Stepping Towards Racial Reconciliation

A brief look into how predominantly white institutions can begin to work towards racial reconciliation and understanding.

James Anderton

Over the past few weeks and months I have had a number of requests from individuals, PWI and PWCs (predominantly white institutions and churches) asking for help in building programs that reflect and produce racial reconciliation, understanding, and social justice within their spheres of influence. So, I thought I would just make this easy and accessible for all.

Before we begin, I feel that it is important to note that much of my work, research, and passion for racial reconciliation is directed towards Christian churches in America. I am a Community Life Pastor at a multicultural church outside of Boston and hold a Masters in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. I have spent the past 5 years researching the history of race in America, the impact that Christianity has had on the formation of race in culture and society, and best practices to bring about healing and racial reconciliation. Like many people of color in the Church I have seen the good, the bad and the really ugly sides of racism in the church. I do this work not out of a desire for employment, a place of judgment or hurt, but rather out of a desire to see the Church and the people of God live to their full potential. That being said, let’s begin.

If you are or work within a PWI or PWC and want to work towards racial reconciliation, understanding, and social justice within your spheres of influence it is strongly recommended that you do 3 steps: get your numbers, know your story, and put your money where your mouth is.

Why this is Important

To start, I think it is important to first lay down a biblical foundation as to why racial reconciliation is important and why Christians should care about this issue. While there are numerous reasons as to why this topic is important to Christians and the Church, for the sake of time, we will only touch on 3 key reasons: the justice of the cross, the call for unity in the Church, and the Kingdom of God.

The first biblical reason for racial reconciliation is the cross. Racial reconciliation is not a demand for power, control or political gain. It is a demand for justice. A relationship has been broken, has been distorted and cheated. One party has been wronged while the other has attempted to play God. Does that sound familiar? That is what happened in Genesis 3 when sin entered the picture.Humanity broke its relationship with God by wanting to be God, by wanting to rule over creation with ultimate power. And it is that sin which has continued to impact and affect humanity ever since, causing us to live in the broken racialized system that we see today, a system that was designed and perpetuated by sinners. That includes you and me. It is a collective sin. Romans 3:23 states, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We all have sin, it is in our nature, a cancer that simply cannot go away. We cannot cut it out nor can we pretend that it isn’t there and doesn’t matter. We are sick, as individuals and as a nation, with the sins of wanting to play God. It is what brings us to this discourse on racial reconciliation in the first place. Simply put, the price of sin is justice. It is the restoration and recompense of a broken relationship between two parties. That is why we needed Jesus, a pure and blameless sacrifice who could meet that demand. When Jesus entered into this world, he did not simply say, “Okay, we are all good, sin didn’t happen, it doesn’t exist anymore, we are all good now.” No, not at all. Jesus came to this world for one purpose, justice. He came to die so that the two parties, us and God, could be brought back together in a restored relationship, not a broken one masquerading as a healthy relationship. The cross is a demand for justice, a demand to restore the relationship between God and humanity, but also between humanity itself.

The second biblical reason for racial reconciliation is the call for unity within the Church. As mentioned in our first biblical reason, there is a demand for the restoration of relationship between God and creation, but also between humanity. This was an issue that the early Church struggled with in the centuries following Jesus, and was the direct reason for many of Paul’s letters. You see, like us today, the early Church had a race and ethnocentric problem. They were discriminating one another, forcing others to assimilate, not allowing people to worship or fellowship together, and even going as far as to build systems and leadership structures that would keep others out. Again, does this sound familiar to our own history? Paul’s famous letter to the church of Rome is addressed to a church that was divided along Jewish-Gentile lines. The Jewish community was expelled from Rome (Acts 18:2), leaving only Gentile Christians left in the church. When Jewish-Christians began to return, tensions arose between the two cultures, with the Jewish-Christians living more closely to the law and Gentile-Christians living free of Mosaic law. Paul calls for unity in the Church, urging the Gentile-Christians not to exclude Jewish-Christians from worship, and for Jewish-Christians not to restrict or limit the Gentile-Christians under the law. He states, “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all,” Romans 10:12. There should not be divisions, oppression or discrimination in the Church. The same is said for the Galatian Church in Galatians 3:28, a letter to a church facing the same trials. And then there is the church of Philippi, the first church that Paul founded in Europe (Acts 16:6-40). Philippi was a unique city within the Roman Empire, it was a prominent retirement community for Roman military personnel and many occupants would uniquely hold both Greek and Roman citizenship, excepting them from Roman taxes. While the book of Philippians is often seen as a jovial letter, it is a letter that addresses a major issue in the church. The church of Philippi had divisions along ethnic and nationalistic line. Those who were of both Greek and Roman citizenship saw themselves superior in word and deed over their fellow Christians who did not hold the same citizenship. It is the very reason that Paul reminds this church that their citizenship is in heaven, Philippians 3:20, and earthly things should not divide them. Now this is not to say that citizenship is not important, it’s a great thing. I myself hold both Brazilian and American citizenship and I love it. But it does not make me better than anyone else. Our citizenship cannot and should not divide us, especially in the Church. This is not a new issue for the Church. It is something we have struggled with for centuries. It is an issue that needs change, not because society or culture is moving towards it, but because it biblical mandated by the cross and seen all throughout scripture. As Christians, racial reconciliation is biblical justice.

The third and final biblical reason for racial reconciliation is simply that of the Kingdom of God. As noted in scripture, the Kingdom of God is not a futuristic kingdom that is far off and will come down as a magical utopia, it is here right now. Jesus states, “The Kingdom of God is at hand,” Mark 1:15. Knowing this, we cannot hope for all of the sins of this world to fade away or be erased in one glorious endeavor. When Christ entered into this world, he began the redemptive work of salvation for the Kingdom of God, dying on the cross to redeem us, ushering in true justice. But the Gospel doesn’t end there. Christ baptizes the Church into the mission of God, Matthew 28:18-20, calling for us to be co-redeemers in Christ, to continue in his work. That means, we as Christians, are called to heal the brokenness of this world through Christ, and for us in this moment in human history that means confronting the sins of racism and oppression that are prevalent in our society. This is not just a mandate of the cross or of the letters of Paul, this is the very foundation and purpose of the Church: to continue to lead other towards reconciliation between God and humanity and humanity itself.

But perhaps the most convicting biblical reason, aside from these three is the fact that when we enter into the gates of heaven, having completed our commissioning from Christ in this world, we will be one Church in heaven. That one Church isn’t going to be homogeneous (of the same kind). It is going to be of every tongue and tribe (Revelation 7:9) who will be white, black, brown, coper skinned, etc. all worshiping our savior Jesus, whose very olive-skinned body was broken on the cross for all of our sins, which in its very nature is a call for justice. My brothers and sisters, racial reconciliation is not a choice for us as Christians, it is a biblical mandate and one which we cannot ignore. It is my hope that as we begin this journey together, with this foundation, that you will be encouraged and strengthen to answer the call of Jesus and begin to work towards racial reconciliation, understanding, and justice in our society.

Get Your Numbers

One of the first things that I do whenever I consult is lead individuals and teams through two demographic studies of their own congregation, institution, or student body, followed by a demographic study of the communities (the cities, towns, and regions) surrounding them or in which they are located. A demographic study is a great anthropological tool that can easily be obtained through your local and state-wide census or by simply running a census survey within your own organization/institution. This helps individuals either realize how diverse their congregations/student bodies actually are or how homogenous (of the same or similar nature) their congregations/student bodies are compared to the communities around them. Once the numbers are complete, I lead the teams through a demographic study of the leadership within the organization (who is actually making the decisions or teaching/instructing) and ask them to look for any similarities between those who are in power vs those who are not. What are your social locations? Is the majority of your group of the same race, nationality, class, gender, age, ability, or even sexual orientation? Almost 100% of the time I see major disparities between the diversity within the community/body vs the diversity within the leadership of the PWI/PWC.

Now I do this, not to shame or slander leaders, but rather to show leaders how many organizations have created homogenous structures and teams in order to maintain “unity” and “cohesion.” Now this is not a bad thing, per say. As humans, we seek to create systems and groups that are homogenous since people share similar interests and views. However, what tends to happen is that this “unity” and “cohesion” usually falls upon racial and cultural lines, to the point where leadership becomes toxically homogeneous with a sense of superiority over minoritized groups[1]. I often find that for many Westerners, this idea of homogenous grouping comes with a “right” way of doing things or a “This is the American way of doing things” attitude. But what we fail to realize when we create systems and cultures that are homogenous is that our way of doing things isn’t always the right or the best way of doing things. We become blinded to other perspectives.

For example, if a school or church program is wanting to create a new event built around students and their families, a Western white homogeneous team would almost unanimously look to the idea of the nuclear family. But do Latin, African, Asian Americans have the same view of family as the nuclear family? Not at all. For many cultures, especially Latinx culture, family is communal and extends beyond the immediate family structure. Without acknowledging or looking to different perspectives, we can become ineffective and isolated in who we are reaching, further perpetuating the homogenous structures and cultures that are already present.

Know Your Story

So how do we break down these practices and structures that isolate us into a homogenous culture? The second stage that I do when consulting is leading teams through a look into the history of their industry and of their own organization. I do this for a number of reasons. First, this gives individuals a look into history, a history often forgotten and ignored. Second, it lets individuals see that the issues of racism are much bigger than their own organization and how these issues impact their lives and the organization in overt and covert ways. For PWIs and PWCs, this second stage is often the most accessible and easy to discover, but it is also the most difficult to bear and to acknowledge. As I work with primarily Christian groups, much of this history is geared towards them.

When conducting this viewing of history, I typically start with the Doctrine of Discovery in 1493[2], a Papal Bull given by Pope Alexander VI which gave European Christians the justification to claim and dominate lands and people in the name of God regardless of whether anyone lived there beforehand so long as the people were not Christians. This single document gave white European Christians the grounds and clemency from the church to decimate indigenous populations, kidnap and enslave millions from the continent of Africa, and commit mass genocide, all in the name of God. As a Brazilian myself, this history is often difficult to come to grips with as my ancestors are both the colonized and the colonizers, the oppressors and the oppressed. When Columbus landed on the island of Hispaniola in 1492, there were roughly 3 million Taino people living in the Caribbean islands. Within 30 years of his arrival the population was reduced by 90%[3] through war, slavery, and forced starvation all done in the name of God because Europeans saw the indigenous people as savages, sub-human. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a functional genocide and ethnic cleansing which removed the indigenous people of the New World and opened the land up for occupation.   

But this document and subsequent actions were not the only things which armed white Europeans with the means to dehumanize non-whites. In 1619 the first slaves arrived in the American colonies originally as indentured servants, this meant that they could earn their freedom over time and eventually be free. At this time, slavery was based upon class rather than race.[4] Poor whites, slaves from Africa and indigenous people all made up the body of slavery within the colonies. But with growing demand of cotton and tobacco from the Americas to Europe, white land owners needed a new and permanent system that would ensure their new dominated land would be the most profitable. Poor whites were not an option as they could easily escape and blend into society. Indigenous people were too risky as they could easily escape into the frontier as they knew the land better than anyone. It was their land to begin with. Instead, white land owners turned to the only population that could not escape into a foreign land and would not be able to blend into society: black slaves from Africa. And so, with the passing of Partus Sequitur Ventrem[5] in 1662 black slaves, who were born into slavery would inherit their mother’s slave status, regardless of whether or not the father was free. This in essence gave white land owners a population that would fuel their plantations labor demand for generations to come, damning an entire people group to slavery.

Now some may ask, where were the Christians or the Church during all of this? Surely someone spoke out? As I work predominantly in Protestant circles, I always have people point fingers against the Catholic Church, blaming them for the Doctrine of Discovery and calling upon the Protestant Reformation as a counter to it. And truthfully yes, some Protestant and indeed some Catholics did go against the Doctrine of Discovery and Partus Sequitur Ventrem and other laws like them. But the truth of the matter is that the vast majority of the Eurocentric Christian Church was in favor of such beliefs as they were the ones who benefited most and unfortunately were the ones to constantly perpetuate it.

There is a long history of racism and destruction of human life within Christian history, and we have often been the ones who have sat idly by as the world around us burned. As the slave traders made their cross-Atlantic journeys to capture and bring slaves to port, every ship and caravan was accompanied by ministers and/or priest, proclaiming the justice and salvation of the cross while idly sitting by as slavers openly raped and murdered African slaves, damning them to slavery. As the Conquistadors entered into the New World, priests would proclaim the salvation of the Cross while openly damning civilizations to decimation and slavery. Bartolome de las Casas, a young Spanish priest who accompanied Columbus on his journeys, documented the mass atrocities of Columbus and his “Christian” men, noting their little regard for human life as they committed “irreparable crimes against the Indians.”[6] When the pilgrims crossed the Atlantic to set up a new colony built on religious freedoms, that religious freedom was only granted to those who practiced and conformed to their particular way of life and faith. Cotton Mather, a reputable Puritan minister, leader of the Massachusetts Bay colony and slave owner noted that “the best thing we can do for our Indians is to Anglicize them,” believing that the indigenous languages and cultures were “ill-suited” for the gospel and purpose of Christianity.[7] Through his work and position of power, he sought to abolish and destroy indigenous people and their way of life, creating laws and practices which would force converts to become “Anglicanized,” abandoning their language, their people and way of life, all the while not being able to join Eurocentric Churches as they were deemed “lesser beings.”

This long and painful history of racial injustice at the hands of Christians didn’t just happen in the 1600s, but rather has infected every generation of Christians in the New World. In the 18th and 19th century White churches did everything in their power to keep black and brown people out of their places of worship, including limiting where they could sit in church (forcing them to sit in the rafters or even in the ditches outside), burning down black churches, and blocking the formation of black churches within denominations. Pastors of color were not even allowed to perform any element of worship, such as sermons or sacraments, without white preachers because the white church deemed them too inferior and unholy to do so. Prior to the Civil War, many churches in the south even held slave auctions in their own buildings. Racism had become entrenched into the very life and DNA of the American Church.

Following the Civil War, during the Reconstruction and American Expansion period, the Christian Church became even more divided in America. It has been noted that during the Civil War, almost every denomination split between North and South, with the exception of a few, notably the Catholic Church who remained against slavery. Following the War, the Church was used to help reinforce white-supremacy within society and culture. Churches, particularly the Methodists, set up missionary schools which further “Anglicized” indigenous populations, even going as far to removing children from their families to be adopted out to white families.[8] Churches and Christian business leaders helped finance and erect statues which glorified former Confederate leaders, slave traders, and Antebellum society. This glorification of Antebellum and Confederate history was disguised in a number of ways, from State’s Rights to American History. But the truth of the matter is that it is indeed American history, it’s just the wrong history, a history that is glorifying the losing side which was the Confederate States of America. And it was State’s Rights, just the right to own human beings, which was defended by the Doctrine of Discovery and other documents, even our “sacred” Declaration of Independence which pins white “civilized society” against the “savage” indigenous people and limited the rights which it bestowed upon everyone except slaves. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, it was the Protestant Church (who was and still is the dominant church within America) who helped fuel anti-immigration sentiments by supporting and preaching anti-Catholic rhetoric (targeting Irish and Italian immigrants), righteous living and Prohibition (which targets poor and minority groups within the inner-cities), and pushing for the illegalization of marijuana (which targeted Latin workers from the South). Now I am not saying that drinking and marijuana is a good thing, nor am I saying that it is a bad thing. The reason that this history is brought to your attention is to show the motivation and influence which further divided the church along racial lines.

Now if you are still here and haven’t stopped reading, I want to thank you and commend you for doing so. This history is not easy to see, nor is it easy to acknowledge. I know for myself, as a Latinx Pastor, I fell into a deep depression upon researching this. Not because of what had been done to my people, but rather because of how our faith had been bastardized and twisted to become a weapon of injustice and dehumanization. This is a difficult topic and it is okay to weep, it is okay to be angry, it is okay to want to burn things to the ground. That is righteous anger. Jesus flipped tables when he was clearing the temple and wept throughout his ministry. It is okay to feel emotions, that is part of the healing. Now let’s continue.

Unfortunately, the history of racial divisions within the American Church only seemed to get worse in the 20th century. As Jim Crow Laws came into effect, black Americans were placed under militaristic oppression from the state and federal governments. Once slavery became illegal, southern Christians quickly replaced it with the prison system which would fuel the weakened labor force of the Southern economy. Instead of slaves working fields and farms, prisoners began to take their place. This was done through the 13th Amendment, which states “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” “Except a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” This intentionally crafted line ensured the Reconstructionist that their industries and economic benefits would be ensured as they would have a continual labor force.

Now some may quickly point out that these laborers were criminals and not slaves, that it is justice and not oppression. And yes, they were in prison and sent there as a form of justice, but justice when infected by racism and oppression becomes selective. During this time Southern and Northern states passed numerous vagrancy laws which targeted people of color (POC), primarily black men, ensuring that they would face harsher punishments compared to whites who committed the same crime.[9] This, in effect, enslaved minority communities in a new form of slavery that became known as the criminal justice system. But things didn’t just stop there.

Following WWII, nearly 1.2 million African American soldiers were disenfranchised by the segregation rules built into the GI Bill, effectively cutting them off from pursuing higher education and being able to find avenues for social advancement. Quality education became even more limited when schools became integrated during the White Flight, in which numerous schools, houses, churches and businesses retreated to the suburbs in order to maintain homogeneous and segregated communities. If you look at your own organization and/or church and look at the timeline of when your building was established or organization created, if it falls within the 1950s or 60s and you are in the suburbs having once been in the city, chances are you were part of the White Flight.

But where was the Church? Surely, we spoke out this time, surely, we acted. Indeed, many American churches did take action, just not the action that you would hope for. While Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chaves led the Civil Rights movement for both black and Latinx communities, many white church leaders worked to silence them, telling them to be silent and to wait a while longer. Perhaps King’s most famous writing, Letter from Birmingham Jail, was written specifically in response to this action from the white churches.[10] The Church was complicit with racial injustice and in many ways still is. In fact, once Civil Rights came into effect and desegregation laws were passed, many Christians and churches in America still didn’t get it or find any semblance of understanding. Many decided to privatize their schools in order to “protect” their children. They raised their tuition prices to limit who could afford education and supported changing school funding to be based on property tax rather than state wide funding.

All of these things worked together to keep the church, culture and society separate and unequal, to preserve homogeneity and white supremacy and power. Throughout it all, many churches were slow to react, if ever. It wasn’t until 1995 that the largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptists, condemned racism and white supremacy as a sin and contrary to the gospel.[11] 1995! This is our history as a body of believers in this country. It is perhaps the most difficult stage of consulting that I have to do and is a stage of make or break for many. It is difficult to come to grips with our history and to look at it from a different perspective. So often we filter out the bad and only focus on the good, after all no one ever wants to see their imperfections. But the reality is that while the dominant group can focus on good and ignore the bad, the oppressed and disenfranchised are still suffering under the boot of injustice. We don’t have a choice. So how do we move forward, how can we build bridges of healing and reconciliation? Truthfully, there is no simple answer, it isn’t a straight forward solution. The road to reconciliation and healing is difficult as it forces us to confront some extremely difficult things about our society, our way of life and ourselves. In our third stage, I lay out some steps that individuals, PWIs and PWCs can take to move towards racial reconciliation, understanding, and social justice.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Stage three is often the time in which I give individuals and organizations the space in which they can reflect and begin to think about how they not only contribute to systemic racism but how they can speak out against it and take action to become anti-racist. There are numerous resources and materials out there that help bring people to this understanding and dozens of strategies/policies that can be implemented. But it is important to know that not all strategies will work in all places. You must adapt and contextualize these strategies and principles to fit your setting while remaining oriented to the cause of racial reconciliation. It is also important to note that many of these strategies and principles are heavily geared towards churches and Christian groups, as I generally consult in that arena and am a pastor. While these are heavily geared towards churches, they can be easily adapted to fit a number of fields and sectors of society. So, let’s begin.

One of the first things that I advise any organization to do is simply be still, listen and learn[12]. So often we feel the need to speak, to talk first and to jump into things that we see as unjust or wrong. And while that is great and action is encouraged, people can easily cause more damage than good. Rather than jumping into the deep end of a such an issue like racism in America, I always advise people to be still and listen to others. Listen to the voices and movements of people of color. Listen to black leaders in your community and hear about their experiences and emotions. Don’t jump to conclusions or try to justify things, simply listen. Listen to the stories and sorrows of migrants who are separated from their children as they cross the border seeking safety and refuge. Listen to the 1st generation immigrant who is constantly battling between a culture that is saying you don’t belong and a culture that is saying you are conforming and are no longer fully us. When we listen, we are welcomed into a space in which we can have empathy and begin to build trust. White people can never understand the feelings and emotions that are felt by POCs due to racism. There is just no comparison. But what white people can do is to be with us in our suffering, to lament, to cry, and honestly to get angry with at these injustices alongside us. When we empathize with another human being, we are welcomed into a space in which we can take part in someone else’s feelings rather than resonate our own to theirs or look down and pity people. We must lament and weep with our brothers and sisters of color, not coopt their suffering.

Second, I will always recommend that your leadership gets educated and begin to see Jesus through different cultural lenses, especially on the topic of race[13]. There are hundreds, if not thousands of books that are available for your teams and leaders to read and be educated. If you don’t like reading, there are hundreds of movies and documentaries that help build understanding. Below I have laid out a list of books by mainly Black and Latin authors which will help shed light onto these issues. It is important to amplify the voices of minority authors and leaders within our sphere of influence a we seek to diversify our understanding and views. I have also starred* books that I highly recommend

If you do not like to read and are more interested in viewing a film or documentary, I strongly recommend the following films and TV shows.

Thirdly, I strongly recommend that organizations and individuals put their money where their mouths are and make technical changes, not just adaptive changes.[14] This is honestly the biggest test of people’s commitments towards racial reconciliation and social justice as it hits at the very foundation of American capitalist life and power. Technical changes call for clear goals with known methods that use current knowledge and available resources to make predictable and manageable changes. On the flip side, adaptive changes often produce vague plans for a murky future with an unknown way forward. Often times, organizations and individuals will feel that the best thing that they can do is simply donate money to a particular cause or fund as an immediate reactionary move, or an adaptive change. This is often done due to limited knowledge or resources and unfamiliar roles. During the recent Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, many companies and individuals like Disney[15] donated millions to various Civil Rights causes. And while this is not a bad thing, these causes do need a lot of funding and support, it is honestly missing the point. While it is great that Disney donated, they still have yet to deal with their own racist past and ways in which they continually contribute to a racialized society and world view. Do not simply throw money at issues and hope that they go away. That is not being part of change. Rather, I recommend that organizations and leaders actively hire diverse candidates and promote POCs into positions of influence and leadership on your teams as a technical change rather than an adaptive change. By doing so, you are working towards breaking down the homogeneous systems and view in which you are stuck. You also are able to show students and people of color looking to your field and or company that you value and seek to empower peoples’ voices rather than stifle them or whitewash your company. By hiring diverse candidates, you are able to see different forms of communication, design, structure, and practice within your field of work, and are able to create new forms of intercultural practices.

Now it is important to note that there is a danger with hiring diverse candidates within PWIs as they can be tokenized. Often times organizations will hire one or maybe two diverse candidates of different cultures or races and then go back to their normal hiring practices by hiring people who have the most privileged resumes. The problem here is that by doing so, you have officially designated those individuals as the token minority, laying all the work of racial reconciliation and understanding onto their shoulders. They will quickly burn out, move on, or codeswitch (the practice of alternating between two or more cultures in conversation) in order to survive. Please do not do this. Instead, dedicate your next 5 to 10 permanent hires in leadership as diverse candidates (this is for larger organizations, if you are small, hire 3-5 or what is manageable, but avoid tokenization). By doing so you will work to change the culture that is created within your structure through homogeneous systems. A great example of one such action that has been taken recently is that of Alexis Ohanian, the cofounder of Redditt, who recently resigned in order to be replaced by a black candidate.[16] This is a financial cost, it is an investment and takes money and practice, but it is one which is made to change the culture of a company. I am not saying go resign or start firing people, not at all. What I am saying is actively seek out leaders who are diverse and start hiring people in order to change.

Another way in which individuals can begin to put their money where their mouth is, is to begin to shop and support minority own businesses, particularly black owned businesses. By doing so, you are not only able to support community institutions financially, but also support them in unity, solidarity and importance. It sends the clear message that they matter and are important to the fabric of our society and economy, which is a message that has for too long been silenced.

The third way in which companies and organizations are able to put their money where their mouth is, is to rebrand or to correct/acknowledge their history. This is perhaps the most difficult of any of these methods for any group as it is perhaps the most financial. Throughout our history and economy, there have been many caricatures of people of color based on grotesque racial stereotypes. From Aunt Jemima by Quaker Oats, to Hollywood’s portrayal of Latinx characters as a drug dealer or criminal, all are caricatures. Not only are these caricatures wrong and just plain ignorant, they also reinforce and instill views of white supremacy. When we look at how media and movies depict people of color, it is never as heroes or people in power, rather it is always as the lesser. If we want to make active change, we need to stop producing and perpetuating these images and brandings. Quaker Oats recently did just that. In June of 2020, they not only acknowledge their racist caricature and marketing, but also moved to dismantle and discontinue the brand of Aunt Jemima (which is progress).[17]

As individuals we can also contribute into this movement of rebranding and correcting/acknowledging our history by working with local and state officials to remove statues, images and honors of racists, slave traders, Confederate soldiers, Antebellum glorification, and Christopher Columbus. These statues, images and honors, while part of our history, do not reflect the damages that they have done, nor the monstrous crimes that were committed by these individuals and organizations. Rather they glorify them and celebrate them, reinforcing the idea that to do such things is to be superior, and to be the people who suffer means to be inferior. When consulting, I will typically have people respond to this with the quote, “But this is our history, you can’t erase history, it is a part of who we are.” And yes, it is our history, I don’t disagree with you. But I often find that for many who have this sentiment, they don’t often realize when or why these statues and monuments were put in place. According to the research done by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s project “Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy” conducted in 2017,[18] the vast majority of Confederate monuments were erected in 1903-1918 during the resurgence of South States and the Jim Crow era, not immediately following the war. These symbols were not made to honor people, they were made to reinforce a message of inferiority towards people of color. If you, as an individual, want to contribute to the removal of these statues and monuments, fight to put forth a movement with your local government and keep pushing until action is taken.

For churches, there are a number of ways in which you can enter into this move to rebrand and correct/acknowledge your history, however, it is one that for some you may not like whatsoever. A number of years ago, I had a church request for consulting as they were dealing with racial tensions in their community. To put it simply, the very diverse city district did not want to engage or interact with the all-white church, but the church wanted to reach out and bring people into their community as they felt led by the Great Commission. Perplexed, they simply did not know what to do. My simple recommendation was to dissolve the church and demo the building. It was a radical and tough recommendation for anyone to hear. But when I looked into the history of the church and its community, I simply saw no other options for them to grow, reach out and integrate their community into the church. You see the church had a long history of racism that was founded in its very beginnings. The building was a former auction site where slaves were sold: they still had the divides where white land owners would sit vs. where black slaves would sit, the building was a former meeting house of the KKK, and a number of their pastors in the past were members. Their history as a body and as a building was a monument of oppression, violence and hatred. Why on earth would any POC even go near such a place. Honestly, it was a difficult recommendation to make, but their own history and a survey of the local community spoke for itself. The building and the name had to go. Unfortunately, this is a cost that many churches and Christians are unwilling to make. To take a financial hit, to acknowledge their communal sins and to seek recompense, it is very difficult. But what’s more difficult, honestly, is for people of faith to leave their own white homogenous church systems and enter into communities and places of worship where they are the social minority. I often hear of POC pastors and Christians leave ethnic churches and enter into mainstream or PWC communities. But I rarely ever hear of white pastors or Christians enter into communities of faith that are diverse or intercultural. The truth of the matter is, if we are to make steps towards racial reconciliation, understanding, and social justice within the community of faith, then systems and people must change.

My brothers and sisters, this is not easy work, it would be naïve to think so. Racial reconciliation and understanding is a long and difficult road. It is not an easy fix. It requires deconstructing your social narratives, making personal changes and financial investments, and recognizing that these systems are not broken but rather were designed this way. Things won’t be perfect right away, and you will continually have to work towards this. You will make mistakes and errors, and that’s okay. It isn’t about where you start or how fast you go, it’s about where you end up and the people that you meet along the journey. These recommendations are not perfect and don’t always work in every given situation, they must be contextualized. These recommendations are helpful tools, based in research and practice that help equip and launch individuals towards racial reconciliation.

As a Christian, this is not just a fight for me because I am Latinx and a person of color. This is a fight for me because my faith calls for us to speak and fight for justice. It is a fight not just to heal the damages caused by the weaponization of Christian doctrine, but to help the white American church to realize that we are your brothers and your sisters. When we enter into heaven, you will not be surrounded by a bunch of white men in pearly white robes. You will be surrounded by millions of people with black, brown, coper skin all worshiping our savior Jesus, whose very olive-skinned body was broken on a cross for our sins, which in its very nature is a call for justice.

If you are wanting a more in depth look into your own organization or institute and would like consultation, please feel free to contact me. I don’t charge anything and do it all for free. All I ask is that you seek to learn and grow towards racial reconciliation and understanding.

[1] DeYoung, Curtiss Paul. United by Faith: the Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race. Oxford University Press, 2004. P, 123

[2] “Inter Caetera.” Papal Encyclicals, 28 Apr. 2017, www.papalencyclicals.net/Alex06/alex06inter.htm.

[3] “La tragédie des Taïnos”, in L’Histoire n°322, July–August 2007, p. 16.

[4] DeYoung, Curtiss Paul. United by Faith: the Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race. Oxford University Press, 2004. P, 43.

[5] Laws of Virginia, 1662 Act XII; Latin added by William Henig, The Statues at Large, 1819

[6] Irvin, Dale T., and Scott W. Sunquist. History of the World Christian Movement. Vol. 2, Orbis, 2012, p, 22.

[7] DeYoung, Curtiss Paul. United by Faith: the Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race. Oxford University Press, 2004. P, 102.

[8] Adams, David, Wallace. Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928. University Press of Kansas, 1995.

[9] Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New Press, 2020. P,31

[10] Jr, Martin Luther King. Letter from Birmingham Jail. Penguin Book, 2018.

[11] “Southern Baptist Convention.” Southern Baptist Convention> Resolution on Racial Reconciliation on the 150th Anniversary of the Southern Baptist Convention, www.sbc.net/resolutions/899/resolution-on-racial-reconciliation-on-the-150th-anniversary-of-the-southern-baptist-convention.

[12] Elmer, Duane. Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility. IVP Books, 2006. P, 106.

[13] Rodriguez, Ruben Rosario. Racism and God-Talk: a Latino/a Perspective. New York University Press, 2008. P, 201.

[14] Branson, Mark Lau, and Martínez Juan Francisco. Churches, Cultures & Leadership: a Practical Theology of Congregations and Ethnicities. IVP Academic, 2011. P. 221-223.

[15] James, Meg, And Greg Braxton. “How Much Are Entertainment Companies Donating to Anti-Racist Causes? Our Guide.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 12 June 2020, www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2020-06-12/entertainment-companies-anti-racism-social-justice-funds.

[16] “George Floyd: Reddit Co-Founder Quits Board and Asks for Black Replacement.” BBC News, BBC, 5 June 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-5294181.

[17] “Aunt Jemima to Change Branding Based on ‘Racial Stereotype’.” BBC News, BBC, 17 June 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53083664

[18] “Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy.” Southern Poverty Law Center, Southern Poverty Law Center, 1 Feb. 2019, www.splcenter.org/20190201/whose-heritage-public-symbols-confederacy.