In the previous discussion we explored the role of the individual in addressing racism. Yet individuals are only one of the protagonists in the life of society. They are joined by communities and institutions. For this session, then, we want to look at community and the role it can play in addressing racism.

A community is one of the basic units of society, comprising individuals, families, and other social institutions. In the context of community, individuals can build friendships, form civil associations, and, alongside institutions, develop programs and systems that can create rich patterns of interaction and form the basis of common life. Communities can emerge out of various kinds of association, as, for example, the inhabitants of a small town or neighborhood, the followers of a religion, those associated with the life of an educational establishment, or the members of a profession. And communities often develop shared cultural elements over time. While communities of association take many forms, there is a universal dimension to living in a shared environment with others that makes communities an ideal arena for fostering cooperation and a shared sense of endeavor.

Communities in the United States have been plagued by segregation across racialized and economic lines. Legal limitations placed on where people can live, go to school, and socialize have created distinct life paths for those who have been subject to discriminatory laws, policies, social norms, or associated forms of harassment and violence — especially as a result of racialized distinctions. This has also allowed for racist ideas and notions of “who is deserving of access to resources and who is not” to flourish and take root in the minds of generation after generation. Consequently, it has caused communities of association to organize along racialized lines, diminishing relationships and cooperation across those categories. This relative absence of diverse and inclusive communities has impeded our ability to recognize a shared identity between all human beings. On the contrary, it has nurtured feelings of otherness and estrangement.

Communities are potential spaces for building new capacities, where people can develop the ability to speak to people of diverse backgrounds and experiences, to bridge cultural divides, to analyze historical trends and patterns, and to recognize commonalities. However, segregation has impeded many communities in the United States from achieving these potentialities. As a result, we tend to look either toward individual transformation to cultivate these capacities or toward social structures to enforce them. Developing new collective capacities and fostering mutual commitments through a shared sense of community often requires that people live in proximity to one another so they can work to transcend historical barriers that kept them apart. Indeed, the lack of interracial proximity in many communities across the United States is one of the greatest structural reinforcements of contemporary racism.

When communities see their purpose as contributing their share to the betterment of society as a whole, they can become settings in which powers such as self-sacrifice, generosity, compassion, and the earnest search for truth are multiplied through unified action, where individual will and collective volition are blended, and where a spirit of enterprise is reinforced by a realization of the need for concerted action and a commitment to the common good. In this context, diversity can be recognized as a strength. And from this perspective, healthy communities attend to the equitable development of all their members, channeling resources toward programs and institutions that can nurture the moral, spiritual, intellectual, and physical development of every person. Likewise, in such communities, bonds of trust and fellowship, of camaraderie and cooperation, are strengthened. Local governing bodies, educational institutions, and families all seek to nurture relationships of this quality.

Religious communities have a particular role to play in promoting this conception of communities as protagonists in the betterment of society. Expanding the circle of unity and justice can be understood as the essence of religion. Put more concretely, religious communities realize their potential as communities of practice where spiritual principles and teachings are applied thoughtfully to the life of society, for the benefit of all. Within such communities, a process of capacity building that enables increasing numbers to participate in the transformation of society — while protecting and nurturing all — can be set in motion. Religious communities therefore cannot be satisfied with merely promoting ideals of universal love and compassion. They must come to embody those ideals as communities of practice.