Professor Anthony Reddie and Revd. Dr. Al Barrett join us for a conversation about whiteness. Weaving personal experiences with theological insights, they reflect on privilege, power, empire, race and identity, and wrestle with the need for both critical deconstruction and hopeful reimagining. It’s a nuanced and inspiring conversation between two scholar activists about the pursuit of a more just world.

Interview starts at 19m 36s

WEBSITE

Al Barrett

BOOKS

Deconstructing Whiteness, Empire and Mission – Anthony Reddie

Introducing James H. Cone: A Personal Exploration – Anthony Reddie

Is God Colour-Blind?: Insights From Black Theology For Christian Ministry – Anthony Reddie

Black Theology, Slavery and Contemporary Christianity – Anthony Reddie

Theologising Brexit: A Liberationist and Postcolonial Critique – Anthony Reddie

Being Interrupted: Reimagining the Church’s Mission from the Outside – Al Barrett

Interrupting the Church’s Flow: A Radically Receptive Political Theology in the Urban Margins – Al Barrett

Finding the Treasure: Good News from the Estates – Al Barrett

BOOKS MENTIONED

How Ableism Fuels Racism: Dismantling the Hierarchy of Bodies in the Church – Lamar Hardwick

After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging – Willie James Jennings

White Theology: Outing Supremacy in Modernity – Jim Perkinson

Christology and Whiteness: What Would Jesus Do? – George Yancy

The Psychosis of Whiteness: Surviving the Insanity of a Racist World – Kehinde Andrews

QUOTES

“The phenomenon of ‘whiteness’ – its biggest power is that it’s often unnamed and just becomes the default position that then defines everything else.” – Anthony Reddie

“History tells us that when you have revolution – and ‘revolution’ usually means in its popular sense ‘violent change’ – you then can’t put the violence back in the box once you’ve decided that it’s done its job and now we’ll rebuild. Violence begets violence.” – Anthony Reddie

“Christianity has played a huge part in the mapping of whiteness because Christianity essentially is a religion of empire.” – Anthony Reddie

“The last thing that people like me – that tick all the boxes of structural privilege – should be doing is imagining that we’re in the place of Jesus in the world.” – Al Barrett