IN “Christian Schools and Racial Realities,” an article in the latest issue of Touchstone magazine, Hunter Baker, a professor of political science at Union University, calls on white Southern Protestants to integrate their private schools. Many private schools are tainted because they were formed when the federal government ordered racial integration of public schools, and while Protestants have other issues with public schooling today, their failure to achieve diversity in these schools is immoral, Baker writes. Baker comes close to advocating that Protestants send their children to public schools where crime and “negative social fashions” are rampant, but he ends by recommending that they find ways to recruit blacks and bring them into their schools, apparently at a reduced tuition rate. He writes:

Assuming a continuing deadlock over the issue of school choice, the best answer may be for conservative Christians to find other ways to create greater access to their institutions for those from whom they are suspected of fleeing. It is a burden of history not easily shrugged off, even by generations who did not make the world in which they live. We inherit debts other than the kind governments incur on their balance sheets. But the racial unification of the American church might best begin in the Christian schoolhouse before it takes hold in the Sunday services. It is a home mission (as the Baptists might call it) awaiting a champion and a movement.

 Here is a letter I sent to the editor of Touchstone:

To the editor:

In his article “Christian Schools and Racial Realities,” Hunter Baker rejects the Christian doctrine of original sin. Either that, or he rejects the idea that black Americans are fully human. For Baker essentially argues that African Americans are not capable of sin. He writes:

“Whenever institutions concentrate individuals whose lives have been marked by unwed parenting, poor employment records, crime, a lack of role models, and negative social fashions (such as the idea that studying is a “white” behavior) in disproportionate numbers, the prospect for social improvement and vertical mobility declines. There can be little question that trends toward suburbanization, private schooling, and homeschooling remove many children who come from homes with more cultural capital from the schools where they might add helpful values, attitudes, and habits to the community of students. And, of course, the parents of those children are likewise not present to help share tasks of volunteering and leadership.”

The passive voice in Baker’s description of the chaos that reigns in largely black neighborhoods suggests that fornication, theft, murder, laziness and “negative social fashions” are not sins, but forms of victimization. This contradicts a central tenet of Christianity, articulated by Jesus in Mark 7:20-23: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.  All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”  (NIV)

Not only does the prospect of “social improvement and vertical mobility” decline in such an atmosphere, the prospect of salvation is seriously reduced too.

Instead of focusing on the real issue, which is the moral degradation of black culture, Baker suggests that white parents expose their own children to that degradation to make it magically go away. There is a stubborn and deeply-rooted superstition that claims non-whites are not moral agents. It is true that whites and blacks differ in their innate ability to achieve order and self-control, which is no fault of either, but blacks will not be aided in lifting themselves if their ability to do wrong is denied or blamed on others. Christian charity demands otherwise. Baker also offers no proof that racially homogenous schools are inherently inferior. If they are, most of humanity has been mis-educated.

Sincerely,

Laura Wood

— Comments —

Mrs. M. writes:

Kudos to you for setting Baker’s editors straight on his ridiculous article. The private Protestant school my son attends is integrated, although it lacks racial parity. The private Catholic school where my husband teaches has a similar population. The striking difference between these schools and the horrid Dallas city school down the street is…wait for it…PARENTS! Parents who refuse to be victims and instead take responsibility for their families and teach their children to do the same. What I don’t understand is how Baker thinks reduced tuition would bring more minorities to the schools and improve the situation of their families? If it doesn’t “rub off” in public school, why would private school be any different?

Laura writes:

Employing the logic of his article, I believe Baker would say that black children need white parents to help them and that’s why integration is so important. It will somehow magically rub off. This lack of black parental involvement is one of those “debts” whites have inherited, presumably due to slavery.

This argument defies the “racial realities.” Take for instance a friend of mine who teaches algebra at a predominantly black high school. Twice a year, he holds parent conferences for 80 or so students. Of those 80 students, three or four parents show up. Three or four. Are we to believe that historic oppression has caused this indifference? That’s absurd.

It’s unlikely, given innate racial differences, that black parents will ever have as much interest in education as whites. That’s okay. To blame this lack of interest on others is not okay.

Mary writes:

Baker is not the only one thinking along these lines. Ridiculous as it is, this piece has garnered much attention.

Jonathan Silber writes:

Hunter Baker and many black Americans see white Americans as Homer Simpson sees alcohol: “The cause of  — and the solution to — all of life’s problems.”

Paul writes:

This is from my e-mail to the author:

Dear Sir:

You either have an evil streak or an ability to accept facts not in evidence.  You want to engage in Human Subjects Research when you are ignorant of the ethics.

You think blacks and whites are equal, and you are wrong.  Most blacks cannot think like whites.  One of many anecdotes might awaken you.  As a nine-year-old, I, my family, and fellow French-heritage friends used to view Mardi Gras on the border of New Orleans yearly where the floats used to return to the parish where the Battle of New Orleans was actually fought, St. Bernard in Chalmette, Louisiana.

I and other Cub Scouts would dress up yearly as pirates and all sorts of patriots (by the way, General Jackson was not fully trusting of the French-American New Orleanians or of the few blacks before the battle) and crouch behind the existing ramparts on the battlefield.  It was cold because we did it on the January anniversary holiday.  The cannon would sound, and we would pretend to fight with the oncoming Redcoats.  This was fun and safe during segregation.  Everyone was white.

Returning to the floats, not everyone was white. Indeed, blacks gathered en masse at the turning point but on the other side of the street, to which they were restricted.  They dragged a rider from his float and beat him right in front of everyone.  We were on the neutral ground (median) close to the action but fortunately could not see the blows. We were horrified. My family never attended another parade where blacks were numerous.

You, a doggone PhD, want to continue the failed experiment of mixing black and white children. And you do not breathe a word about the risks, except for some implied reference to academic risks while ignoring the physical risks.

Laura writes:

Most blacks do not engage in the sort of behavior you describe. But a significant minority does.

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