Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Religion and The Problem of Racial Innocence

by Joanna Brooks

In this book, I have tried to identify and analyze the elements of this scaffolding in my own religious community—that is, the things the Mormon people have done and continue to do that perpetuate anti-Black white supremacy: • Prioritizing relationships among whites in the Mormon community over responsibilities to the well-being of fellow Mormons who are Black • Actively excluding Blacks from religious and political power, thus discouraging a Black presence in Mormonism and rendering Black experience abstract and unknowable • Abandoning factual versions of Mormon history in favor of correlated narratives presenting Black exclusion as the will of God from time immemorial revealed to infallible Mormon prophets • Entering into silent agreements within the membership and with the American public to coaffirm the innocence and moral goodness of the white majority • Repressing internal critique and dissent • Using rhetorical evasion and duplicity to manage the legacy of Mormon anti-Black racism without taking responsibility for it These contribute not only to what scholars call a possessive investment in whiteness but also to a possessive investment in rightness that supports white racial innocence, the privilege that allows whites to feel morally superior while avoiding grappling with the profound moral questions of race and racism.