Resources for Countering White Supremacy and Racism

From CTEWC Members

Anne Arabome, “I Can’t Breathe Because God Can’t Breathe,” National Catholic Reporter (June 10, 2020).

Shawnee Daniels-Sykes

• “The Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS) and The Black Catholic Theological Symposium (BCTS) as Teologia en Conjunto” in Building Bridges in Sarajevo: The Plenary Papers from CTEWC 2018, edited by Kristin E. Heyer, James F. Keenan, and Andrea Vicini, 185-188. (Orbis Books, 2019).
• “Dismantling White Privilege: A Reflection on Open Wide Our Hearts,” Political Theology Network (March 2019).

Craig A. Ford, “A Natural Law for Queer and Racial Justice,” Canopy Forum (January 2020).

Stan Chu Ilo, “Racism, the Church, and the suffering of people of African descent,” La Croix International (June 18, 2020).

Teresia Hinga, “Covid-19’s WASH Factor- A Solution for the Syndemic?” for the July First.

Bryan N. Massingale

• Racial Justice and the Catholic Church  (Orbis Books, 2010).
• “The Systemic Erasure of the Black/Dark-Skinned Body in Catholic Ethics,” in Catholic Theological Ethics Past, Present, and Future, ed. James F. Keenan (Orbis Books, 2011). 
• “Has the Silence Been Broken? Catholic Theological Ethics and Racial Justice,” Theological Studies 75, no. 1 (March 2014): 133-155.
• “Toward a Catholic Malcolm X?” American Catholic Studies 125, no. 3 (Fall 2014): 8-11.
• “Theology in the Public Sphere in the Twenty-First Century,” Horizons 43, no. 2 (December 2016): 351-356.
• “Let’s be a church where Black Lives Matter,” U.S. Catholic (December 2016).
• “The church’s appalling silence on racism,” U.S. Catholic (March 2017).
• “What will it take to redeem the soul of America?” U.S. Catholic (September 2018).
• “To dismantle racism, we must heal the human spirit,” U.S. Catholic (January 2019).
• “The assumptions of white privilege and what we can do about it“ NCR (June 2020).
• “The only thing that matters: the killing of George Floyd,” The Tablet (June 2020).
• “Worship of a False God” – An Interview with Bryan Massingale by Regina Munch, Commonweal (June 2020).
• “The Chauvin verdict: Relief, vindication but not celebration,” NCR, April 22, 2021.
• “The Magis and Justice” – YouTube Video, Ignatian Family Teach-In (2017).
• “A Response to Racism” – Podcast Interview, Commonweal (June 2020).
• “How the Church Can Combat Racism and White Privilege” – YouTube Conversation, America (June 2020).
• “On Race and Faith” – YouTube Video, Sacred Heart Parish, Milwaukee, WI (June 2020).

Jeremy V. Cruz

• “Strengthening Black-Brown Solidarity: Latino/a Race, Unauthorized Blacks, and the Roots of Anti- Brown Violence,” Journal of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium 10 (2018): 29-37.
• “Courageous and Just: Conversations on Faith in Challenging Times.” Video interview by Kelly Brown Douglas (Trinity Church Wall Street, March 19, 2019).

MT Dávila

• “Racialization and Racism in Theological Ethics: ‘Facing History’ as a Pillar for a Catholic Ethic Grounded on the Preferential Option for the Poor and an Incarnational Anthropology” in Catholic Theological Ethics: Past, Present, and Future, edited by James Keenan, 307-321 (Orbis Books, 2011).
• “We Breathe Together,” with Arturo J. Bañuelas, Miguel H. Díaz, Carmen Nanko-Fernández, National Catholic Reporter (June 12, 2020).
• “The Conversion of Hearts and the Sin of Racism,” Political Theology Network (February 22, 2019).

Nichole Flores

• “Ella Baker,” in Can I Get a Witness? Thirteen Peacemakers, Community Builders, and Agitators for Faith & Justice, edited by Charles Marsh, Shea Tuttle, and Daniel P. Rhodes (Eerdmans, 2019): 117-134.
• “We Who Believe in Freedom: Ella Baker’s Creed” – Podcast episode (The Project on Lived Theology, February 2019).

Kathy Lilla Cox, “The Duty of White Christians to Dismantle the Idolatry of Racism,” National Catholic Reporter (July 3, 2020).

Charles Curran, “Facing Up to Privilege Requires Conversion,” National Catholic Reporter (June 2016).

David DeCosse, “No Going Back: the Killing of George Floyd” – YouTube panel discussion on racism and police reform (Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, June 8, 2020).

Mary Jo Iozzio, “If You Sow Lies You Will Reap Violence: America’s Original Sin is Anti-Black Racism,” in the September First.

Michael Jaycox

• “The Antidemocratic Power of White Anger: Accountability in a Post-Insurrection Time,” for the July 2021 First.
• “A Catholic Case for Police Defunding and Abolition,” for the July 2020 First.
• “Black Lives Matter and Catholic Whiteness: A Tale of Two Performances,” Horizons 44, no. 2 (2017): 306-341.
• “The Black Lives Matter Movement: Justice and Health Equity,” Health Progress 97, no. 6 (2016): 42-47.

James Keenan, “The Color Line, Race and Caste: Structures of Domination and the Ethics of Recognition,” Theological Studies 82, no. 1 (March 2021): 69-94.

Eli McCarthy

• “Police Violence: We Need to Name it and Go Deeper,” Catholic Moral Theology (June 22, 2020).
• “Defunding Police: Human Dignity and Black Lives Matter” in the October 2020 First.

Dawn M. Nothwehr, That They May Be One: Catholic Social Teaching on Racism, Tribalism, and Xenophobia (Orbis Books, 2008).

Maureen O’Connell

• “After White Supremacy: The Viability of Virtue Ethics for Racial Justice,” Journal of Moral Theology 3, no. 1 (2014): 83-104.
• Undoing the Knots: Five Generations of American Catholic Anti-Blackness (Boston: Beacon Press, 2021).

Tobias Winright

• “White privilege- a confession in response to the Black Lives Matter protests,” The Tablet (June 11, 2020).
• “A former cop reckons with unending police killings of Black Americans,” NCR, April 23, 2021.

Ecclesial Statements on Racism

• Joshua J. McElwee, “Francis expresses concern about ‘disturbing social unrest’ in the US,” National Catholic Reporter (June 3, 2020).
• Matt Hadro, “Cardinal Turkson: Racism Driving Some Catholics from the Church,” Catholic News Agency (June 5, 2020).
• Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, “The Church and Racism: Towards a More Fraternal Society” (2001) / “La Chiesa di fronte al razzismo. Per una società più fraterna” (1988).

From the United States:

• “Statement of U.S. Bishop Chairmen in Wake of Death of George Floyd and National Protests,” (USCCB, May 29, 2020).
• “Statement of U.S. Bishops’ President on George Floyd and the Protests in American Cities,” (USCCB, May 31, 2020).
• “Open Wide Our Hearts: the Enduring Call to Love,” a pastoral letter against racism, (USCCB, November, 2018).
• “Brothers and Sisters to Us,” a pastoral letter on racism (USCCB, 1979).
• Bishop Mark Seitz, “Night will be no More: Pastoral Letter to the People of God in El Paso,” Hope Border Institute (November 2019).
• Bishop Mark Seitz, “Black Lives Matter,” National Catholic Reporter (June 4, 2020).
• Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, “Statement of Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, on the Murder of George Floyd and its Aftermath,” Archdiocese of Chicago (May 31, 2020).
• Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, “It’s Time for a National Reconciliation,” Archdiocese of Chicago (May 31, 2020).
• More U.S. ecclesial statements listed by Pax Christi USA.

Professional Organizations’ Work and Statements

• Black Catholic Theological Symposium (BCTS)
• “ACHTUS Statement on Recent Racist Violence,” The Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians in the United States (ACHTUS)
• “Statement of Anti-Racist Commitment from the SCE Cabinet,” Society for Christian Ethics.
• “AAR Statement on Racism and George Floyd Murder,” American Academy of Religion.
• “Statement on Racial Injustice and State Violence,” Catholic Theology Society of America.
• “College Theology Society Board of Directors’ Statement on US Racism,” College Theology Society.
• “Statement on the death of George Floyd and the racism that seeds terror, disfigures our humanity,” Pax Christi USA
• “Statement of Catholic Theologians on Racial Justice,” Catholic Moral Theology.
• “A Statement from Christian Ethicists without Borders on White Supremacy and Racism,” Daily Theology.

Resources from Christian Theology and Ethics

Thea Bowman

• Speech to the U.S. Catholic bishops, YouTube Video (1989).
• Thea Bowman: Faithful and Free, a biography by Maurice J. Nutt (Liturgical Press, 2019).

J. Cameron Carter, Race: A Theological Account (Oxford University Press, 2008).

James H. Cone

• Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody (Orbis Books, 2018).
• The Cross and the Lynching Tree (Orbis Books, 2013).
• A Black Theology of Liberation (Orbis Books, 1970/2010).
• Black Theology & Black Power (Orbis Books, 1969/2018).
• Among additional works

M. Shawn Copeland

• Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being (Fortress Press, 2010).
• Knowing Christ Crucified: The Witness of African-American Religious Experience (Orbis Books, 2018).
• Uncommon Faithfulness: the Black Catholic Experience, edited by M. Shawn Copeland (Orbis Books, 2009).
• “Racism and the Vocation of the Theologian,” Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 2, no. 1 (Spring 2002).
• “Black Theology and a Legacy of Oppression,” America Magazine (June 24, 2014).
• Enfleshing Theology: Embodiment, Discipleship, and Politics in the Work of M. Shawn Copeland, ed. Robert J. Rivera and Michele Saracino (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).
• “Enfleshing the Freedom of Black Lives: Resistance, Solidarity and Hope,” video discussion with Nathan Wood-House, Church in the 21st Century Center (August 2020).

Laurie Cassidy and M. Shawn Copeland, eds., Desire, Darkness, and Hope: Theology at a Time of Impasse (Liturgical Press, 2021)

• Includes chapters by Alex Milkulich, Laurie Cassidy, Bryan Massingale

Cyprian Davis, The History of Black Catholics in the United States (Herder & Herder, 1995).

Kelly Brown Douglas, Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God (Orbis Books, 2015).

Joseph Drexler-Dreis and Kristien Justaert, ed. Beyond the Doctrine of Man: Decolonial Visions of the Human (Fordham University Press, 2020).

David Theo Goldberg, Racist Culture: Philosophy and the Politics of Meaning (Wiley-Blackwell, 1993).

Matthew Hawkins, “Toward a Catholic Understanding of the Phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’,” Diocese of Pittsburgh, June 30, 2020.

Jeannine Hill Fletcher

• The Sin of White Supremacy: Christianity, Racism, and Religious Diversity in America (Orbis Books, 2017).
• “Warrants for Reconstruction: Christian Hegemony, White Supremacy,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 51, no. 1 (Winter 2016): 54-79.

Diana L. Hayes and Cyprian Davis, editors, Taking Down Our Harps: Black Catholics in the United States (Orbis Books, 1998).

Dwight N. Hopkins, Shoes That Fit Our Feet: Sources for a Constructive Black Theology (Orbis Books, 1993).

Dwight N. Hopkins and George C.L. Cummings, ed., Cut Loose Your Stammering Tongue: Black Theology in the Slave Narrative (Westminster John Knox Press, 2003).

Willie James Jennings, The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (Yale University Press, 2011).

Martin Luther King, Jr.

• The Essential Martin Luther King Jr.: “I Have a Dream” and other Great Writings, ed. Clayborne Carson, ebook (Beacon Press, 2013).
• Letter from Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963).
• Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (Beacon Press, 1968/2010).

Vincent W. Lloyd and Andrew Prevot, eds, Anti-Blackness and Christian Ethics (Orbis Books, 2017).

• Volume contributors offer brief reflections on the 2020 uprisings, Political Theology Network (June 16, 2020).

Andrew Prevot, Black and Womanist Traditions in the United States (Brill, 2018).

Nestor Medina, Mestizaje: Remapping Race, Culture, and Faith in Latina/O Catholicism (Orbis Books, 2009).

Olga M. Segura

• “How Can Catholics Help Lead the Fight Against Racism?” America Magazine (May 29, 2020).
• “What Black Lives Matter Can Teach Catholics About Racial Justice,” America Magazine (February 1, 2019).

Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (Beacon Press, 1976).

Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Eerdmans, 2019).

Cornel West, Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity (Westminster John Knox Press, 1982/2002).

Shannen Dee Williams

• “If racial justice and peace will ever be attained, it must begin in the church,” The Dialog (June 10, 2020).
• “What a forgotten black nun can teach us about racism and Covid-19,” America Magazine (April 23, 2020).
• “Black History is Catholic History,” Archdiocese of Baltimore (February 6, 2020).
• “Religious orders owning slaves isn’t new: black Catholics have emphasized this history for years,” America Magazine (August 6, 2019).
• “Hidden History of Black Catholic Sisters” – YouTube interview with C. Vanessa White (Catholic Theological Union, April 2016).

Delores Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk (Orbis Books, 1993).

Reggie R. Williams, Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance (Baylor University Press, 2014).

Laurie Cassidy and Alex Mikulich, eds, Interrupting White Privilege: Catholic Theologians Break the Silence (Orbis Books, 2007).

Alex Mikulich, Laurie Cassidy, and Margaret Pfeil, eds, The Scandal of White Complicity and US Hyper-Incarceration: A Nonviolent Spirituality of Resistance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

Matthew Cressler, Authentically Black and Truly Catholic: The Rise of Black Catholicism in the Great Migration (New York University Press, 2017).

Katie Grimes

• Fugitive Saints: Catholicism and the Politics of Slavery (Fortress Press, 2017).
• Christ Divided: Antiblackness as a Corporate Vice (Fortress Press, 2017).
• “Breaking the Body of Christ: the Sacraments of Initiation in a Habitat of White Supremacy,” Political Theology 18, no. 1 (2018): 22-43.
• “Antiblackness,” Theological Studies 81, no. 1 (March 2020): 169-180.
• “The Catholic Church and Antiblackness,” An interview with Katie Grimes by Patrick Hyland (The Jesuit Post, 2020).

Karen Teel

• Racism and the Image of God (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).
• “Feeling White, Feeling Good: ‘Antiracist’ White Sensibilities,” in White Self-Criticality Beyond Anti-Racism: How Does It Feel to be a White Problem? ed. George Yancy, 21-36 (Lexington, 2015).
• “What Jesus Wouldn’t Do: A White Theologian Engages Whiteness,” in Christology and Whiteness: What Would Jesus Do? ed. George Yancy, 19-35 (Routledge, 2012).

Biblical Interpretation

Randall C. Bailey, Tat-Siong Benny Liew, and Fernando F. Segovia, editors, They Were All in One Place? Toward Minority Biblical Criticism (Society of Biblical Literature, 2009).

Cain Hope Felder, editor, Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation (Augsburg Fortress, 1991).

Annie Tinsley, A Postcolonial African American Re-reading of Colossians: Identity, Reception, and Interpretation Under the Gaze of Empire (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

Additional Helpful Reading Lists

• Resources from Catholic Theology, History, and Activism–U.S. Catholic Black Syllabus
• Resources on Black Catholics in the United States–#BlackCatholicsSyllabus (Tia Noelle Pratt)
• Multimedia Anti-Racism Resources– Pax Christi USA
• Parish-Level Catholic Resources for Racial Justice (Michael Bayer)
• College Theology Society Resources for Anti-Racism in Theological Education