Many years ago, I was having a conversation with a woman with whom I had gone to high school. She was a successful attorney, living in Pennsylvania, and had a good life — except for her long-term boyfriend. He was…
PRRI’s Structural Racism Index attempts to quantify racist beliefs
How do you measure racism? In the contemporary American battleground of politics, culture and religion, people often call out others for being racist, and those accused often reply, “I’m not a racist.” Still others proudly wear the label “racist” as…
As the Confederate monuments come tumbling down, half of Americans still favor their presence
It’s no news flash that the presence — or sudden absence — of memorials to the Confederacy is a symbol of America’s divided politics today. Yet a new national study by Public Religion Research Institute puts some hard numbers on…
Black pastor arrested in Alabama for watering neighbors’ flowers sues city
A pastor watering his neighbor’s flowers wouldn’t normally make national news, but in Childersburg, Ala., such an act of generosity resulted in an arrest and a story on National Public Radio. The story later made The New York Times. Michael…
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…
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…
If you think the Jackson water crisis is just about Mississippi, you’re all dried up
Mississippi is “the Magnolia State” where Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old African American boy, was abducted, tortured and lynched in August 1955. Mississippi is where Medgar Evers was murdered June 12, 1963. Mississippi is where three civil rights activists — James Chaney, Andrew…
Warnock tells Dallas congregation, ‘We can make a way out of no way’
Marginalized Americans needn’t settle for the bigotry and division gripping the nation any more than a paralytic healed by Jesus had to settle for ancient prejudices against people with physical disabilities, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock said in an Aug. 28…