Race is a notion that is used to make sense of the physical and cultural differences that are expressed across the human race. Racism is the combination of status-tied beliefs in a racial hierarchy and a set of practices to bring about and maintain a racial hierarchy. Race is an idea; racism is the heartfelt commitment to translate this idea into social reality. Race is erroneous. Racism is the religious commitment to keep the error in place.
The term racialization is used to describe and denote the processes by which race/racism are socially constructed. The genesis of racialization is racial identification, or the process of assigning human beings who are each “made in the image and likeness of God” to fixed categories. Racial stratification is the process of arranging these fixed racial categories into a social hierarchy. Racial oppression is the result of mobilizing racial stratification schemata in ways that privilege and protect dominant racial groups and denigrate, marginalize, and harm subordinated racial groups.
If the death of race/racism comes by peaceful means, it will be through a sustained project for racial redress. This project will be animated by a leavened concept of our shared humanity and the need to make the dehumanized whole and to redeem the humanity of the dehumanizer.