What does the Church teach about racism?

As many people know, the topic of racism has become a very hot topic in the light of recent events.

So it is good to know what the Church has always taught about this topic, from the beginning, since this is not a new problem.  The Church has had 2,000 years of experience in dealing with all of the problems that have plagued sinful mankind since the first sin of Adam and Eve.

That teaching is summed up in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The relevant section is copied below and at this link).

This includes some Scripture references and various writings of the saints and church documents, such as those written in the 1960s at the Second Vatican Council.

The Church does NOT take a stand on particular political solutions to the problem.  That is something that Christians can disagree on but should work out together harmoniously in accord with the common good, guided by these universal truths.

However, the principles and guidelines are not negotiable, since they come from the teaching of Christ Himself.

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EQUALITY AND DIFFERENCES AMONG MEN

1934 Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine beatitude: all therefore enjoy an equal dignity.

1935 The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it:

Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God's design.⁴⁰

1936 On coming into the world, man is not equipped with everything he needs for developing his bodily and spiritual life. He needs others. Differences appear tied to age, physical abilities, intellectual or moral aptitudes, the benefits derived from social commerce, and the distribution of wealth.⁴¹ The "talents" are not distributed equally.⁴²

1937 These differences belong to God's plan, who wills that each receive what he needs from others, and that those endowed with particular "talents" share the benefits with those who need them. These differences encourage and often oblige persons to practice generosity, kindness, and sharing of goods; they foster the mutual enrichment of cultures:

I distribute the virtues quite diversely; I do not give all of them to each person, but some to one, some to others. . . . I shall give principally charity to one; justice to another; humility to this one, a living faith to that one. . . . And so I have given many gifts and graces, both spiritual and temporal, with such diversity that I have not given everything to one single person, so that you may be constrained to practice charity towards one another. . . . I have willed that one should need another and that all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts they have received from me.⁴³

1938 There exist also sinful inequalities that affect millions of men and women. These are in open contradiction of the Gospel:

Their equal dignity as persons demands that we strive for fairer and more humane conditions. Excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and peoples of the one human race is a source of scandal and militates against social justice, equity, human dignity, as well as social and international peace.⁴⁴

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^Footnotes

^{40 Gaudium et Spes 29 § 2.
41 Cf. Gaudium et Spes 29 § 2.
42 Cf. Mt 25:14-30; Lk 19:27.
43 St. Catherine of Siena, Dialogues. I,7.
44 Gaudium et Spes 29 § 3.}

^{[Gaudium et Spes is a document of the Second Vatican Council.  It is also known by its English title, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.  It addresses the application of the Church's teaching to the issues that were contemporary in the 1960s.]}