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Antiracism as Daily Practice: Refusing Shame, Changing White Communities
Saturday, February 24
1:30-3pm
Mayflower Room
Co-Sponsored by Plymouth Congregational Church and Ecumenical Campus Ministries.
White Americans can grow racial justice through everyday behaviors. It’s especially vital we engage with our families, through our social networks, in our neighborhoods, and at our jobs to make antiracism a daily living commitment. Meanwhile these are some of the hardest places to do so. We have real power in our relationships with other white folks—and not enough of us have used it.
We’re going to talk about why white people struggle with the “what to do?” about racism. We’ll explore the significance of grief and anger—as well as the harmful role of shame. We’ll reckon with the transformation our communities need to become the partners in justice Black communities and other communities of color need and deserve. Such transformation isn’t only vital to the well-being of U.S. democracy, its vital to the freedom and wholeness of white people too.
Everyone is affected by how white people show up in the work of racial justice. So, this is a conversation for all of us.
What’s this “Reparations Paradigm” all About? A Conversation about Dear White Christians
Sunday, February 25
10:40am-11:20am
Heritage Room
Many justice-committed white Christians understand the gospel to compel us to be in relationships of equity, justice, and love with Black people, Latinx people, Native people and diverse communities of color. Many of us long to end racism and be reconciled as we God wants for us. In Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation, Rev. Dr. Jennifer Harvey explores why—despite our longings—we’ve remained so stuck in predominantly white communities. Come have a conversation with the author about this work. Bring your questions, disagreements, longings, suspicions, and dreams for a different world!
Rev. Dr. Jennifer Harvey Preaching in Both Worship Services
Sunday, February 25
9:30 and 11:30am
Plymouth Academy “Dear White Christians” Course
February 14 - March 27
Reading Rev. Dr. Jennifer Harvey’s book “DearWhite Christians.”
Book discussion facilitated by Professor Randy Fuller (Herman Melville Distinguished Professor of American Literature at University of Kansas) and Caroline Rothnie (Plymouth Service & Justice Board Chair).
Harvey argues for a radical shift in how justice-committed white Christians think about race. She calls for moving away from the reconciliation paradigm that currently dominates interracial relations and embracing instead a reparations paradigm. Harvey presents an insightful historical analysis of the painful fissures that emerged among activist Christians toward the end of the Civil Rights movement, and she shows the necessity of bringing "white" racial identity into clear view in order to counter today's oppressive social structures.
Rev. Dr. Jennifer Harvey is a writer and educator long engaged in racial justice and white antiracism. Her books include the New York Times bestseller Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in Racially Unjust America and Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation. She has written for the New York Times and CNN, appeared on CNN’s Town Hall on Racism with Sesame Street, and been heard on NPR’s All Things Considered and “It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders.” After serving nearly 20 years at Drake University as a professor of religion and Director of the Crew Scholars program, she recently became the vice president for Academic Affairs and academic dean at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. Dr. Harvey is ordained in the American Baptist Churches (USA). Her forthcoming book, Antiracism as Daily Practice: Refuse Shame, Change White Communities and Help Create a Just World is available for pre-order now and will be released in July 2024 with St. Martins Press.