When I joined the JWs, racial issues were not really discussed much, other than some mention in the material given to me during my Bible Study in the "Truth" book. Our Kingdom Hall had only one dark skinned individual, who is Portguese, and one of the Anointed. I believe that he is now deceased. I was raised in a "Southern" family, where my grandmother was extremely rascist in a genuine call to the old Confederacy. My dad was a twin of Archie Bunker, in that he was a bumbling racist who softened over time. My mother was progressive, and fought against racism, but she still had some limits. I grew up to respect all races as a Catholic, and only had to weed out certain stereotypes in my thinking over the last 50 + years.
In time, the truth came out about the hidden racism in the JWs in the 1960s upto the 1970s. One JW friend was engaged to a black JW women. She was uncertain about the relationship because she feared that his white family and her black family (all JWs) would not be able to get along. Quite telling for a supposedly non-racist religion. They eventually married, and I attended the wedding. The marriage did not last.
Later on, the Reg. Pioneer JW who studied with me went traveling around the country. He mentioned that black JWs in the South are discourage by the Society from marrying whites. This was done in order to further the preaching work by not upsetting the Southern Whites. Since when did upsetting people become a concern for the Watchtower Society? In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, racism was still very evident in the Southern United States ... but, it was by far not the majority view of white Southerners.
Oddly enough, when I traveled extensively to Houston, Texas in the 1980s, I encountered something else quite strange. I was there on business, but took opportunity on the weekeneds to be with the JWs. I was assigned to work with a black brother out in service one Saturday. I was given the territory card. He and I worked a couple of return visits first, then as we turned the corner to go into the territory, he stopped his car and would not proceed. I ask why, as this is our territory. He apologized and said that if he had known, he would have asked that I be given another territory. The reason: The Elders bar black JWs from working certain neighborhoods ... and this neighborhood was nearly all Jewish. He said that the Elders and the Co said that Jews in the area hate blacks, and they do not want to have a scene or an issue besmirch the reputation of the congregation. I was absolutely shell-shocked. Racism among JWs is alive and well ... and I could not believe what I was hearing ... but, I later checked this out with the PO on Sunday, and he confirmed it. I never again visited a JW congregation in Texas.
In our congregation, when I was still an MS, we had one black JW appointed an Elder. He was quicky removed for unbecoming conduct, whever that is. We did not have another black Elder until 20-years later, though we eventually had several blacks move into our congregation. We also had Mexicans and some Asians. None, besides whites, were ever appointed until the late 1980s, and then only to Ministerial Servant ... and he had to serve several years as a Reg. Pioneer before being recognized. Whereas white men, like me, who never Reg. Pioneered, were far more easily appointed. What is evident, is that among the JWs, black members do not make trouble over race when they are denied appointments year after year. INstead they quietly accept organizational arrangements. If one calls such a "calm" environment positive racial situation, then one could easily look back at the old South, where segregation was quietly accepted for generations, and say that was a good racial situation. The only way that blacks could get appointed as Elders is in congregations that were nearly 100% black.
When I gave talks in large city congregations in the San Francisco Bay Area, I often encountered congregations that were nearly 100% black. While I was treated respectably, and the Kingdom Hall was nice, there was a noticeable separation when it came time to socialize. For example, as I tried to open up discussion with some of the black Elders, I was quickly introduced to a local white person to visit with and be invited to lunch. I wanted to visit with the black brothers, so I could know them better ... but they were very smooth about avoiding such a thing with me.
Bethel comments that came back to us by visiting Bethelites would note how Nathan Knorr and other GB men, and officials of the Society, had some strange racists ideas about blacks, even joking about their bathroom habits. True, by the 21st Century, the JW Governing Body finally admitted a black JW into their club - Sam Herd. This is certainly a step in the right direction. But, it also shows that the Watchtower Society was not as progressive as the rest of society in general. I have no doubts that race issues have improved somewhat since I left the Watchtower organization ... but, the JWs are by no means a racial paradise.
Currently, I am on a university team with 2 whites, 1 Korean, and 2 blacks ... none of us are JWs. We all have become friends, and we have absolutely no racial issues. I feel every bit as good, if not better, with them as I would have with any black JW when I was still a Witness. I believe that racism, as an issue for JWs is largely media propaganda that the Society effectively used to make themselves appear righteous ... much as they use other propaganda to imply that they are clean of evil practices, when one only has to look a few inches beneath the surface to see shielded child molesters, and many unrighteous acts woven into their organizational fabric.
Whatever racial harmony the JWs have is no better, and sometimes less progressed, than what we can find in society at large.
Jim Whitney