"Understanding how racism really, really works, and seeing it as not just a social justice issue but a theological imperative, means that we have to talk about it and work on it all the time.”
racial justice
Anyone who cries “it’s not fair!” is old enough to learn about racial inequality.
But they don't say enough about racism in the present.
We gave our readers a one-word writing prompt: “indulgence.”
The tension was palpable. Then a white student stood up and said something I've never forgotten.
The problem isn't that government efforts to address inequality don't work. It's that they were only haltingly tried.
The controversy over athletes kneeling during the national anthem reveals America's unholy trinity of patriotism, militarism, and sports.
The role of county prosecutors in mass incarceration
John Pfaff's Locked In adds to what we've learned from Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow.
Neighborhoods real and imagined
Ideas about the ghetto matter. They always have.
It was the congregation's pro-LGBTQ stance that brought Robbyn Davis-Ellison's family to United Church. The commitment to racial justice kept them there.
Alternative realities
John of Patmos presents readers of Revelation with fantastical visions of what life could be, just as Dickens does to Scrooge.
Someone else's liberation
Reading Exodus together with Isabel Wilkerson reminds me that the biblical story is not told from my point of view.
In the civil rights movement, language of political participation was central. BLM activists are making a more profound demand.
Lent is early this year, so it coincides with Black History Month for a full 18 days. This overlap of sacred and secular calendars proves doubly sacred for Christians in the U.S. The sacred journey of Lent leads us to the cross—at the end of Jesus’ life of healing ministry and preaching good news to the poor. The sacred journey of Black History Month leads us to the lynching tree—as well as to African American innovators such as the man who developed modern blood storage and transfusion.
Scandal and New Girl are not ordinarily “about” race. But as national conversations on police violence intensify, they’ve stepped into the discussion.