Wallis offers inadequate solutions to racism in God's Politics

The following is one in a series of commentaries on Jim Wallis's God's Politics. I have been fortunate enough to take a class with him this semester ad the Harvard Divinity School.

Jim Wallis walks the talk around issues of race and for that I admire him. By living in a low-income neighborhood in DC he speaks not only from an academic or theological point of view, but can draw on personal experience to talk to issues of racism and poverty.
Wallis chapter on racism points out many of the interpersonal aspects of racism and prejudice, including his own story of growing up on the white side of the tracks in Detroit. The United States original sin is indeed slavery and racism. Wallis’s observation about the changing dynamics of race and ethnicity in America are also well founded. Latinos are now the largest minority ethnic group in the US. The lack of unity in the politics between Latinos, Asian-Americans and African Americans at the local level is often troubling, although the recent Los Angeles mayoral race is an example of Latinos and African Americans coming together politically.
Despite a well-developed understanding as slavery and racism as America’s original sin, Wallis offers few solutions to systemic racism that still pervades our society. I would agree that a public apology from the United States government would indeed be a good start. Conversations for reconciliation being led by churches is also worthwhile endeavor, but only as a means to deal with the personal prejudice that still too many of us feel. Beyond an apology and conversation, Wallis offers nothing to address systemic racism that still pervades American life. Whether reparations, affirmative action, or targeted social and financing programs that address historical ills and current discrimination, Wallis steers clear of any substantive solutions. If slavery and racism is America’s original sin than it needs some original solutions. Wallis, as a well-intentioned white minister, needs to do more than talk of reconciliation. He must take strong positions that talk directly to the problem and that challenge many white folks who think they no longer have prejudiced views, but hold anti-minority political views and live in racially segregated communities.
Most unfortunately, Wallis is back to trying to find the middle at the end of the chapter has to find the middle ground between the racist system and some small number of minorities who supposedly “play the race card� in public discourse. As a fellow white guy, I do not think its our place to single out African Americans and Latinos that they need to take personal responsibility for their lives. The fact is that most people, regardless of race, do take responsibility for their lives. The social problems to which Wallis alludes happen amongst poor people, again regardless of race. That Wallis feels the need to single our ethnic minorities with this statement indicates a bit racism that Wallis has yet to work out within himself. Instead of trying to find the middle ground, I wish Wallis would use his prophetic voice to speak directly to his own people in suburban White America to dispel the myth that the problem of racism is over. Address the reactionaries that rally against affirmative action as an immoral policy rather than a policy that makes up for historical and current discrimination. Dialogue and apologies are necessary, but systemic solutions are most helpful and they must be addressed courageously in the public square. Unfortunately, Wallis fails to take these steps in God’s Politics.