Problematizing Whiteness: Racial Bias in Religious Scholarship

Jan 25, 2024

By CL Nash, PhD

man in blue and white plaid dress shirt standing near brown concrete building during daytime — Photo by Europeana on Unsplash

Introduction

A recent Twitter thread asked users to “Watch Whiteness Work” by pointing out examples of White Privilege across various contexts (Husky, 2023). This raises important questions for religious scholarship regarding whether our academic disciplines may also perpetuate systems of inequality we ostensibly critique. As Christian ethicists and theologians concerned with justice and righteousness, how might our own scholarship be vulnerable to racial bias?

The study of religion and theology within higher education holds particular responsibility for confronting internalized racism within its canon and methodology. (See this Merriam Webster definition of methodology.) As womanist scholars note, appeals to the Bible and doctrine frequently supplied the ideological justifications for systems of slavery, segregation, and other evils propagated upon Black bodies (Townes 2011).

Though there are some who challenge the term, “Black bodies,” there is significant scholarship which provides a framework for differentiating between “body” and “flesh” by thinkers such as Hortense Spillers. (See “Hortense Spillers”, Lloyd, 2022; “Flesh and Fragment” 2019; and “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe,” Spillers. Each of these articles explores Spillers’ seminal work and analysis regarding “body” and its political significance.)

Consequently, the origins of prominent strains of Christian theology are inextricably bound up with providing moral warrants for White supremacy. Even today, debates regarding reparations, mass incarceration, policing, and other racial justice issues, often hinge on differing religious interpretations. Without fully exorcising racialized hermeneutics and reasonings from its intellectual tradition, religious discourse risks perpetuating the same distorted frameworks used to legitimate oppression under purportedly ethical premises. (Though there are many authors who discuss this, Lucius Outlaw’s “Cultural Hermeneutics and Racialized Life-Worlds,” is particularly helpful.) Progress requires more than simply diversifying voices; interrogating entire paradigmatic assumptions remains imperative.

As Joyce E. King documents in her text “Dysconscious Racism,” Christian seminaries and theological institutions frequently served as key sites for indoctrinating religious justifications of segregation amongst future White ministers and congregations. Academies and missionary training programs reinforced ideas of Anglo-Saxon cultural superiority and Black inferiority through their teaching and selective historiography well into the mid-20th century (King 2013). Consequently, generations of religious leaders consumed and disseminated racialized theologies they imbibed under the guise of formal theological education. (See Jennings 2014; Sacco 2021; Naidoo 2017.) Undoing this damaging legacy requires not only adding diverse voices, but fundamentally transforming deeply embedded pedagogies, curricular framings, and modes of knowledge production that normalize Whiteness within religious studies.

The Social Construction of Whiteness

Before analyzing how Whiteness manifests in religious scholarship, it is important to understand Whiteness as a socially constructed racial identity built upon systems of oppression. As critical race scholars like Cheryl Harris have explored, Whiteness confers tangible and intangible benefits, functioning as a form of property and protecting the status of those defined as “White” (Harris, 1993). Religious studies scholar Willie James Jennings describes Whiteness as a distorted ideological framework that falsely universalizes the White experience (Jennings, 2010).

These analyses require us to move beyond conceptualizations of race as merely skin color. Rather, Whiteness represents an institutionalized assumption of superiority, an implicit sense of entitlement to dominant status, and a set of cultural norms falsely framed as religiously or morally neutral. In assessing religious scholarship’s engagement with racial justice, we must examine whether White normativity subtly frames our questions, analyses, and proposed solutions.

When examining Whiteness as a systemic social force, it is vital to note that the contemporary notion of a unitary “White” race originates relatively recently. As historian Nell Irvin Painter chronicles in her acclaimed work “A History of White People,” even those later defined as White held diverse ethnic identities until economic incentives and legal frameworks encouraged solidarity based on skin color privilege (Painter, 2010).

For example, 19th century Irish and Italian immigrants occupied racial identities as Celts, Hebrews, or Mediterraneans, seen by Anglo-Saxon elites as inferior “off-Whites.” However, as Painter notes, access to New Deal government benefits and housing programs often hinged on claiming Whiteness, incentivizing unified racial identification (Painter, 2010; Middleton, et al, 2016). Consequently, previously excluded European ethnicities learned to define themselves in opposition to those facing more extreme exclusion like African Americans or Native Americans.

Modern genetic science confirms race as a social construct rather than biological fact. As leading scholars in the field note, because human genetic variation is continuous and nested with broader geographical ancestry, it is statistically inaccurate to partition groups into discrete racial clusters (Yudell et al., 2016). Whiteness has no coherent biological basis; it emerged as a political mechanism for apportioning economic, social and legal entitlements (Harris, 1993). When religious scholarship fails to engage the constructed nature of Whiteness, it risks subtly reifying race science's spurious ontological claims about inherent differences.

Racialization in Religious Reasoning

Is religious reasoning particularly prone to racial bias? Womanist theologian Emilie Townes contends that when White Christians theologize from unexamined privilege rather than in solidarity with the oppressed, even our best ethical intentions are compromised from the start (Townes, 2011). White religious scholars often focus more on understanding oppressors than listening to the exploited, prioritizing dominant voices over subjugated ones.

Philosopher of race, Charles Mills, argues that conceptions of personhood and ethics, developed under centuries of White supremacy, cannot but carry traces of their racist origins (Mills, 2017). Racism often lingers not solely in explicit references to race, but in unstated background assumptions that shape what questions scholars ask, what evidence we highlight, and whose experiences we center in analysis. Before addressing racism directly, we must confront meta-level issues regarding framing and methodology.

Photo by Christina Morillo on Pexels.com

Womanist ethicist Katie G. Cannon has extensively analyzed how conceptions of sin and salvation developed by White male theologians fail to address the actual systemic oppression experienced by Black women (Cannon, 1998). She critiques revered theological anthropologies as reflections of privileged social locations unable to grapple with the deceit, violence, and dehumanization pervading Black female lives under racism.

Cannon contends that without fully incorporating the insights from those facing oppression, religious reasoning remains severely limited, repeatedly recentering the privileged through appeals to abstract universals that functionally ignore differentiated experience. As womanist theologian Delores Williams argues, analyses of sin must move beyond individual transgressions to confront corporate, institutionalized evils if they wish to speak to the realities of Black women’s lives (Williams, 2013).

Watching Whiteness in Religious Education

What evidence might reveal problematic racial frameworks in religious scholarship? Sociologists have noted the overrepresentation of White authors and Eurocentric perspectives in theology anthologies (Yancey & Kim, 2008), while critical educators critique assumptions of instructor neutrality that disguise White cultural norms (Matias & Mackey, 2016). Syllabi focused exclusively on historical White figures implicitly define the White voice as intellectually normative. Who is included as an authoritative voice, and whose experiences are recentered if mentioned at all? Watching Whiteness requires scrutinizing not only our arguments’ content, but their embedded perspectives.

Furthermore, many have noted Evangelical religious institutions frequently espouse antiracist goals while opposing concrete policy steps to redress racial inequality, revealing a disconnect between stated values and actual priorities (Emerson & Smith, 2001; Jones, 2017: Jones, 2023). Does our scholarship truly make racial justice integral to religious understanding, or does it provide theological warrants for dismissal, distraction, and delay? If we wish to truly “do justice” then merely critiquing injustice is insufficient; actual transformation toward righteousness remains necessary.

Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins, demonstrates how supposedly neutral pedagogical norms reward qualities associated with White masculinity, like rhetoric styles, communication patterns, and modes of argumentation (Collins, 2000). This renders legitimate alternative approaches seen as more feminine, emotional, subjective, or impassioned as inherently less credible. Consequently, the contributions of womanist scholars emphasizing visionary pragmatism, personal expressiveness, and engaged subjectivities are unfairly marginalized through implicit biases in conceptions of intellectual rigor.

Jacquelyn Grant warns Christian educators that resistance to curricular diversity often stems not from outright racism, but seemingly benign paternalism that claims inclusion risks lowering “standards of excellence” (Grant, 1989) This assumes implicitly White forms of education as intellectually superior, while characterizing engagements with Black scholarship as less developed. Unless intersecting privileges shaping religious education are confessed and contested, diversity initiatives risk reifying White normativity.

Conclusion Moving Beyond Superficial Solutions

Noting problematic racial patterns is but the first step; constructive solutions building on this diagnosis remain essential. Merely diversifying syllabi without rethinking classroom power dynamics risks superficial inclusion masking ongoing exclusion (Patel, 2016). Rethinking ingrained assumptions about knowledge production, scholarly authority, and what constitutes academic rigor and excellence provides a path forward. This requires humility in receptively learning from historically marginalized voices, not defensive posturing seeking to dictate the terms of acceptable discourse.

Through interdisciplinary engagement with critical theories of race, attentiveness to counternarratives from the margins, and embracing intellectual traditions beyond familiar ethnocentric cannon, religious scholars can work to transcend racial frameworks undergirding even our best ethical intentions. But we must remain ever vigilant; bring flashes of insight into sustained commitment. The kingdom of God – our true ethical telos – compels nothing less.

Share Misogynoir2Mishpat’s Substack

Bibliography (in-text citations)

** Please note that some hyperlinks require an institutional affiliation or payment for access.

Caffeine Husky. (2023, January 14). Watch Whiteness Work [Example Tweet]. Twitter. Https://Twitter.Com/Caffeinehusky/Status/1615081908217536512

Cannon, K. G. (1998). Katie's Canon: Womanism And The Soul Of The Black Community. Continuum. (See pp. 46-71)

Collins, P. H. (2000). Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, And The Politics Of Empowerment. Routledge. (See pp. 3-17, 251-271)

Grant, J. (1989). White Women's Christ And Black Women's Jesus: Feminist Christology And Womanist Response. American Academy Of Religion. (See pp. 200-215)

Jennings, W. J. (2010). The Christian Imagination: Theology and The Origins of Race. Yale University Press. (See pp. 6-14, 263-276)

Jennings, W. J. (2020). After Whiteness: an Education in Belonging. SPCK

King, J. E. (2013). “Dysconscious Racism: Ideology, Identity, And The Miseducation Of Teachers.” Journal Of Negro Education, 60(2), 133-146.

Lloyd, V. ”Hortense Spillers” Political Theology Network, 2022

Emerson, M. O., & Smith, C. (2001). Divided By Faith: Evangelical Religion And The Problem Of Race In America. Oxford University Press. (See pp. 132-154)

Harris, Cheryl. (1993). "Whiteness as Property,” Harvard Law Review, JSTOR, Vol 106, No 8

Misogynoir2Mishpat’s Substack

Problematizing Whiteness: Racial Bias in Religious Scholarship

Discussion about this post