topic of discussion for this class.
The redemptive work of God encompasses all humanity and even the cosmos. Christianity should be antidote to racial conflict not a catalyst for prejudice, discrimination, and conflict. The church exists to be salt and light in the world permeated with corruption and injustice.
We live in a world of discrimination, violence, and injustice. We hear the tragedies people experience, the mistreatment and misfortune people go through because of racial conflict. Instead of giving a blind eye, this course invites students to mobilize the church to play the role of a priest and a prophet.
The root cause of racial conflict is deeper than the issue of skin color. However, culture has a tendency of normalizing the abnormal, justifying the injustice, and condoning the condemnable. As we try to understand the role of culture for racial conflict, we submit every cultural value under the authority of the Scripture and judge the practice and consequences of racial conflict by God’s standard for humanity.
Racial conflict deprives intellectual and emotional freedom both to the victims and to the victors. It dehumanizes people and leads to the destruction of cultural, social, family, and infrastructures. Students of this course are learning how to be a good “physicians” to such challenging and never dying social ailment.
Study about racial conflict is not mere accumulation of theory of race. It involves practical action such as inviting our Muslim neighbors for lunch, attending a church of different ethnic or racial group; study the culture and religion of different race, accepting and loving those people our culture tells us are not loveable.
