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

by Chanequa Walker-Barnes

In racial reconciliation, this strategy is clearly geared toward the comfort of Whites, because it implies that they are only half of the problem and that some of the responsibility for racism lies with people of color. But racism is not neutral; it chooses sides, the side of White supremacy, the side of evil. The primary goal of truth-telling in racial reconciliation is not to build bridges; it is to reveal the powers and principalities so that we can tear them down. To diminish this in any way is not truth-telling; it is catering to the very White supremacist system that we claim to be trying to eradicate. It is being complicit with evil. The truth that must be told—and retold over and over again—is this: Racism is alive and well. It did not happen by accident or as an act of omission, but it is an intentional way of structuring society so that White people have material, economic, social, and political power and advantages over nonwhite peoples. Racism is constructed in such a way that White people benefit from it even when they do not actively or consciously participate in it. Racism negatively impacts the historical and contemporary realities of people of color in complex, layered ways that have been shaped over centuries. We cannot root it out unless we reveal how deeply it is embedded into our systems, relationships, and lives. This, however, demands conditions of safety and solidarity in which the oppressed can grow to acknowledge and voice their truths. To force t...