Book Review: The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby

In Jemar Tisby’s 2019 book, The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism, the first-time author carefully lays out the history of the white Protestant church’s role as an instigator and proponent of racism in this country from its inception. By walking through the history of America, from the Colonial Era right up through the end of 2018, Tisby makes a strong argument that the church was both actively complicit in racism by propping up slavery, segregation, and the notion of black inferiority or passively complicit by doing nothing to combat these practices and benefiting from unjust systems it helped to create. His conclusion brings sober, yet hopeful, news that the possibility of progress still remains if we will face our fears and choose courageous action. Based on his thorough historical work and his concrete suggestions for how the church can take action, I found Tisby’s argument very compelling: “we have the power, through God, to leave behind the compromised Christianity that makes its peace with racism and to live out Christ’s call to a courageous faith” (p. 215).

Tisby organizes his book in chronological fashion beginning with race in the Colonial Era and ending in our current Age of Black Lives Matter. His opening chapter expresses his heart and his pain for reconciliation in the body of Christ. He introduces the idea that there can be no reconciliation without repentance, confession and truth. He states that his purpose and his hope for writing this book is to “tell the truth so that reconciliation – robust, consistent, honest reconciliation – might occur across racial lines” (p. 15). The next nine chapters work to do just that – tell a shameful truth. Each chapter looks at a slice of American history and seeks to show the sobering reality that racism was perpetuated not only in the institutions of slavery or Jim Crow laws, but in the pulpit and pews of the church. Throughout this section of the book, Tisby continues to show that “racism never fully goes away; it just adapts to changing times and contexts” (p. 154). 

After establishing the purpose of the book, the bulk of Tisby’s work is a high-level retelling of the often contentious and always unequal relationship between blacks and whites across American history. There is much that the student of American history will find sadly familiar in the first several chapters. From the irony of the newly liberated colonials continuing to enslave Africans, to the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation may have ended slavery but could not overcome the racial hierarchy that was baked into the fabric of this country – we have heard these narratives before. But, Tisby also works to pull back the curtain on what was happening in the church at this time and show the chilling effects of “pastors and theologians who supported the Confederacy by providing theological ballast and biblical backing for the continuation of slavery” (p. 87). These initial chapters on the Civil War Era, the Jim Crow South and the early Civil Rights Movement underscore Tisby’s argument that the church was active in laying the foundation for racism in America.

The final two history chapters show that while overt racist language and action may have been removed from public discourse, the ideology of colorblindness has only pushed racism underground and allowed Christians to hold, and often unconsciously promote, a racist agenda. These chapters chronical the rise of the Religious Right from the 1970s through the Black Lives Matter Movement of the last few years. During this period “American evangelicalism became virtually synonymous with the GOP and whiteness” (p. 153). Throughout the last several decades politics has played an ever-increasing role in the way in which the church has compromised with racism. From Billy Graham’s endorsement of Richard Nixon, to the more recent “court of evangelicals” who supported Donald Trump despite blatant racist propaganda and policies, the white church has consistently sought power and security through political alliance. More often than not, these agendas did not work to dismantle racial inequality, but served to promote it.

In the last chapter, Tisby urges American Christians that there is a fierce urgency to act. By this point, Tisby has fulfilled his purpose of showing the complicity of the church in promoting and sustaining racism in this country. He quotes black historian, John Hope Franklin, who says, “I cannot imagine how knowing one’s history would not urge one to be an activist” (p. 193). Tisby has reeled the reader in through his careful unfolding of history and needs only to help us know how to be an activist. This he goes on to do by presenting very practical ways for Christians to confront racial injustice in our country and in our own backyard. He suggests beginning with small steps – such as awareness, relationships and commitment to concrete action – and continuing to more and more complex ideas, such as reparations, removing Confederate monuments, and beginning a seminary based in racial equality. This chapter alone is worth the read for churches and individuals looking for tangible ways to engage in the battle.

The strength of Tisby’s writing is his ability to weave together the activity of racism in America with how the church was actively participating in or passively allowing it to happen. It was incredibly clear that in each period of our history, Christians played a role in allowing individual acts of racism, as well as the systemic institutionalization of racism, to shape our country. I felt a depth of sadness and shame in being associated with denominations, policies, and practices that helped solidify the myth of white superiority. I felt my own complicity as I recognized my use of “the white toolkit” that reinforces accountable individualism, relationism, and anti-structuralism. Tisby speaks directly to the White American Christian who vehemently opposes the notion that they are complicit in racism since they do not use racist language or believe they participate in racist activity. He states directly that “being complicit only requires a muted response in the face of injustice or uncritical support of the status quo” (p. 181). The book does a fantastic job of underscoring that reality with hundreds of examples and stories.

While Tisby does a tremendous job in fulfilling the purpose of the book – telling the truth about the white church’s complicity in racism – he does not do near as much to show how to then make the move toward courageous faith and reconciliation. It is only in one final chapter that he gives the reader ideas for courageous action, and it is only in a two-page conclusion that he discusses fighting fear. After nine chapters, I had been thoroughly convinced of the church’s complicity, I wish I would have left feeling as convinced that there was hope for reconciliation by taking these actions. While the suggestions are concrete, the examples are lacking. Though in many ways, this only underscores his point – we need more examples of and leadership in courageous action in the church.

Jemar Tisby’s book, The Color of Compromise, leaves little room to argue that the American church has made a terrible alliance with the evil of racism through the course of our 600-year history. This is a convicting and sobering indictment that truly should lead the white reader to repentance. What Tisby lacks in a multitude of suggestions for what to do, he more than makes up for in historical truth-telling that leads to a desire for courageous action. The sad reality echoed over and over again in the book – it did not have to be this way – is a compelling call to the church today to face the truth and move forward boldly in the power of our reconciling Savior.