On a recent trip to Colonial Williamsburg and Richmond, Va., I saw things from a different point of view. As I looked into racial minority issues, predominantly those of Africans, I was shocked at how melanin became evil. It is…
Whether blind, blurry or oblivious, failure to see whiteness distorts God’s image in others
When people think about and discuss race, they often fail to see and acknowledge whiteness, distorting the image of God stamped upon all people, Erica Whitaker told participants in a Baptist News Global education conference on hidden racism in Colonial…
Emotions run high as BNG group walks the sacred ground of Richmond’s mass grave that got paved over as a parking lot
The morning exploration of a long-hidden slave processing site in downtown Richmond, Va., was so overpowering for Kan’Dace Brock that she had to be comforted by others touring the Lumpkin’s Slave Jail and historic burial ground. Walking the location where…
In Colonial Williamsburg, a paved-over parking lot and an almost-lost school teach lessons about racism
Recent archaeological and architectural discoveries revealed part of “the hidden story of racism in colonial America” for participants in a Baptist News Global educational tour of Colonial Williamsburg and Richmond, Va. In Colonial Williamsburg, they visited the original building site…
Baldwin, Bobby and the necessity of hard conversations
I’ve been engaging in hard conversations about race for the past seven years. Sometimes I’m asked if they matter, if anything can change hearts and minds. Not long ago, a friend who is a devout Christian and a person of…
Two views of parenting, and how school lunches and school libraries are alike
One of the underlying factors in today’s battles over public education is two polar opposite views of parenting. Parents who want to ban books from school libraries and tell classroom teachers what parts of American history to teach and how…
Peter Makapela: One man’s journey from racial hatred during South Africa’s apartheid years to a voice of racial reconciliation
When he was 14, Peter Makapela and his cousin Xolani joined scores of other schoolchildren in Cape Town, South Africa, to protest miserable conditions in the area’s schools for Black children. It was 1989, the height of public resistance to…
India at 75: The world’s largest democracy is dying of toxic nationalism
Think white Christian nationalism is the most dangerous form of identity politics in the democratic world? Meet Hindu nationalism, which is systematically destroying secular democracy — and civil society — in India. I sincerely regret raining on the parade of…
To reclaim its role as community thought leader, the church must reflect on its action and its record
I was reading church minutes, bored out of my mind. Not the first time, nor probably the last. Then, I wondered: Why? Why was I so disconnected from what these markers of congregational history have to say? Perhaps some of…