Critical Thinking Matters

Thoughtful Discussions of Contemporary Issues

Perspectives on The Color of Compromise

Jemar Tisby's book The Color of Compromise has been popular in many churches as a way of grappling with racial issues. Tisby has also produced an eleven-part video series to complement the book, one video per chapter. The video series makes his material easy to present in an adult Sunday School class, one part per week.

In the first week of the series Tisby talks about the need to "tell the truth". Unfortunately, Tisby has compromised on telling the truth. Christian writers and others have critiqued the book and found factual errors, errors in reasoning, distortion through omission of information, and also false doctrine.

This website provides resources for understanding where Tisby misleads us in his book and in his video series.

Slavery

Tisby fails to adequately put American slavery into historical and international context. This short YouTube video (9 minutes) by Thomas Sowell puts American slavery into context.

    Facts About SLAVERY They Don't Teach You in School - Part 1

Thomas Sowell has produced a follow-on Youtube video (5 minutes) with further perspective on slavery. It covers some of the same ground as the first video, but then goes on to discuss the demise of slavery.

    Facts About SLAVERY They Don't Teach You in School - Part 2

From these videos we learn that what is special about America is not that early America had slavery, which was common at that time and had been a common practice throughout world history. What is special about America is that an abolitionist philosophy grew up, spread, and eventually led to the downfall of slavery.

How Long is Slavery's Shadow?

This Thomas Sowell video presents an evidence-based rebuttal to Tisby’s claim that the performance gap experienced by blacks today is a legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, and systemic racism. The beginning is interesting background but it gets really interesting at about the 14:25 point.

    Thomas Sowell discusses economic inequality

Point-by-Point Critique

One of the more articulate articles critiquing the book is titled 13 Reasons to Reject Jemar Tisby’s "Color of Compromise".

One of the 13 reasons has to do with Tisby's redefinition of the word "racism". The American Heritage Dictionary, 1978, defines racism as "The notion that one's own ethnic stock is superior." Tisby redefines this in the first chapter as "a system of oppression based on race." This redefinition has significant implications, one of which is that blacks cannot be racist (so white-hating members of the Black Panther organization would not be considered racist). Such a redefinition requires a legitimate justification, which Tisby never gives. We should always be suspicious when an author or debator significantly redefines a term because that is often done to confuse an opponent and gain an advantage over them.

    13 Reasons to Reject Jemar Tisby's "Color of Compromise"

What the Readers Say...

Amazon reviews can be a good resource for learning about books. The 5-star reviews discuss what some people liked about the book, and the 1-star reviews reveal flaws, such as factual errors, things left out that should have been included, and the author’s bias. As the critics point out, in the case of the Tisby book, selective history and out-of-context scripture are included, while rebuttal history and rebuttal scripture are left out, thus Tisby does not give us a balanced account.

    2 stars out of 5 (bad) reviews link

    1 star out of 5 (worst) reviews link

We hope you find these useful.