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…
Progressive National Convention joins with AFL-CIO to advance racial and economic justice
Combating racism is pointless unless the economic injustice that underlies it is also dealt with, activist and attorney Jennifer Jones-Austin said. She spoke during the recent town hall segment of the Progressive National Baptist Convention’s 61st annual session in Orlando,…
Why aren’t we defending Brittney Griner?
Brittney Griner is a professional basketball player. Her story reads like the all-American girl she is, but now she is in a Russian prison, and her critics are saying she is “unpatriotic,” “un-American,” and not worthy of our mercy and…
The end of the status quo: Why white people must overthrow white racism
Last month at the American Cathedral in Paris, where I serve as canon theologian, I gave a talk on my journey from “quirky American theologian” (as the UK’s Greenbelt Festival advertised me when they invited me to give talks on…
Initial results of PRRI poll show CBF members score significantly lower on Racism Index than other Americans
Christians who attend Cooperative Baptist Fellowship churches are significantly less racist than most Americans and even less so than Catholics and other Protestants, according to a soon-to-be released survey conducted for the Fellowship by Public Religion Research Institute. PRRI found…
We dissent!
The headline read, “In a 5-4 Vote the United States Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade.” While I knew this decision was coming, I still felt a deep pain in my heart and anxiety swell all over my body. Perhaps…
Was that a blatantly racist tweet from a Texas senator or not?
The ranking U.S. senator from Texas tweeted a response to former President Barack Obama June 25 that online observers immediately called out as blatantly racist. Exactly what Sen. John Cornyn meant is not clear, as he has not responded to…
Is America racist at heart?
A question like this typically puts white Americans on edge or at least ill at ease. But these questions must be dealt with if we are ever to truly live up to the greatness espoused in our Constitution. As we…
The SBC rebuffed its most extreme factions but remains extremely conservative
By some accounts, the Southern Baptist Convention once again rejected its most extreme factions during this year’s annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif. But by any outside measure, the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination remains extremely conservative. Defining the term “conservative” within…
Sympathy does not defeat white supremacy
On May 14, 2022, an 18-year-old white man killed 10 Black people and wounded three others at a TOPS supermarket in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo, N.Y. He drove more than 200 miles from his home in southern New York…
It’s time for America to rid itself of Asian prejudice
As the pandemic subsides, I cannot help thinking about the tragedy and loss of lives. It is painful to think that during the pandemic, about 18.2 million people died worldwide, including about 1.13 million Americans. These are startling numbers, and…
America, blood is on your hands
“The language of white supremacy is a language of cowardice disguised as dominance.” — Toni Morrison Deep grief and rage rest upon the heart and soul as we continue to call the names of Black and brown bodies taken, stolen….