Discourses of incarnational belonging: Unpacking the motivations and goals of white urban relocators

ABSTRACT

This study critically examines the racial dynamics of Christian community development efforts. I use the Christian Community Development Association’s (CCDA) practice of relocation (the process by which middle to upper-income individuals intentionally relocate to low-income neighborhoods for community partnership) as my entry-point to this discussion. The intent of this project is twofold: First, I build on current literature of relocation by contextualizing the CCDA within broader historical trends; Second, I ground my study within critical race and whiteness studies, in order to consider how racial power and inequality remain, despite good intentions, entrenched in community development efforts for proximity, belonging, and solidarity. My findings suggest that as participants sought to become a vested member of their geographic community, they drew upon discourses that tended to minimize issues of power and difference, implicitly positioned themselves in redemptive roles, and de-emphasized historical structures of discrimination.

KEYWORDS:

• Christian community development
• neighborhoods
• critical Race Theory
• whiteness Studies
• belonging

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Of the ten participants, only two were official CCDA members and/or actively used the term “relocator” to describe themselves. The remaining participants were familiar with CCDA and the concept of relocation, but tended to avoid using the term. Despite varied degrees of official connection with CCDA, all participants had made the same lifestyle choice to relocate to a lower-income neighborhood, and all drew on similar motivations and goals.