I Bring the Voices of My People Quotes

“For Christians engaged in racial reconciliation, in particular, solidarity is based upon our shared identity as followers of Christ who are bound together through our baptismal covenant. Thus, our solidarity must be evinced by what Duane Bidwell identifies as the characteristics of “helpful and healthful covenant partnerships”: (1) relational justice (the sharing of power, opportunity, and rewards); (2) equal regard (an ethic of interdependent mutuality in which partners empathize with and seek the flourishing of one another); (3) mutual empowerment (the capacity to influence and be influenced by others without domination or losing one’s identity); (4) respect for embodiment (honoring the body of the other, including their lived realities, as a reliable and trustworthy informant about them, the world, and the Divine); (5) and resistance to colonization (working to prevent and dismantle the internalization of harmful cultural beliefs).”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“Indeed, a consequence of color-blind racial ideology is that, because it implies that race is a bad thing, it also implies that those who identify as raced—that is, people of color—are thus morally inferior to those who do not—that is, White people. Thus it reinforces the supremacy of whiteness even as it renders whiteness invisible.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“Only after the rise of the Nazi party and the atrocities of the Holocaust was racial science widely rejected. Subsequently, many earlier proponents of racial science began to retract or modify the claims of their previous work, and by the end of World War II, scholarly interest in race had shifted from “proving” the science of race to challenging its ontology and examining the root of racial prejudice. Then, in the 1960s, as the civil rights movement drew widespread visibility to southern racism, many Whites attempted to distance themselves from the image of the “mean racist” by abandoning any mention of race altogether. This was especially the case with respect to whiteness. Having thoroughly identified whiteness with White supremacists, many Whites simply stopped thinking of themselves as White. They crafted a color-blind racial ideology that reinforced the idea that noticing, acknowledging, or talking about race was undesirable. Likewise, noticing, acknowledging, or talking about racism was also undesirable.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“Splitting is the answer to the question, “How could White people consider themselves Christian while engaging in the daily horrors of slavery, especially when those horrors were targeted toward their supposed brothers and sisters in Christ?” Essentially, White Christians learned to separate their personal ethics from their social ethics. In order to preserve their self-images as good people, they had to minimize, repress, and deny their sinfulness—their active participation in racial oppression or silent complicity with it. Further, they had to create theologies and ecclesiologies that supported this minimization, repression, and denial. Thus, Christian identity became a matter of orthodoxy rather than orthopraxy. In other words, believing in God and feeling good about one’s personal relationship with God became more critical in defining Christian identity than did acting in a manner consistent with Christian social ethics.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“White America’s trust in the system and related belief in its own merit pose a frequent roadblock in racial reconciliation. Many Whites in these settings are fine with discussing White supremacy as an abstract principle, or a historical artifact, or even as an ongoing reality in the lives of people of color. But they are highly resistant to examining their own privilege or to the suggestion that any element of their success may be the product of racial privilege.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“White supremacy means that, more often than not, US structures and systems—and the authorities who govern them—were designed to protect White interests and to maintain White dominance in all areas of society. Thus, White Americans are more likely to trust the system because they have been able to count on the fact that it will work in their favor. Moreover, in the cases where the system does not work in their favor, they could assume that it was due to some factor other than their race.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“To put it bluntly, much of what passes for racial reconciliation among Christians is merely an exercise in making sure Black men and other men of color have the same access to male privilege as their White counterparts do.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“People often view racism as social division based on race; that is, racism occurs when people align and separate themselves based on their affinity for people of the same race and their hostility toward people of other races. A popular way to put this has been to define racism as “prejudice plus power,” that is, it is having the personal power to act on one’s feelings about racial difference. This understanding reduces racism to the level of affect and interpersonal relationships: racism occurs because of how we as individuals feel about other ethnic groups; reconciliation occurs when we eliminate our negative feelings about other racial groups and establish relationships across race.

But racism is not about our feelings. Nor is it about the attitudes, intentions, or behavior of individuals. Racism is an interlocking system of oppression that is designed to promote and maintain White supremacy, the notion that White people—including their bodies, aesthetics, beliefs, values, customs, and culture—are inherently superior to all other races and therefore should wield dominion over the rest of creation, including other people groups, the animal kingdom, and the earth itself.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“It is easy, and all too common, to confuse watching for God as a passive acceptance of reality. But watching for God is an act of holy observation and subversive hope. In the midst of turmoil, chaos, and despair, it asks, "What is God doing, and what would God have us to do?”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“The prevailing models of racial reconciliation within largely White evangelical and mainline Christian communities fall far short of what is needed to adequately address racism and repair its legacy. Having been disproportionately articulated and advocated by White Christians, racial reconciliation has heavily emphasized the importance of proximity, dialogue, bridge building, forgiveness, and friendship, while largely excluding issues of liberation, justice, and transformation. Much of what passes for racial reconciliation feels like an interracial playdate. Whites leave the playground feeling good about their new friend of color, but the material realities of people of color are unchanged.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation

“Over the past two decades, there has been growing scholarly and clinical attentiveness to the psychospiritual impact of participating in the subjugation, abuse, and murder of other human beings. Even when these acts come as a result of one’s adherence to social norms or duty to governmental authorities, they violate core beliefs about what it means to be human, to be moral, and to be Christian. To return to Tom DeWolf’s statement in Traces of the Trade, the question that White Americans must ask themselves is: What does it mean to know that a system is evil and to participate in it anyway? Moral injury, further, asks the question: How does it affect a person to participate in a system that that person knows or believes to be evil? The term “moral injury” has emerged to describe this phenomenon, which can be distinct from posttraumatic stress.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation

“Black religious scholars have astutely analyzed how the experiences of slavery and dehumanization shaped African American Christianity in nearly every aspect, including biblical interpretation, preaching, hymnody, worship, and social ethics. Little attention, however, has been given to the impact of slavery upon the cultures, identities, and functioning of White people. The underlying assumption has been that White people—including White Christianity—have remained more or less unaffected by their participation in or compliance with a system that brutalized millions of Africans. This assumption has remained intact despite the fact that the construction of whiteness itself was dependent upon slavery and other White supremacist institutions.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation

“The lament is utterly human and profoundly theological. It arises out of the reality of human existence; it assumes there is something beyond that reality that can transform existence without destroying it. The laments of Scripture make clear what is present in every human cry for help, the assumption that God is there, God can be present, and God can help. As such, the voice of lament, the cry for help we call lament, is always our prayer.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation

“I suspect that much of the debate about racial reconciliation is really a tension between two types of personalities: dreamers (or idealists) and realists (or pragmatists). Racial reconciliation requires both. We must dream of beloved community while also remaining grounded in the realities of a society that is stratified by intersectional racism.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“Christ’s incarnation and death are the exemplars of paying a debt that one does not owe while also not receiving the honor that one is owed. This, too, is the paradox of grace in racial reconciliation. For White Christians, grace means that the debt they pay may not be one that they personally incurred. And for people of color, it means that the payment we receive is far less than what we are owed. It is a paradox that creates profound tension, which can be soothed only by focusing our attention on the Three-in-One who makes even the hope of reconciliation possible.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“Part of the grace that we have to learn to extend to ourselves is the forgiveness for our failures to be all things to all people. Many of us drawn to the journey of reconciliation have a deeply held sense of responsibility for others. This is especially the case for women of color, who often endure the pain of reconciliation out of a sense of duty to make the world better for others. Grace means that we must learn to see ourselves with compassion, to embrace our full imperfect humanity, and to listen to the truths that emerge from our own lives.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“The posture needed here, and in racial reconciliation broadly, is not that of friendship, but that of solidarity. In friendship, people run toward one another. In solidarity, people run together toward a greater objective.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“Captivity shapes not only why we engage in the movement for reconciliation, but also how we do it. As captives, we recognize that we are not in control, neither of our own journey nor of that of others. While we may choose our path on any given day, we do not control its direction or its destination. We must release our need to control the direction of dialogue and action, instead taking a position of submission and service. This requires us to relinquish ego, competition, pride, and fear, replacing them with humility, cooperation, and trust. Captivity also demands that we open ourselves to the possibility of personal and institutional change that does not take the shape that we expect or the form with which we are comfortable. Entering the breach requires us to see and touch the places of brokenness in ourselves, in others, and in our world. In these broken spaces, we glimpse God in new ways and we risk being made new.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“In the Hebrew canon, in essence, the people of Israel are made captive because they have refused to pursue peace, justice, and reconciliation. In contrast, when we are held captive to God’s mission of reconciliation, we are bound in such a way that we cannot help but pursue peace, justice, and reconciliation.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“Racism is about a matrix of power and domination that is designed to support and maintain white supremacy. It is not merely about relationship. Indeed, racism structures relationships in such a way that even when separatism is overcome, power imbalances remain.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“Much of what passes for racial reconciliation feels like an interracial playdate. Whites leave the playground feeling good about their new friend of color, but the material realities of people of color are unchanged.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“Having been disproportionately articulated and advocated by White Christians, racial reconciliation has heavily emphasized the importance of proximity, dialogue, bridge building, forgiveness, and friendship, while largely excluding issues of liberation, justice, and transformation.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“The telos, or divine “endgame,” for racial reconciliation is not restored relationship between Whites and people of color. It is not, as one ministry colleague, activist Onleilove Alston, once sarcastically described it, the image of “a big Black dude and a White dude on a stage, hugging it out with a single tear rolling down their cheeks.” It is the establishment of a just world, one in which racial inequities have been abolished. This means that the current practices, policies, and societal norms that disadvantage people of color or advantage White people must be abolished and corrected. Further, there must be intentional, sustained, and large-scale effort to remediate the economic, educational, political, social, physical, and psychological harm inflicted upon people of color by racism.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“De Kock was one of only three white South Africans who were sentenced to prison for their participation in the apartheid regime after 1994. His conviction came because the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that he had not been fully forthcoming about his crimes, which was a condition for amnesty. He served 20 years of a 212-year sentence before being paroled in 2015. During his time in prison, he began engaging the families of victims, helping them to find the remains of loved ones whom he had killed. Some, therefore, have touted him as an exemplar of restorative justice. It is important to note, however, that de Kock’s supposed shift actually marks a considerable degree of consistency in his behavior. Just as he followed the law under the apartheid regime, he is following the law under the post-apartheid government. His process of ethical decision making has not necessarily changed. The critical issue for White Christians is not how they embody their humanity when the legal system supports justice, but how they do so when it does not.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“Any reconciliation that does not liberate and heal the oppressed from the consequences of oppression is not reconciliation at all. At best, it is cheap grace, an easy balm that offers forgiveness for the sin of White supremacy without seeking to correct the harm that it has inflicted. At worst, it is an affirmation of White supremacy in that it prioritizes the needs of White people to feel better about their relationships with people of color over the needs of people of color to recover from the psychological and material impact of oppression.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“The call to racial reconciliation has overwhelmingly emphasized between-group processes, that is, the relationships between Whites and people of color, or between different racial/ethnic minority groups. By and large, it has ignored the depth and severity of internalized oppression among people of color and the enormous need for healing these wounds. Repeated and systemic experiences of dehumanization not only inflict direct harm; they diminish the capacity of the oppressed to recognize themselves as human and, moreover, as beloved by God.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“Indeed, many understandings of racial reconciliation emphasize repentance from White supremacy as the critical response to truth-telling. After all, it makes sense that repentance follows confession. However, placing our primary emphasis upon the transformative work that must happen for White Christians in racial reconciliation actually reinforces White supremacy. When we prioritize the narratives of women of color, we realize that the victims of racial oppression have considerable work of their own to do, work that is both independent of and connected to that of White repentance. This is the work of liberation and healing.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“Racial oppression and gender oppression are rooted in theological understandings about who God is and who God intends for us to be. Essentially, they are based in the idea that God expects and sanctions the suffering and self-sacrifice of women and people of color relative to men and White people. Redefining our identities, then, requires challenging our individual and collective imaginings of God as One who condones unjust suffering.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“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 them to attempt to mitigate the impact of this truth upon the oppressor is in itself an act of violence and oppression.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity

“There is an adage that states, “The devil’s greatest trick has been to convince the world that he does not exist.” The same could be said of systemic oppression, which maintains its power in part by labeling the oppressed as opportunistic liars who are not to be trusted about the telling of their own stories.”
― Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity