SALON

Sunday, Jul 29, 2012 2:00 PM UTC

Anti-Mormon prejudice vs. racism

Can they be compared?

By

Topics: Religion Dispatches, Religion, Racism, Bigotry, Mormon, African Americans,

Anti-Mormon prejudice vs. racism A stained glass window showing Joseph Smith's First Vision (Wikipedia)
This article originally appeared on Religion Dispatches.

Religion DispatchesEarlier this week, ABC News and the Washington Post released a poll showing that 20% of Americans wouldn’t want a family member to marry a Mormon, while 14% said the same about African Americans.

The comparison made me uncomfortable, and for reasons beyond the fact that a Mormon and an African American are facing off for president. It’s just an awfully simplistic way to gauge discrimination.

Today, Jana Riess at Religion News Service—an exemplary voice in the world of Mormonism—explained why it is misleading to compare anti-black racism with anti-Mormon prejudice.

Mild forms of social discrimination against Mormons are real, Riess wrote. But she offered several reasons why the experience of Mormons differs significantly from that of African Americans, including, as she writes:

Amen, and amen.

One of the ways scholars of race gauge racism is in terms of life chances and outcomes. Is a child born African American in this country statistically more likely to experience different life outcomes than a child born into a non-African-American Mormon family? (Thinking about how religion and race intersect for black Mormons would add a new wrinkle to the analysis.) Analytically, just by the numbers, just for the fact of being born black, a child is statistically more likely to experience poverty, lack of access to health care, lower rates of college education, higher rates of incarceration, worse health outcomes, and death at a younger age than a child born white. Can the same be said of the life chances of a child born into a Mormon family compared to those of a child born into a non-Mormon family? No.

Yes, some people may say they don’t want a Mormon in the family. Or for president. And there is a special kind of antagonism some media venues dish out from time to time. And yes, there will be more of it in the months to come, as the presidential campaign gets hotter.

But prejudice against Mormons is not a defining and constituting fact of American life, the way slavery and anti-black racism (which is the residue of slavery) have been.

It’s important to keep it all firmly in perspective. Thanks to Jana Riess for doing that.

Joanna Brooks, named one of “50 Politicos to Watch,” is the author of The Book of Mormon Girl: Stories from an American Faith and a senior correspondent for Religion Dispatches. More Joanna Brooks.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 98 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

Salon is proud to feature content from Religion Dispatches, a daily online magazine that publishes a mix of expert opinion, in-depth reporting, and provocative updates from the intersection of religion, politics and culture.


follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations