| abstract |
Despite the increasingly strident tone of racial discourse and the dismaying growth in hateful, racist conduct in the United States, there does not appear to be an accompanying upsurge in the attention given to these developments in Christian social ethics. Indeed, there is a profound silence from some White Christian, social ethicists on issues of racism and White supremacy. Other White Christian social ethicists continue to employ Christian realist analyses as Reinhold Niebuhr did in the mid-twentieth century.
At the same time, many progressive White Christians continue to oppose racial justice initiatives that have the potential to make significant inroads against structural racism and White supremacy. These individuals remain committed to gradualistic remedies, which result in progress, but at an exceedingly slow pace and in tiny increments. In addition, many progressive White Christians understand racial colorblindness as another effective remedy for racial injustice despite its adverse effects on people of color. Racial colorblindness was a progressive concept in the mid-twentieth century when juxtaposed with Jim Crow laws. Over the years, however, the progressiveness of racial colorblindness has been usurped and replaced by an understanding that reinforces and exacerbates racism and White supremacy.
In response to the absence of sustained progress toward racial justice, I propose an ethic of rupture intended to unsettle radically current theoretical approaches to antiracist Christian social ethics. In addition, this proposed ethic of rupture will explore possibilities to replace existing theoretical models and offer concrete practices that will bring about rapid and sustained progress toward eliminating racial injustice.
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