(Picture supply: Shutterstock)
The next excerpt comes from The Faith of Whiteness: How Racism Distorts Christian Religion (Oxford College Press, 2024) by Michael O. Emerson and Glenn E. Bracey II. The e book explores how the vast majority of white Christians—based mostly on survey knowledge, focus teams, and interviews over years—worship inside and contribute to programs of racial inequality.
This excerpt comes from the e book’s first chapter.
***
Why received’t racism and racial injustice simply go away? Why have efforts to eradicate racism failed? We suggest a novel argument: They received’t go away as a result of race is twisted up with one other essential marker of American id: faith. That’s, race has develop into “religionized” in america; it has taken on transcendent qualities. However as a result of we have a tendency to review race and faith individually, we’ve got missed this significant reality, and thus have grossly underestimated the problem we face as a nation.
On this e book, we purpose to supply a brand new approach of taking a look at race and faith in America by bringing each into focus concurrently, displaying how they work together with and reinforce one another. We argue—and check the argument with knowledge—that racism and racial injustice haven’t receded from American life as a result of they’re, in good half, the life-giving pressure of a dominant group’s faith. Put merely, we can’t perceive racial injustice with out understanding the faith that feeds on racial injustice.
The Distinction
On a vibrant, crisp, and colourful Saturday morning in October 2020, we set out by automobile from Chicago, Illinois to Delavan, Wisconsin, a journey of about 100 miles. Fall had arrived after a protracted summer time of racial tumult. The presidential election was on the horizon and on everybody’s minds. A detailed good friend of ours, a white member of an overwhelmingly white megachurch, had despatched us a hyperlink to a sermon from one other predominantly white church on the East Coast. He had prefaced it by saying one thing like, “I wished you to know the problems that matter to me and my group.”
An extended automobile journey was a superb time to take heed to the sermon, which was nicely over an hour lengthy, so we tuned in. It was entitled “The Election Sermon,” and it targeted on how Christians ought to take into consideration points going through the nation and the way they need to vote to be in keeping with their religion.
The pastor gave a repeated problem: “Get up!” He started, “I can’t be silent, I cannot be silent, and neither do you have to.” There was an excessive amount of clapping from the congregation. He continued:
This can be a battle. This can be a struggle. This isn’t a recreation. It’s a non secular battle that we face for the guts and soul of America and for the guts and soul of the following era. I’ve by no means felt as passionate for and anxious about America as I’m at this time. We because the Church of Jesus Christ are God’s restraining pressure on the earth at this time towards evil.
The pastor then went on to clarify what the correct goal of presidency is and the way Christians ought to give it some thought:
Go searching on the problems with our day and ask your self which insurance policies and procedures as put forth by the 2 primary events in America will accomplish God’s goal of presidency—cultivating the nice and punishing the evil. We’ve got to take a look at all these totally different points that we’re surrounded by and there’s quite a bit. We’ve got to ask ourselves . . . how can we do our greatest to take a look at insurance policies and procedures separated from character contests and acknowledge what insurance policies and procedures greatest come closest to, most characterize our convictions with a biblical worldview to ensure that the federal government to advance the nice and to punish the evil?
Getting all the way down to specifics, he started naming what he believes are an important points going through the nation and, in every case, which political social gathering is extra according to “the biblical worldview.” As our good friend advised, the problems the pastor selected to spotlight are vital for understanding what issues to this group. The pastor named them, so as: non secular freedom, marriage and sexuality, Israel, life, and the economic system. However he didn’t simply title them. He selected sides: The Democratic Occasion doesn’t care about non secular freedom. They search to destroy conventional marriage and sexual morality. Donald Trump confirmed who’s Israel’s greatest supporter when he moved the American embassy to Jerusalem. Donald Trump is essentially the most pro-life president of all time.
And on the economic system, the least clearly “non secular” problem on his record, he launched right into a stemwinder. A biblical worldview, he argued, is one which values particular person onerous work and the willingness to be form to the poor, however solely voluntarily. Serving to the poor isn’t the federal government’s position. The Democratic platform’s use of buzzwords equivalent to “shared prosperity,” he claimed, is opposite to the biblical worldview. “That’s political converse; its socialism, it’s the redistribution of wealth.” He went on:
The Bible doesn’t train socialism. You already know what the Bible teaches? The Bible teaches that onerous work shall be rewarded, and the Bible teaches that we must also be conscious of the poor amongst us, as a result of that additionally shall be rewarded, when you’re form to the poor. However not redistribute the wealth. That’s unbiblical [much clapping]. In Proverbs 13:4 it says that “However those that work onerous will prosper,” and Proverbs 22:9 “He who has a beneficiant eye shall be blessed if he offers of his bread to the poor.” That’s the mixture that works in America, and all over the world. That’s God’s design. It’s not redistributing the wealth.
There have been solely two mentions of race within the speak. Each had been references to African People who personally informed the pastor that he’s proper: that he’s being really biblical, that each one lives matter, that black folks overwhelmingly vote Democratic as a result of they don’t give it some thought—it’s simply cultural and what’s anticipated by different black folks, and that if he simply retains educating the Bible, the sin of racism shall be eradicated as a result of God will change the hearts and minds of the folks. Briefly, the problems he recognized as vital are the identical points which can be vital to black folks, no less than those that perceive scripture and might transfer past their cultural encapsulation.
He concluded: “Hearken to me, I’m going to talk fact to you. In case you are a lifelong Democrat, your social gathering has left you. That ship has sailed. [clapping] It’s true.” He went on to emphatically say he couldn’t and wouldn’t vote for the Democratic Occasion candidates. The congregation erupted in cheers and shouts of encouragement.
The readability of the sermon was inescapable. What’s Christian, what’s biblical, what is true had been laid naked, simply as what’s un-Christian, what’s unbiblical, and what’s incorrect had been made clear. Republicans are the previous; Democrats are the latter. Not surprisingly, two weeks later, white Christians overwhelmingly voted Republican for president and in most each different race throughout the nation.
By the point we set out for the return journey to Chicago that evening, the climate had turned blustery and chilly, with fallen leaves swirling within the darkness. As soon as once more, a good friend, this one African American, had some really helpful listening for us: a brand new episode of the podcast “Within the Mild.” And as soon as once more, we used our 100 miles of automobile captivity to pay attention in. Hosted by Dr. Anita Phillips, an African American Christian counselor, Instagrammer, and podcaster, the episode was entitled “Betrayal.”
Phillips opened the podcast by telling listeners that the episode would give attention to racial division inside the church. She had been receiving an ever-growing variety of requests from African People asking for prayer and counseling “relating to the white-led racially combined church buildings they attend and the utterly absent or near-absent response to their lived experiences as black People. And essentially the most heartbreaking parts of these talks have centered on the non secular injury they’ve suffered.”
She then launched the primary of her two friends, a younger African American girl who had, till not too long ago, been a worship chief in a white-led racially various congregation. The visitor, who grew up in a black church, was launched as “nameless” to guard her from backlash. She was requested to explain her expertise in her most up-to-date, white-led church.
The visitor started by saying she regularly famous she was not handled with gentleness or with grace. She mentioned when she acted “too black,” as outlined by the white management and members, she was informed they “discover it distracting.” She additionally mentioned, “They regularly questioned my character, saying I used to be calling consideration away from the place the main focus needs to be.”
These repeated occurrences led her to query herself and her religion. She reported experiencing 9 separate anxiousness assaults during her first 12 months on the church. She grew to become not sure of who she was or what she needs to be doing.
Earlier that 12 months, Ahmaud Arbery, an African American man out for a jog, was murdered by two white males. The younger girl mentioned that this occasion had modified her, making her fearful for her security: “I used to be operating three miles each morning, and I ended with the ability to run. I used to be consuming solely as soon as each forty-eight hours and sleeping possibly two hours an evening.” However at church, issues appeared to be going alongside as ordinary—as if nothing had occurred and the world had not modified. “And I spotted, oh sure, your [white] world hasn’t modified. Every little thing is regular for you.” That realization crushed her. It meant she and her white parishioners actually weren’t on this wrestle collectively.
Whereas the white congregants had been going about their lives unchanged, the black group was grieving and hurting. This disconnect was deeply disturbing to the younger girl. Throughout this era, she had a extreme anxiousness assault whereas singing on stage with the worship group. “It was embarrassing, and it felt like nobody understood why I used to be shedding it.”
After the service, there was a debrief assembly of the worship group. Nonetheless attempting desperately to carry it collectively, she spent a lot of the assembly trying down at her telephone. A short time later, she texted the worship chief to apologize for being “out of it” through the assembly, noting that she was experiencing an anxiousness assault. Fairly than present any concern, the worship chief merely informed her maybe she would do higher if she weren’t on her telephone throughout such conferences. She was devastated. She informed Phillips that she started to spiral, feeling disoriented and confused. She realized that folks on the church didn’t have her again.
Then got here the homicide of George Floyd. There was no point out of the tragic occasion in any way. “I hit some extent the place I mentioned, ‘OK, I can’t do that anymore.’” She quickly left the church, as did no less than eight different African People.
She mirrored on her time on the church:
When they need variety and illustration within the choir, we’re valued. However the second we use the identical voices to speak about Trump or different points, then these voices should be silenced instantly and we’re now not welcomed on this house. The second that I began discussing, hey, that is racist habits, [it was] “Hey, you can’t be a part of groups anymore.”
Phillips requested her how she was doing now:
Spiritually, I don’t need to speak about Jesus or church. [Crying] I do know what I do know, the reality is unchanging, however I don’t have a need to work together. I don’t need to go to a church, I don’t need it in any respect.
Phillips addressed the viewers straight. We have to title such a trauma, she informed them. She famous that what is occurring is one thing past racial trauma, one thing past non secular trauma, and one thing past their overlap. It’s a distinctive, egregious phenomenon. It’s what she calls betrayal trauma. Taken from the work of psychologist Jennifer Freyd, it may be outlined thusly:
Betrayal Trauma happens when folks or establishments on which an individual relies upon considerably violate that individual’s belief or well-being. The diploma to which a unfavourable occasion represents a betrayal by a trusted, wanted different will affect the way in which by which that occasion is processed and remembered.
As a result of so many African People are so deeply non secular, Phillips informed her viewers that being racially and religiously traumatized constitutes a betrayal by a wanted different. “We’d like one another. Right here the place race, faith, and betrayal overlap we discover the language” for this deep ache, shaking too many people. “The trauma is actual, and worthy to be given voice.”
What Does It Imply?
In the middle of one spherical journey on one October day, we skilled two distinct visions of race and religion in American life. They hardly encapsulate your entire vary of views on these topics; however they do reveal the huge gulf separating individuals who ostensibly share the identical religion.
However this e book isn’t in regards to the gulf. It’s in regards to the deep injury it’s doing to human beings—warping folks, communities, and the nation. It’s about what we describe because the grand betrayal perpetrated by many white Christians—overwhelmingly involved with their very own within-group points and place—towards Christians of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. It’s about how and why many white Christians are rejecting their Christian household and the extreme penalties that observe for your entire nation.
This can be a e book about naming actuality—the structure of race and faith—with the hope of fixing it. We discover the gravity of the betrayal and ask why so many white Christians have interaction in it. Our reply is that many white folks have a further religion that serves to distort their Christian religion, what we name the Faith of Whiteness. We won’t argue, as some have, that white Christianity is totally different from different types of Christianity. Nor will we declare that white Christianity has racial prejudice or racism embedded inside it. And we won’t be making the declare typically made by nonetheless others: that Christianity is merely a canopy for a political motion.
Fairly, we argue that the majority white Christians in america— our greatest estimate based mostly on empirical knowledge is two-thirds—are religiontotally following what quantities to, in impact, a competing faith, or sect, or creed. This faith—the Faith of Whiteness—distorts folks’s Christian commitments and raises race to creedal standing over different features of historic Christianity. As soon as we come to see this competing faith for what it’s, issues which may have appeared complicated start to make good sense. The seemingly infinite contradictions disappear. And we start to see racial injustice in a complete new mild, which is hopefully a step towards overcoming it.
Briefly, we argue on this e book that the issue of racial injustice in america can’t be addressed till we perceive that we aren’t merely coping with interpersonal racism, or marital racism, or Christian Nationalism, or the Christian Proper. These all matter in vitally vital methods, and we take them significantly. However we argue that one thing even bigger is going on. And that “somefactor bigger”—that race is “religionized” and the way it’s so—should be understood earlier than progress might be made. We as a nation should confront the distorting energy of the Faith of Whiteness.
Michael O. Emerson is the writer of greater than 15 books and is the Chavanne Fellow in Faith and Public Coverage at Rice College’s Baker Institute for Public Coverage.
Glenn E. Bracey II is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Villanova College.
(Picture supply: Shutterstock)
The next excerpt comes from The Faith of Whiteness: How Racism Distorts Christian Religion (Oxford College Press, 2024) by Michael O. Emerson and Glenn E. Bracey II. The e book explores how the vast majority of white Christians—based mostly on survey knowledge, focus teams, and interviews over years—worship inside and contribute to programs of racial inequality.
This excerpt comes from the e book’s first chapter.
***
Why received’t racism and racial injustice simply go away? Why have efforts to eradicate racism failed? We suggest a novel argument: They received’t go away as a result of race is twisted up with one other essential marker of American id: faith. That’s, race has develop into “religionized” in america; it has taken on transcendent qualities. However as a result of we have a tendency to review race and faith individually, we’ve got missed this significant reality, and thus have grossly underestimated the problem we face as a nation.
On this e book, we purpose to supply a brand new approach of taking a look at race and faith in America by bringing each into focus concurrently, displaying how they work together with and reinforce one another. We argue—and check the argument with knowledge—that racism and racial injustice haven’t receded from American life as a result of they’re, in good half, the life-giving pressure of a dominant group’s faith. Put merely, we can’t perceive racial injustice with out understanding the faith that feeds on racial injustice.
The Distinction
On a vibrant, crisp, and colourful Saturday morning in October 2020, we set out by automobile from Chicago, Illinois to Delavan, Wisconsin, a journey of about 100 miles. Fall had arrived after a protracted summer time of racial tumult. The presidential election was on the horizon and on everybody’s minds. A detailed good friend of ours, a white member of an overwhelmingly white megachurch, had despatched us a hyperlink to a sermon from one other predominantly white church on the East Coast. He had prefaced it by saying one thing like, “I wished you to know the problems that matter to me and my group.”
An extended automobile journey was a superb time to take heed to the sermon, which was nicely over an hour lengthy, so we tuned in. It was entitled “The Election Sermon,” and it targeted on how Christians ought to take into consideration points going through the nation and the way they need to vote to be in keeping with their religion.
The pastor gave a repeated problem: “Get up!” He started, “I can’t be silent, I cannot be silent, and neither do you have to.” There was an excessive amount of clapping from the congregation. He continued:
This can be a battle. This can be a struggle. This isn’t a recreation. It’s a non secular battle that we face for the guts and soul of America and for the guts and soul of the following era. I’ve by no means felt as passionate for and anxious about America as I’m at this time. We because the Church of Jesus Christ are God’s restraining pressure on the earth at this time towards evil.
The pastor then went on to clarify what the correct goal of presidency is and the way Christians ought to give it some thought:
Go searching on the problems with our day and ask your self which insurance policies and procedures as put forth by the 2 primary events in America will accomplish God’s goal of presidency—cultivating the nice and punishing the evil. We’ve got to take a look at all these totally different points that we’re surrounded by and there’s quite a bit. We’ve got to ask ourselves . . . how can we do our greatest to take a look at insurance policies and procedures separated from character contests and acknowledge what insurance policies and procedures greatest come closest to, most characterize our convictions with a biblical worldview to ensure that the federal government to advance the nice and to punish the evil?
Getting all the way down to specifics, he started naming what he believes are an important points going through the nation and, in every case, which political social gathering is extra according to “the biblical worldview.” As our good friend advised, the problems the pastor selected to spotlight are vital for understanding what issues to this group. The pastor named them, so as: non secular freedom, marriage and sexuality, Israel, life, and the economic system. However he didn’t simply title them. He selected sides: The Democratic Occasion doesn’t care about non secular freedom. They search to destroy conventional marriage and sexual morality. Donald Trump confirmed who’s Israel’s greatest supporter when he moved the American embassy to Jerusalem. Donald Trump is essentially the most pro-life president of all time.
And on the economic system, the least clearly “non secular” problem on his record, he launched right into a stemwinder. A biblical worldview, he argued, is one which values particular person onerous work and the willingness to be form to the poor, however solely voluntarily. Serving to the poor isn’t the federal government’s position. The Democratic platform’s use of buzzwords equivalent to “shared prosperity,” he claimed, is opposite to the biblical worldview. “That’s political converse; its socialism, it’s the redistribution of wealth.” He went on:
The Bible doesn’t train socialism. You already know what the Bible teaches? The Bible teaches that onerous work shall be rewarded, and the Bible teaches that we must also be conscious of the poor amongst us, as a result of that additionally shall be rewarded, when you’re form to the poor. However not redistribute the wealth. That’s unbiblical [much clapping]. In Proverbs 13:4 it says that “However those that work onerous will prosper,” and Proverbs 22:9 “He who has a beneficiant eye shall be blessed if he offers of his bread to the poor.” That’s the mixture that works in America, and all over the world. That’s God’s design. It’s not redistributing the wealth.
There have been solely two mentions of race within the speak. Each had been references to African People who personally informed the pastor that he’s proper: that he’s being really biblical, that each one lives matter, that black folks overwhelmingly vote Democratic as a result of they don’t give it some thought—it’s simply cultural and what’s anticipated by different black folks, and that if he simply retains educating the Bible, the sin of racism shall be eradicated as a result of God will change the hearts and minds of the folks. Briefly, the problems he recognized as vital are the identical points which can be vital to black folks, no less than those that perceive scripture and might transfer past their cultural encapsulation.
He concluded: “Hearken to me, I’m going to talk fact to you. In case you are a lifelong Democrat, your social gathering has left you. That ship has sailed. [clapping] It’s true.” He went on to emphatically say he couldn’t and wouldn’t vote for the Democratic Occasion candidates. The congregation erupted in cheers and shouts of encouragement.
The readability of the sermon was inescapable. What’s Christian, what’s biblical, what is true had been laid naked, simply as what’s un-Christian, what’s unbiblical, and what’s incorrect had been made clear. Republicans are the previous; Democrats are the latter. Not surprisingly, two weeks later, white Christians overwhelmingly voted Republican for president and in most each different race throughout the nation.
By the point we set out for the return journey to Chicago that evening, the climate had turned blustery and chilly, with fallen leaves swirling within the darkness. As soon as once more, a good friend, this one African American, had some really helpful listening for us: a brand new episode of the podcast “Within the Mild.” And as soon as once more, we used our 100 miles of automobile captivity to pay attention in. Hosted by Dr. Anita Phillips, an African American Christian counselor, Instagrammer, and podcaster, the episode was entitled “Betrayal.”
Phillips opened the podcast by telling listeners that the episode would give attention to racial division inside the church. She had been receiving an ever-growing variety of requests from African People asking for prayer and counseling “relating to the white-led racially combined church buildings they attend and the utterly absent or near-absent response to their lived experiences as black People. And essentially the most heartbreaking parts of these talks have centered on the non secular injury they’ve suffered.”
She then launched the primary of her two friends, a younger African American girl who had, till not too long ago, been a worship chief in a white-led racially various congregation. The visitor, who grew up in a black church, was launched as “nameless” to guard her from backlash. She was requested to explain her expertise in her most up-to-date, white-led church.
The visitor started by saying she regularly famous she was not handled with gentleness or with grace. She mentioned when she acted “too black,” as outlined by the white management and members, she was informed they “discover it distracting.” She additionally mentioned, “They regularly questioned my character, saying I used to be calling consideration away from the place the main focus needs to be.”
These repeated occurrences led her to query herself and her religion. She reported experiencing 9 separate anxiousness assaults during her first 12 months on the church. She grew to become not sure of who she was or what she needs to be doing.
Earlier that 12 months, Ahmaud Arbery, an African American man out for a jog, was murdered by two white males. The younger girl mentioned that this occasion had modified her, making her fearful for her security: “I used to be operating three miles each morning, and I ended with the ability to run. I used to be consuming solely as soon as each forty-eight hours and sleeping possibly two hours an evening.” However at church, issues appeared to be going alongside as ordinary—as if nothing had occurred and the world had not modified. “And I spotted, oh sure, your [white] world hasn’t modified. Every little thing is regular for you.” That realization crushed her. It meant she and her white parishioners actually weren’t on this wrestle collectively.
Whereas the white congregants had been going about their lives unchanged, the black group was grieving and hurting. This disconnect was deeply disturbing to the younger girl. Throughout this era, she had a extreme anxiousness assault whereas singing on stage with the worship group. “It was embarrassing, and it felt like nobody understood why I used to be shedding it.”
After the service, there was a debrief assembly of the worship group. Nonetheless attempting desperately to carry it collectively, she spent a lot of the assembly trying down at her telephone. A short time later, she texted the worship chief to apologize for being “out of it” through the assembly, noting that she was experiencing an anxiousness assault. Fairly than present any concern, the worship chief merely informed her maybe she would do higher if she weren’t on her telephone throughout such conferences. She was devastated. She informed Phillips that she started to spiral, feeling disoriented and confused. She realized that folks on the church didn’t have her again.
Then got here the homicide of George Floyd. There was no point out of the tragic occasion in any way. “I hit some extent the place I mentioned, ‘OK, I can’t do that anymore.’” She quickly left the church, as did no less than eight different African People.
She mirrored on her time on the church:
When they need variety and illustration within the choir, we’re valued. However the second we use the identical voices to speak about Trump or different points, then these voices should be silenced instantly and we’re now not welcomed on this house. The second that I began discussing, hey, that is racist habits, [it was] “Hey, you can’t be a part of groups anymore.”
Phillips requested her how she was doing now:
Spiritually, I don’t need to speak about Jesus or church. [Crying] I do know what I do know, the reality is unchanging, however I don’t have a need to work together. I don’t need to go to a church, I don’t need it in any respect.
Phillips addressed the viewers straight. We have to title such a trauma, she informed them. She famous that what is occurring is one thing past racial trauma, one thing past non secular trauma, and one thing past their overlap. It’s a distinctive, egregious phenomenon. It’s what she calls betrayal trauma. Taken from the work of psychologist Jennifer Freyd, it may be outlined thusly:
Betrayal Trauma happens when folks or establishments on which an individual relies upon considerably violate that individual’s belief or well-being. The diploma to which a unfavourable occasion represents a betrayal by a trusted, wanted different will affect the way in which by which that occasion is processed and remembered.
As a result of so many African People are so deeply non secular, Phillips informed her viewers that being racially and religiously traumatized constitutes a betrayal by a wanted different. “We’d like one another. Right here the place race, faith, and betrayal overlap we discover the language” for this deep ache, shaking too many people. “The trauma is actual, and worthy to be given voice.”
What Does It Imply?
In the middle of one spherical journey on one October day, we skilled two distinct visions of race and religion in American life. They hardly encapsulate your entire vary of views on these topics; however they do reveal the huge gulf separating individuals who ostensibly share the identical religion.
However this e book isn’t in regards to the gulf. It’s in regards to the deep injury it’s doing to human beings—warping folks, communities, and the nation. It’s about what we describe because the grand betrayal perpetrated by many white Christians—overwhelmingly involved with their very own within-group points and place—towards Christians of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. It’s about how and why many white Christians are rejecting their Christian household and the extreme penalties that observe for your entire nation.
This can be a e book about naming actuality—the structure of race and faith—with the hope of fixing it. We discover the gravity of the betrayal and ask why so many white Christians have interaction in it. Our reply is that many white folks have a further religion that serves to distort their Christian religion, what we name the Faith of Whiteness. We won’t argue, as some have, that white Christianity is totally different from different types of Christianity. Nor will we declare that white Christianity has racial prejudice or racism embedded inside it. And we won’t be making the declare typically made by nonetheless others: that Christianity is merely a canopy for a political motion.
Fairly, we argue that the majority white Christians in america— our greatest estimate based mostly on empirical knowledge is two-thirds—are religiontotally following what quantities to, in impact, a competing faith, or sect, or creed. This faith—the Faith of Whiteness—distorts folks’s Christian commitments and raises race to creedal standing over different features of historic Christianity. As soon as we come to see this competing faith for what it’s, issues which may have appeared complicated start to make good sense. The seemingly infinite contradictions disappear. And we start to see racial injustice in a complete new mild, which is hopefully a step towards overcoming it.
Briefly, we argue on this e book that the issue of racial injustice in america can’t be addressed till we perceive that we aren’t merely coping with interpersonal racism, or marital racism, or Christian Nationalism, or the Christian Proper. These all matter in vitally vital methods, and we take them significantly. However we argue that one thing even bigger is going on. And that “somefactor bigger”—that race is “religionized” and the way it’s so—should be understood earlier than progress might be made. We as a nation should confront the distorting energy of the Faith of Whiteness.
Michael O. Emerson is the writer of greater than 15 books and is the Chavanne Fellow in Faith and Public Coverage at Rice College’s Baker Institute for Public Coverage.
Glenn E. Bracey II is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Villanova College.
