structural racism
Multigenerational rage, holy listening, and the unveiling of another way
A conversation between Parker Palmer, Stephen Lewis, Matthew Wesley Williams, and Dori Baker about the book Another Way
Racist public policy and its intended consequences
Segregation isn't just about white flight and redlining. It's about what government does and doesn't do.
When government fails
The scale of government means its failures can be big ones. But so can its successes.
Stopping racism with a smile?
Last semester, I had students review Divided By Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America, by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith. For those unfamiliar with this book, the authors make two general claims:
America is a racialized society. White evangelical Protestants are unwitting proponents of racialization.
We aren’t playing the race card; we are analyzing the racialized deck.
Merely speaking about this incident and mentioning racism resulted in the common backlash accusation of playing this mythical item. It is used over and over again by some white people instead of engaging in dialogue through sharing and listening, the choice is made to stigmatize and scapegoat those that disagree that America is mostly a colorblind post-racial nation. There are certain scripts that the white majority learns and rehearses through subtle socialization in dominant culture. Rather than doing the hard work of careful in-depth investigation of the matter, quick cliché dismissals are used to uphold the status quo. The status quo is silence about racism other than pointing out the overt cases, as well as getting into extensive conversation about reverse racism. While I have often gotten frustrated by these little remarks that dismiss black experiences without doing the hard work of listening and wrestling with another perspective, I decided that from now on I was going to “play along” with their game.