Ron Buford set up Racists Anonymous (Picture: Getty Images)

A recent poll found that 69% of Americans describe race relations as bad. That’s three times the figure in 2009.

Three-quarters of black Americans have a positive view of the Black Lives Matter movement. Only one-third of whites do.

In this atmosphere, a pastor in Sunnyvale, California, wants to get people talking honestly about race.

Racists Anonymous involves the uncomfortable seating and bad coffee that the second part of its name might imply, but it also offers its attendees the very unusual opportunity to talk frankly about


‘The first step is that you have to acknowledge that you have a problem,’ Ron Buford told the Washington Post.

Churches across the US have requested materials so they can establish similar groups

‘That is something that we as Americans don’t want to do.’



According to Buford, conversations about race quickly descend into a who-is-more-racist argument. In reality, he says, ‘we all swim in a culture of racism’ and it is impossible not to be racist to some degree.

The 12-step programme offered by Racists Anonymous, which was launched last year, gives people with enough bravery and self-awareness to attend a chance to identify their behaviour and start to change it.

Its launch followed the shooting of attendees at a black church in Charleston by Dylan Roof. According to Buford, the initial attendance was about a dozen people. More than 30 churches, from Baltimore, Maryland to Coral Gables, Florida have now requested material from his church so they can host their own groups.

Buford said that most participants are white but his group includes black and Asian people, too. The first step, he says, is to admit powerlessness over ‘an addiction to racism’.

Buford hopes that RA will, in the same manner as Alcoholics Anonymous, come to form a network across the country.

Ron Buford said he wants RA to form a network like AA (Picture: Getty Images)

Speaking to the Washington Post, 74-year-old Stephen Mosier said he was happy to be labelled a racist.

‘We have all got some residual racism in us no matter how good we think we are at it,’ he said.

‘Most people thought racism was fading away with the generational distance, but you read the news now, and it’s getting worse.’

Mr Mosier said that recently, as he drove behind an expensive car, he had looked to see if the driver was black or white.

‘That should not be the first thing that popped into my mind,’ he said.

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