“Walking Together”: Can Racism Be Overcome by a Postsecular Spirituality?

ABSTRACT

The continuing power of racist ideology threatens liberal democracy, for racism is more than a personal bias or a social construction. It is an ideological framework that reduces human beings to an existence along a color-coded spectrum, with people designated as “white” at the top of the hierarchy and people designated as “black” at the bottom. One has to see this ideology clearly in order to choose a proper response and then act accordingly. First, the reality of “race” has been exposed as unscientific and illusory, and as based not on biology or genetics, but on a legacy of empowerment for some and enslavement for others. Second, this racist ideology, part of our disenchanted, secular age, is exposed as a continuing form of enchantment in its manner of seeing the world, opening the possibility for a spiritual response. Third, dismantling this racist ideology requires a reimagining of “blackness” as a source of life and spirituality, as a way of countering and rewriting the dominant racist narrative. Fourth, a postsecular spiritualty, based on the work of Pope Francis—that emphasizes the importance of protecting our common human dignity, of caring for each other, and of “walking together”—can be engaged as a path for action in the battle against racism.

KEYWORDS:

• racist ideology
• postsecular spirituality
• liberal democracy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflicts of interest are reported by the author.

Notes

^1. Following Nothwehr, That They May Be One, “race” is noted in scare quotes as a sign of its conceptual and scientific illegitimacy. I have added the words “racial,” “white,” “black,” “whiteness,” and “blackness” to this list for the same reasons, as discussed below.

^2. Rattansi, Racism, 50–53.

^3. United States Supreme Court, “Nardone v. United States.”

^4. Painter, History of White People, xi.

^5. Pope Francis and Ivereigh, Let Us Dream, 9.

^6. Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 2–2, 58:2.

^7. Confucius, Analects, 13.

^8. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 22–30.

^9. Cone, Black Theology, 148–60.

^10. Lorde, “The Master’s Tools,” 110–14.

^11. German Zoological Society, “Jena Declaration.”

^12. American Anthropological Association, “AAA Statement on Race.”

^13. Tsai, “What Role Should Race Play in Medicine.”

^14. Rattansi, Racism, 12.

^15. Crenshaw, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex,” 139–40.

^16. Fields and Fields, Racecraft, 17 (italics in the original), 18.

^17. Ibid., 31–33, 50–70.

^18. Ibid., 29; see also 31–47.

^19. Taylor, A Secular Age, 30.

^20. Ibid., 31.

^21. Ibid., 33.

^22. Fields and Fields, Racecraft, 129.

^23. Ibid., 142–45

^24. Noll, Civil War, 125–55.

^25. Taylor, A Secular Age, 33.

^26. Fields and Fields, Racecraft, 31–33, 50–70.

^27. Copeland, “Racism and the Vocation,” 15, 17.

^28. Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses, Book II, pars. 162–69.

^29. All Biblical quotations are from the New American Bible Revised Edition.

^30. Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses, par. 164.

^31. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning.

^32. Cone, Cross, 4–6.

^33. Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told, 47.

^34. Copeland, Enfleshing Freedom.

^35. Agamben, The Kingdom and the Glory, 17–50.

^36. Agamben, Opus Dei, 1–19.

^37. Ibid., 21.

^38. Pope Francis, Laudato si’, par. 2.

^39. Ibid., par. 54.

^40. Ibid., par. 66.

^41. Ibid., par. 67.

^42. Ibid., par. 70.

^43. Pope Francis and Ivereigh, Let Us Dream, 101.

^44. Ibid., 103.

^45. Ibid., 126.

^46. Ibid., 135.

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Douglas J. Cremer

Dr. Douglas Cremer’s main research interests are European and Asian intellectual, political, and social history, specifically German, Russian, and Chinese history, both ancient and modern; European continental philosophy; theories of race, gender, political violence, and terrorism; labor and women’s history; Catholic and Christian theology and history. His writings and reviews have been published in The European Legacy, Worship, Catholic Historical Review, Journal of Church and State, Journal of the History of Ideas and America: The Jesuit Review. His most recent works include studies of liturgical leadership and community, patriarchy and religion, workplace wellbeing, Catholic feminism, and justice and reconciliation in the Catholic Church.