Conservatives tend to share this one trait: they tend to depend too much on selected parts of past to understand and respond to the present. On the other hand, non-conservatives tend not to depend enough on the past to understand and respond to the present. That is especially true with narcissists.
But considering that weakness among conservatives, then we might have a partial understanding of why religiously conservative Christian have so much trouble in understanding racism as views like CRT portray it. Racism is no longer just personal prejudice. Rather racism involves, as Thaddeus Williams (click here for a bio) protests against, power and prejudice. Williams recently wrote against this new definition of racism in an article posted by World Magazine (click here for the article). BTW, when you read the article, you'll find that the title assigned to the article by World Magazine is a hyperbole in terms of what the article could support.
Most religiously conservative Christian leaders have opposed this new definition of racism. Part of the opposition is due to the normal conservative resistance to change and the, perhaps, obsession with relying too heavily on selected parts of the past to understand and respond to the present.
There are exceptions among religiously conservative Christian leaders who talk about racism. Tim Keller, for example, talks about systemic racism that exists in society. And though he won't go the way of CRT, at least he acknowledges systemic racism.
Perhaps other reasons why most religiously conservative Christian leaders have opposed this new definition of racism is that that this new definition has included corporate sins, such as sins by institutions and societies systems, and they oppose the new definition because they believe that the Bible only sees sin as practiced by the individual. Or perhaps, this new definition of racism starts to tip some conservative state and societal sacred cows.
But Williams's objections to the new definition of racism seems to be more emotional than anything else. This is indicated by the emotional content of the word 'racism' vs. the emotional content of the term 'prejudice.' For Williams does understand that this new definition of racism doesn't let anyone of the hook who is racially prejudiced. Perhaps Williams doesn't think of being racially prejudiced doesn't sound as being seriously sinful as being a racist. And if so, perhaps he misunderstands this new definition of racism as implying that whites are more sinful than blacks.
Regardless of the reason, what Williams fails to adequately appreciate here is how racism is experienced by blacks and other people of color in America. Though the new definition of racism was developed by a white person, those of us who are white must understand that for the whole history of when blacks first landed on our nation's shores and even a little before, our nation has been racist in terms of the new definition of racism. I won't go as far as what the 1619 Project says about slavery being a major cause of the the Revolutionary War. But one doesn't have to go that far to acknowledge that our nation has been racist according to the new definition of racism almost since the very beginning when European settlers set foot on the land we call America. For when blacks were not a target of that racism, Native Americans were.
We should note that most, if not all of us, white Americans will never understand racism as blacks do. Why is that? It is because to have such an understanding, we would have to experience racism as they do. And that is why instead of angrily protesting this new definition of racism, we need to listen to and read people like Baldwin, Dyson, Kendi, and Tisby, as well as pay attention to BLM, and CRT to understand the many ways blacks have experienced and still experience racism in America. We should note here that those newer sources continue to advance much of what Martin Luther King Jr. taught and worked for. We should also note that not all blacks have experienced racism in identical ways and to the same degree, but those sources are telling us whites something that is invisible to our naked eyes because of the positions that whites generally have in society vs. the position that blacks generally have.
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