I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity)

by Chanequa Walker-Barnes

Because the US is a White supremacist society in which whiteness is considered both normative and superior, White people can—and most often do—live free from daily awareness of race and racism. Consequently, they lack (1) an awareness of how their own personalities, identities, and cultural preferences have been shaped by whiteness; (2) the vocabulary and rudimentary knowledge base needed to discuss structural racism competently; and (3) the biopsychosocial stamina to withstand racial stress. Their solutions to racism, then, tend to emphasize efforts that remain within their comfort zone: establishing cross-racial friendships and multicultural congregations. This, however, is not reconciliation. It does nothing to repair the harm of systemic racism or to dismantle the system of White supremacy. It is a therapeutic approach designed to make White people feel better about the unjust system in which they live and with which they are complicit.