The War Against Woke Is Modern-Day Racial Compromise and Complicity
“Woke” is just the latest label right-wing Christians use to create enemies and manufacture offenses. And I'm one of the favorite targets.
Your support allows me to say what I think needs to be said about racial justice no matter what right-wing Christians say about me. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber today!
At one point in my life I was literally an ambassador for racial reconciliation within white evangelical spaces.
I recruited for their institutions, I graduated from their seminaries, I wrote on their blogs, and spoke at their conferences.
My relationship with white evangelicalism started to change when, among other factors, the increasingly public murders of Black folks, often by law enforcement, forced me to speak up for racial justice.
For some white evangelicals, I had gone too far.
You can speak of racial reconciliation and the need for unity, but to demand justice—to say that words like “equality” and “family” clang with hypocrisy if not backed up by actions to change policies and systems—is to demand too much.
[Dr. Anthea Butler] said college leaders, like those behind the report at Grove City, or other Christian leaders who have denounced Tisby want to make an example of him as a warning to others.
“They want to punish him,” she said.
I appreciated this article from Bob Smietana of the Religion News Service. He briefly details my trajectory in ministry as well as the right-wing Christian backlash that ensued.
This story is not ultimately about me or any single individual. It is about the ongoing compromise and complicity with racism some Christians continue to display.
In “The Color of Compromise,” Tisby recounts how English settlers in Virginia faced a dilemma. In their homeland, Tisby writes, the custom was to free slaves who converted to Christianity. In 1667, the Virginia General Assembly decided that, no matter what the Christian faith taught, baptism would not make slaves free.
They use different language today such as “woke” or “CRT,” but the intent is the same.
“Woke” is just the latest label right-wing Christians use to create enemies and manufacture offenses. But fear is the goal, so an imaginary enemy is much more useful than a real one.
It has happened before, and it is happening now. The only question is whether you will allow such effort to go unopposed or stand in solidarity with those who raise the cry for racial justice.
#JusticeTakesSides
Tisby said he’s not an apologist for CRT or any ideology. He reads the Bible and history and tries to tell the truth, he said in an interview. That is his job as a Christian and as a historian. And he doesn’t think he’s all that special.
“I don’t think there’s anything in particular about my approach that is novel or different than what a lot of people have said for a long time.”
Read the article HERE.
P.S. My bestselling book The Color of Compromise is on sale for just $2.99 on Kindle. These deals come and go quickly, so act fast!
I have watched the political statements about woke and CRT by many Republican candidates in the 2022 election cycle, and each time I think - another piece of evidence backing up all the findings of Color of Compromise and White Too Long.
“For some white evangelicals, I had gone too far.” But for some - like me - you helped open our eyes to our own complicity in racism. We needed your book and your voice as we watched in horror the murder of George Floyd and tried to make sense of our fellow white Christian responses. I’m extremely thankful to be counted among “the other” in this case.