The Color Line, Race, and Caste: Structures of Domination and the Ethics of Recognition

2021 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-94
Author(s):  
James F. Keenan

The Black Lives Matter movement has been trying to awaken the rest of the United States to its failure to recognize systemic racism, anti-blackness, and white supremacy. With a keen awareness of racism as structural, this article first considers the pervasiveness of systemic racism in the church and then investigates how in the United States anti-blackness was first documented as the color line, then as racism, and now as caste. Recognizing these social structures, it concludes by considering virtues and practices that could help in decentering the dominant caste in its expression of white supremacy.

Author(s):  
Cheryl Teelucksingh

On August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia, alt-right/White supremacy groups and Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporters came face-to-face regarding what to do about public monuments that celebrate key figures from slavery and the Jim Crow era. White supremacists and White nationalists did not hide their racist ideologies as they demanded that their privileged place in history not be erased. The BLM movement, which challenges state-sanctioned anti-Black racism, was ready to confront themes of White discontent and reverse racism, critiques of political correctness, and the assumption that racialized people should know their place and be content to be the subordinate other.It is easy to frame the events in Charlottesville as indicative of US-specific race problems. However, a sense that White spaces should prevail and an ongoing history of anti-Black racism are not unique to the United States. The rise of Canadian activism under the BLM banner also signals a movement to change Canadian forms of institutional racism in policing, education, and the labor market. This article responds to perceptions that the BLM movement has given insufficient attention to environmental concerns (Pellow 2016; Halpern 2017). Drawing on critical race theory as a conceptual tool, this article focuses on the Canadian context as part of the author’s argument in favor of greater collaboration between BLM and the environmental justice (EJ) movement in Canada. This article also engages with the common stereotype that Blacks in Canada have it better than Blacks in the United States.


Lumen et Vita ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-28
Author(s):  
Stephen Nicholson, SJ

The challenges confronting the church in the 21st century, especially that of persistent systemic racism, call for a methodological shift in ecclesiology.  This paper explores the meaning and benefits of Natalia’s Imperatori-Lee’s narrative ecclesiology within the context of race in the United States Catholic Church.  By turning to the story of God’s people, especially the silenced and oppressed, ecclesiology is empowered to challenge false histories and overturn theologies which justify oppression.  Furthermore, the work of the Holy Spirit and the responses of the faithful are made evident in lives of “uncommon faithfulness,” such as those of Black Catholics in the US.  To be guided by narrative ecclesiology today, members of the church must engage in an embodied struggle for liberation and so hear the story of God’s people anew.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 396-420
Author(s):  
Sameena Azhar ◽  
Kendra P. DeLoach McCutcheon

In this article, we seek to highlight the ways in which we, as two female social work faculty members whose racial/ethnic identities fall into the categories of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC), have experienced racism and White supremacy within predominantly White institutions in the United States. We seek to clarify that these experiences are not unique to any particular institution or university, but rather reflect systemic racism and the upholding of White supremacy in higher education in social work throughout the United States. We highlight the differential vulnerability faced by BIPOC women in academia, which are often unaddressed in the pursuit of what is seen to be an egalitarian or colorblind merit review. Bearing in mind our reflexivity on our positionalities, we share personal narratives regarding our own marginalization within White spaces and the emotional labor that we are often asked to carry for the institutions within which we work. We will elucidate experiences of tokenization or assumed intellectual inferiority by our peers. Given the current sociopolitical moment and the heightened awareness of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts within universities, we also reflect on how institutions of higher education, and particularly schools of social work, can move beyond simply hiring more people of color or conducting diversity trainings to ensuring that BIPOC women are more fully included in their roles within universities as faculty, administrators, staff and students.


2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Christiana Abraham

This paper discusses the recent backlash against public monuments spurred by Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in North America and elsewhere following the killing by police of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man in the United States. Since this event, protestors have taken to the streets to bring attention to police brutality, systemic racism, and racial injustice faced by Black and Indigenous people and people of colour in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and some European countries. In many of these protests, outraged citizens have torn down, toppled, or defaced monuments of well-known historic figures associated with colonialism, slavery, racism, and imperialism. Protestors have been demanding the removal of statues and monuments that symbolize slavery, colonial power, and systemic and historical racism. What makes these monuments problematic and what drives these deliberate and spectacular acts of defiance against these omnipresent monuments? Featuring an interview with art historian Charmaine A. Nelson, this article explores the meanings of these forceful, decolonial articulations at this moment. The interview addresses some complex questions related to monumentalization and the public sphere, symbolism and racial in/justice. In so doing, it suggests that monuments of the future need to be reimagined and redefined contemporaneously with shifting social knowledge and generational change.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-50
Author(s):  
James C. Burroughs

The author, James C. Burroughs II, is Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer at Children's Minnesota, one of the largest freestanding pediatric health systems in the United States. This article presents the structure of a thriving Equity and Inclusion (E & I) Department as well as stories of their successes, culminating in practical suggestions for organizations wishing to develop their own E & I departments and/or initiatives.


Author(s):  
Steven Ybarrola

This article explores the issues of race and the church in the United States today. Specifically, it examines why it is that Christians who represent the dominant racial category (i.e. white) have difficulty understanding the experiences of members of minority populations. As a Christian anthropologist, I explore this issue from three key anthropological concepts—culture, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism. I then examine key theological issues related to Christianity and “otherness.” I conclude by bringing these two disciplines together as a way to address how they can lead to the renewing of the mind that Paul speaks of in Romans 12.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aya Esther Hayashi

We in the United States are living in the midst of two pandemics: Covid-19, which is affecting communities of color at an absurdly disproportionate rate, and a renewed spate of murders of Black people at the hands of police. They reveal the depths of racial inequity and injustice in our country. This is a crisis—a turning point where many of us are wondering what we can do better and how we can be better. For us in fan studies, will we finally face the white supremacy embedded in our discipline and take steps to become an antiracist discipline?


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-92
Author(s):  
Rotimi Williams Omotoye

Pentecostalism as a new wave of Christianity became more pronounced in 1970's and beyond in Nigeria. Since then scholars of Religion, History, Sociology and Political Science have shown keen interest in the study of the Churches known as Pentecostals because of the impact they have made on the society. The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) was established by Pastor Josiah Akindayomi in Lagos,Nigeria in 1952. After his demise, he was succeeded by Pastor Adeboye Adejare Enock. The problem of study of this research was an examination of the expansion of the Redeemed Christian Church of God to North America, Caribbean and Canada. The missionary activities of the church could be regarded as a reversed mission in the propagation of Christianity by Africans in the Diaspora. The methodology adopted was historical. The primary and secondary sources of information were also germane in the research. The findings of the research indicated that the Redeemed Christian Church of God was founded in North America by Immigrants from Nigeria. Pastor Adeboye Enock Adejare had much influence on the Church within and outside the country because of his charisma. The Church has become a place of refuge for many immigrants. They are also contributing to the economy of the United States of America. However, the members of the Church were faced with some challenges, such as security scrutiny by the security agencies. In conclusion, the RCCGNA was a denomination that had been accepted and embraced by Nigerians and African immigrants in the United States of America.


1986 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Swanson ◽  
John C. Gardner

This research documents the emergence of accounting procedures and concepts in a centrally controlled not-for-profit organization during a period of change and consolidation. The evolution of accounting as prescribed by the General Canons is identified and its implementation throughout the church conferences is examined.


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