White anti-racism educators

There’s an interesting research study up (accessible for free this week) at the Teachers College Record. The study details ways in which white anti-racist educators work on dismantling racism — what their conceptual frameworks are, how they attack the problems, etc. I was caught by this quotation in particular:

"Several participants were very clear about the spiritual and religious part of their work and definitely connect it to their ability to continue to work to challenge racism. As Paul says, “part of my commitment to my work comes from my faith, recognizing the humanity in everybody,” even though he admits that it is difficult sometimes “when folks are saying things that are abominable.” The fact that racist organizations also center their efforts on a strong, albeit primarily a fundamentalist, Christian belief system is not lost to the antiracist adult educators in this study. They see the difference between their faith-based work and that of the Christian fundamentalist as lying partly in the antithesis of what Paul describes above, along with the refusal to embrace those who are different and at worst harming them."

Although one of the people interviewed for the study is based in a church, the others are not. And it's interesting to note that they identify support for racism in fundamentalist Christian contexts, and hence choose a different Christian identity as part of their anti-racism work. I was pleased to discover that this research affirms the kind of work we've been doing at Luther through MCARI.