[Image: A mannequin featuring a black wireframed head, a clay colored torso and wooden arms in an espresso finish. The mannequin is set against an off white wall, creating a minimalistic tone. Photograph by David Underland.]
THE (UN)BIASED CHURCH | DERACIALIZATION
14 Avant-Garde Thinkers To Follow If You’re Starting Your Deracialization Journey
AUGUST 30, 2025
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of “race.”
As a darker-skinned woman who immigrated to America three decades ago from what could be considered a “raceless” country, I still believe the “race” system is one of the most idiotic frameworks that has ever been invented.
However, I will say that this flawed and fluid marketing scheme is profoundly profitable, if you know how to milk the system.
Thankfully, “race” is on its way out. And, conversations re: (phenotypic) bias are slowly making their way into our digital lives.
For more than 20 years, I’ve used deracialized language in convos and in my essays (e.g., I spoke to a brown-skinned woman, I spoke to a beige-skinned woman, etc.), because I’ve long stated that the constructs of “race,” “racism” and “racist” will not be sustainable at some point in the early twenty-first century.
I knew society’s imaginary “races” would gradually dissolve. I also knew that pigmentation and phenotypic bias would be the new kids on the block in America and other race-obsessed territories.
As you can imagine, I was c-o-n-s-i-s-t-e-n-t-l-y mocked for my hunch by American nationals; some believed I was dumb, while others believed I was crazy.
Well, you know what happened?
In the last two years, I’ve begun seeing an uptick in publications and social media posts that have suddenly switched from racialized to deracialized language.
For example, here’s a caption from a January 2025 post using racialized language, which was published by award-winning advocate, author and speaker Haben Girma. Here’s a caption from a post published on July 15, 2025, and another published on July 22, 2025.
Looks like I’m not so dumb or crazy after all.
I strongly believe deracialized language will be normalized online and offline within five to 10 years, tops. And, there will be massive implications with this upgraded lingo.
(I will write about this reality when the stressors currently plaguing my life have subsided.)
I have made several predictions since the early 2000s re: “race” and deracialization that have come to pass in the early 2020s.
The problem is, when you look like me—that is, when you bear my pigmentation and phenotype—it is incredibly rare to meet individuals—especially those born in a beige hue—who believe you’re intelligent enough to know how patterns function.
That’s why, after years of seeking contractual work or employment as an anti-bias researcher/storyteller/writer, I have finally admitted that it will take a miracle from G-d to secure such a position.
Even with a master’s degree from what’s considered an “elite” university (for the digital record, I’ve never checked off a “race” or “ethnicity” box in admission forms), I still have to prove that I’m a human being who is intelligent. (Gotta love bias.) And, this decades-long exercise has exhausted my fragile nervous system.
So, I’ve officially given up pitching to publications and resigned myself to being a failed writer until my death.
I never imagined that in 2025 A.D., I’d be making food deliveries to survive this economy, while pursuing my unfortunate calling as an independent writer.
(Who knows, maybe when I’m six feet under, my writings will gain traction?)
That said, if you’re a beige-skinned being (or a brown-skinned being) reading this reflection, you are going to have to make a tough decision.
You will have to decide based on the minimal information presented on this website if you feel I know what I’m talking about, or if you feel I’m a “dumb negro” who knows nothing of this world.
If you trust that I’m well-versed in the field of racialization, bias and deracialization, then I want to warn you that we are in the embryonic stage of the Deracialization Movement—a Movement I’ve monitored for nearly 10 years.
This year, I (excitedly) came across a U.S.-based company that is now using a “Self-Description” box when capturing data regarding “race,” and to me, that’s signaling a potential shift in the 2030 U.S. Census.
Again, implications.
While I’m redesigning an expansive visual library for you on all things related to race mythology, the racialization process, AI and skin tone bias (I hope to have this webpage available by the end of this year), I’m gonna put you on the fast track to deracialization with a few articles and videos that I consider to be a must-read and a must-watch.
Disclaimer: This deracialization starter pack is for those who consider themselves early adopters in various facets of life.
As I continue monitoring the rise in articles (from legacy and independent publications), offline convos and social media captions mentioning one’s pigmentation or phenotype versus one’s perceived “race” when providing a generic description of a human being, I hope you’re thinking about how this (inevitable) seismic shift in language will dictate how you rehumanize yourself and others in a society that has used a false concept—for hundreds and hundreds of years—to cheapen your humanity…and mine.
Welcome to the future of identity politics in America.
01 Dr. Carlos A. Hoyt
Watch: The Racialization Process And Resisting Racialization
Excerpt: You know, we're all prone to cognitive confusion around lots of things. The brain is quite susceptible to seeing things that aren't there, and then running with it. And that's part of what happens with race. It takes advantage of our desire and proclivity to dichotomize, to bifurcate, [and] to categorize things. We are very good at this and that, even when there isn't a this and that. Another way to think about it is—and this is particularly useful in thinking about race—is that we very quickly attach deeper meaning to surface distinctions...
02 Rev. Dr. Starlette Thomas
Read: The Raceless Gospel Intro
Excerpt: The raceless gospel is an announcement, preparing the way for an undivided “kin-dom” that is coming. The segregation of the North American church was not by happenstance but began the moment European Protestants positioned themselves as the go-between G-d and other nationalities for relationships…
03 Dr. Subrena E. Smith and Dr. David Livingstone Smith
Read: The Trouble With Race And Its Many Shades Of Deceit
Excerpt: We want to make it clear that we fully endorse the aims of DEI programs. But we object to how they are carried out, for, as noble as these aims are, there is a fatal contradiction at the heart of much of what goes on in them, a contradiction that threatens to undermine the entire enterprise. Although the purpose of anti-racist training is to vanquish racism, most of these initiatives are simultaneously committed to upholding and celebrating race. One can see this quite clearly in the work of Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, well-known voices in the anti-racist movement. Both of them presume that we can oppose racism while leaving the concept of race intact…
04 Dr. Sheena Mason
Read: Togetherness Wayfinder Mission
Excerpt: We focus on bringing people together, promoting healing, and making things right by helping organizations and groups understand how racism can disguise itself as something called “race.” The first step is recognizing that racism has been a part of our history and is still present today. The second step is figuring out ways to stop accidentally supporting racism or what Dr. Sheena Mason calls “race(ism)…”
05 John Biewen
Watch: The Lie That Invented Racism
Excerpt: First of all, race is a recent invention; it’s just a few hundred years old…So, who [thought up race]? …His name is Gomes de Zurara. Portuguese man. Wrote a book in the 1450s, in which he did something that no one had ever done before, according to Dr. [Ibram] Kendi. He lumped together all the people of Africa—a vast, diverse continent—and he described them as a distinct group, inferior and beastly. Never mind that in that precolonial time, some of the most sophisticated cultures in the world were in Africa. Why would this guy make this claim? Turns out, it helps to follow the money…Racism didn't start with a misunderstanding. It started with a lie…
Recommended: Life Aboard A Slave Ship
06 Greg Thomas
Read: Considering Deracialization
Excerpt: Disaggregating race from the state can begin through the U.S. Census, which currently compels people to racialize themselves by asking: “What is this person’s race?” Carlos Hoyt recommends adding this question: “How is this person racialized?” By making note of how others racialize us, the government could still track bias, discrimination, and differential outcomes based, at least partly, on how one is racialized. Furthermore, those who don’t identify by race at all could check a box. And those who wish to continue racializing themselves can do so too. The 2030 Decennial Census Form, then, could look like this…
07 Dr. Carlos A. Hoyt
Read: Petition To Improve The 2030 Census Approach To Race Data Collection
Excerpt: Nearly fifty million people checked the “Some other race” box in the 2020 Census, making “Some other race” the second largest “racial” group after “white.” It’s impossible to know how many of these millions of people might not think of themselves in terms of race at all because the Census form does not include any way to provide that information...
08 Dr. Angela Onwuachi-Willig
Read: Race and Racial Identity Are Social Constructs
Excerpt: Race is not biological. It is a social construct. There is no gene or cluster of genes common to all blacks or all whites. Were race “real” in the genetic sense, racial classifications for individuals would remain constant across boundaries. Yet, a person who could be categorized as black in the United States might be considered white in Brazil or colored in South Africa…
09 Nancy Leong, J.D.
Read: Racial Fluidity Complicates the Value We Assign to Race
Excerpt: Racial fluidity complicates the value we assign to race. The recent rise in interracial marriage has led to more people identifying as two or more races. Racial fluidity allows people who identify as "white and something else" to choose how to maximize the value of their identity. When it's more socially valuable to be white — renting an apartment; interacting with police — they can present themselves as white. In the limited situations when it's more valuable to be nonwhite — applying for a diversity scholarship — they can present themselves as nonwhite…
10 Rev. Dr. C.W. Dawson
Read: Kamala Harris Faces A Skin Tone Bias In American Politics
Excerpt: In the 21st century, as America becomes less white and the multiracial community — formed by interracial unions and immigration — continues to expand, color will be even more significant than race in both public and private interactions. Why? Because a person’s skin color is an irrefutable visual fact that is impossible to hide, whereas race is a constructed, quasi-scientific classification that is often only visible on a government form…
11 Glenn Harlan Reynolds and Professor David Bernstein
Read: The Idiocy Of America's Racial Classification System
Excerpt: I think we have a disconnect between what’s going on at the grassroots and what’s going on at elite universities, in government, and in large corporations. At the grassroots level, Americans are more tolerant than ever, and mixing socially and romantically in every possible way, rapidly creating a non-racial multi-ethnic American identity. But the elite has created and seeks to defend a whole intellectual, business, and educational infrastructure based on freezing people into classifications created without much thought (or foresight) in the 1970s. I know which side I’m rooting for, but I’m not sure which side will prevail…If I were running the show, I’d eliminate race entirely from medicine in favor of a laser-like focus on genetics, which is much more salient…
12 Dorothy E. Roberts, J.D.
Watch: The Problem With Race-Based Medicine
Excerpt: …In the end, the drug company's marketing scheme failed. For one thing, black patients were understandably wary of using a drug just for black people. One elderly black woman stood up in a community meeting and shouted, "Give me what the white people are taking!" (Laughter) And if you find race-specific medicine surprising, wait until you learn that many doctors in the United States still use an updated version of a diagnostic tool that was developed by a physician during the slavery era—a diagnostic tool that is tightly linked to justifications for slavery…
13 Dr. Brian Bantum
Read: The Death Of Race: Building A New Christianity In A Racial World
Excerpt: In The Death of Race: Building a New Christianity in a Racial World, Brian Bantum explores the practical consequences of race in our world: Those who have inherited sovereignty have long organized the world according to the belief that whiteness is the paragon of existence, while black and brown bodies are deficient and suspect. It is this misconstrued and dangerous understanding of race that Bantum believes must die if followers of Jesus Christ want to live a meaningful embodied life in the spirit of their Savior. Bantum is a biracial person who married a Korean-American woman. His life story is woven throughout the book as he explains the manner in which he came to racial consciousness...
14 Isabel Wilkerson and Ava DuVernay
Trailer: Origin
Synopsis: Author Isabel Wilkerson writes her seminal book "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" while coping with personal tragedy.
Bonus: The Bahá'í Chair for World Peace
Read: Abolishing Racism: Creating A Future Without Race
Excerpt: In a world where the concept of “race” continues to permeate our societies and shape our perceptions, the need for a radical shift in our approach to combating racism has never been more evident. The “Abolishing Racism: Creating a Future without Race” conference is a groundbreaking event that brings together a diverse range of speakers, scholars, artists, and activists who advocate for racial eliminativism — the bold belief that to truly end racism, we must dismantle the very notion of “race” itself.
Bonus: New York City Police Department
In December 2024, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) marked the first NYC-based institution I’ve seen use a complexion-based marker versus a race-based marker to describe a gunman.
I don’t know if the NYPD hired a bias consultant to prepare the public for a language upgrade, or if this was a one-off situation.
Regardless, I thought it was odd that they used deracialized language to describe the gunman, because the images shown of the suspect visibly showed a man who’d be racialized as a “white.”
Time will tell if the NYPD will eventually adopt deracialized language.
Watch: Police Identify Possible Motive Behind Deadly Shooting Of UnitedHealthcare CEO (Timecode: 1:12 – 1:14)
Read: Suspect Charged In UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's Murder. Here's What We Know