If you've spent any time in the Twitterverse, by now you've seen all sorts of responses and recommended responses for the church – and they don't all agree. I just want to highlight two things:
1. What we witnessed was nothing new – especially not for people of color – it was just overt. It was an extreme expression of the white supremacy and racism that people of color encounter and are harmed by every day in both “small” and systematized ways in every corner of our society. Also, if you're white like me, we can't just push this away and “other” the white supremacists at the rally. We need to allow them to be a mirror and look into the mirror so that we can continue to confront the racism and privilege of the whiteness that we are steeped in.
2. Borrowing from Brian McClaren, who was present with clergy to witness against the rally in Charlottesville: “Don't just tweet, talk, complain, worry, or pray (do pray, but don't just pray)… Prepare! Prepare to be an agent of anti-racism.” Over the past year, a big part of my own preparing to be a peacemaker in the way of Jesus as an agent of anti-racism has been listening deeply to people of color and learning about whiteness and white privilege/supremacy. Fortunately, I've been able to record some of that learning and share it here on RePlacing Church. Whether you've already heard these or missed them, here are some helpful resources to help you prepare:
- #66-67 Dominique Gilliard on Lynching, Mass Incarceration and Restorative Justice
- #56 Mark Charles on the Doctrine of Discovery
- #50 Dr. Robin DiAngelo on White Fragility
- #46 Dr. David Leong on Race and Place
- #44 Dr. Caprice Hollins on How to Talk About Race
- #42 Leroy Barber on Embracing the Other in a Divided World
I also recommend the “Seeing White” series from the Scene on Radio podcast, which was recommended to me by Nate Tubbs, who provides me with incredible production assistance for RePlacing Church.
In other news, I've taken a bit of time off from the podcasts, but there will be more episodes soon! In the meantime, you can check out The Church That Devours Its Youth and other recent RePlacing Church blog posts.
Godspeed,
Ben
P.S. Thanks for listening to the podcast! Please let Apple Podcasts and know what you think. I'd love to hear what your learning and practicing.
Also published on Medium.
