racism
A police officer’s view from street level
“At any given moment, I may need to be a psychologist, centurion, street lawyer, or soothsayer.”
David Heim interviews Adam Plantinga
Inventing a voice for Louis Till
John Edgar Wideman counters the official record of Emmett Till’s father with a more empathetic version.
by Amy Frykholm
Why more education can't block the criminalizing gaze at black bodies
I am a black man, and will always be so. Therefore, when I move about in the United States people first see my blackness and not my education. This means ongoing vulnerability because my blackness still is interpreted as criminal through a racialized lens.
A feel-good story's power and limits
There is a danger in responding to a film like Hidden Figures by congratulating ourselves on how far we’ve come.
A didactic, irresistible novel
Leonard Pitts's story is so compelling that you barely notice how much you're learning.
by LaVonne Neff
The church's one identity
White Christians have an obligation to face white nationalism head-on.
A conversation with Liam Miller on racism, a whitened Jesus, and the subversive character of the kingdom of God
I was able to sit and have a brief conversation with him about racism, a whitened Jesus, and the reign of God. I thought you might appreciate the conversation as well. Let me know what you think.
What race riots accomplish
Some riots protest injustice. Others perpetuate it.
When mercy and justice meet
As we make laws and try to adjudicate justice, we often lose sight of the human faces affected.
Neighborhoods real and imagined
Ideas about the ghetto matter. They always have.
Balance the scales
We can no longer pretend that the scales of justice in America are fair and balanced.
Ulysses S. Grant’s fight against voter suppression
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University stated earlier this month that “14 states will have new voting restrictions in place for the first time in a presidential election.” Enacted by Republican legislatures, “the new laws range from strict photo ID requirements to early voting cutbacks to registration restrictions.” (The states are Alabama, Arizona, Indians, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.) As for what the Brennan Center calls the “myth of voter fraud,” their ongoing examination found that such fraud is “very rare.”
One of the central stories in the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant involved his fight against voter suppression.
Race on the ballot—again
In 1900, W.E.B. Du Bois named the color line as the problem of the 20th century. The color line, which still persists, is on trial this presidential election.
While Donald Trump polls low among black voters, these numbers have improved slightly.
Charleston Syllabus, edited by Chad Williams, Kidada E. Williams, and Keisha N. Blain
When Dylann Roof murdered the Charleston nine at a Bible study in June 2015, his intent was “to start a race war.” He didn’t succeed.
Peyote and the racialized war on drugs
A summer of racial unrest throughout the country has led to calls in the presidential campaign to “restore law and order.” It’s the same line used by Richard Nixon in 1968 to appeal to white nationalist fears of black criminality after the “long hot summer of 1967.” Racialized wars on drugs emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—directed against Chinese people for opium use, African Americans in the South for charges of cocaine use, and Mexicans and Mexican Americans surrounding allegations of marijuana use.
Then there is peyote, a sacred medicine and religious adjunct in Native American worship.
Structural sin and resistant knowledge
“White privilege is your history being taught as a core class and mine being taught as an elective,” wrote a tumblr user in February of 2014. This claim illustrates how education sins in its ignorance.
Latin American liberation theologians taught that sin consists not only of personal misdeeds—it is also embedded in social structures that promote harm and inequity.
White supremacy in American Christianity
Christianity isn’t inherently white supremacist. But Christian faith in America has been interpreted in a way that upholds the tenets of white supremacy, which is built on 18th and 19th century Western hegemonic values. These cultural values, which have been intertwined into mainline American Christianity, protect and uphold the system of white supremacy.
“All men are created equal,” claims the Declaration of Independence.
I, too, am America
I was born in California. One side of my family immigrated to the United States in the early 17th century. The other side of my family arrived on tightly packed ships filled with misery and tears. We have been American for a long time.
Yet, it wasn’t until a cool night in November 2008 that I felt a sense of belonging.