This may be a funny way to put it, but there was a great deal of racism in New Testament times. The most obvious is the racism of Jewish people against the people of Samaria. The Samaritans had originally been part of the Jewish nation, but when most of the latter were transported to Babylon a great many Jewish people were left behind in what became Samaria, located halfway between Jerusalem and Galilee. These folks mixed in with other people who came to Palestine during the Babylonian captivity, forming the mixed race called Samaritans.
As is clear from several New Testament passages, the Samaritans were hated by the Jews who had later returned from Babylon to restart their nation. The story of Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman is a concrete example. When Jewish people traveled back and forth, they actually sought to pass around Samaria. In John 4 Jesus told the story of the “Good Samaritan” to illustrate the depth of the Jews’ hatred of Samaritans. The Samaritan woman actually asked Jesus: “How is it that you a Jew would speak to me a Samaritan?” (John 4)
After Jesus’ death Paul, a devout Jew, became the leader of the new Christian group of converted Jews. In both his missionary travels and letters Paul taught the full acceptance of Gentile converts into the Christian community, which at the beginning was exclusively Jewish. This caused a great deal of tension within the Church. For example, in Acts 10 Peter embraces Cornelius a gentile Roman soldier into the Christian fold, thus stirring up a good deal of confusion.
Indeed, a small but strong unofficial group of early Christians, sometimes called “Judaizers”, followed Paul around on his early missionary journeys insisting that Gentile converts must be circumcised. Paul devoted a great deal of energy and writing seeking to counteract this movement. For instance, the entire 3rd chapter of his letter to the Galatians is devoted to educate them on this point. He went on to proclaim that “In Christ there is no Jew or Greek.” In addition, Paul consistently applied this Christian inclusivism to his view of women as well.
Perhaps the most telling dynamic on this subject is between Paul and Peter. Even after he had accepted Cornelius as a Christian believer, when the Apostles were meeting in Antioch, Peter seems to have waffled about whether to break bread with his Gentile Christian brothers. Before they arrived, he broke bread with the Jewish Christian brothers, but after some of his Christian Jewish brothers arrived, he seems to have switched tables and separated himself from the mixed group. Indeed, in his letter to the Galatians, Paul references Peter’s ambivalent behavior and states that he called him out for being inconsistent on this issue. (Galatians 2:14)
A similar ambivalence on the part of certain believers is revealed in Paul’s letters with regard to the proper Christian attitude toward women and slaves. In New Testament times both women and slaves were held to be seriously unequal to their male and freeperson counterparts. In his letter to Philemon Paul seeks to encourage his friend to deal with his runaway slave as a “brother in Christ.” Also, somewhat more surprisingly, Paul’s letters make it abundantly clear that he saw his women converts as equal partners in the ministry of spreading the Gospel. In many of his letters Paul refers to the women working with him as his “co-workers in Christ” and as officers in the churches he had started. (Romans 16)
In the New Testament then, neither gender, nor social status, nor race can “separate us from the love of God”. All believers are together as one in Christ. So, racism can be seen to have been as important an issue in the New Testament times as it is today.