When Race Becomes Our Faith: The Religion of Whiteness

Our Program: Why won’t racism and racial injustice go away? In this talk, Emerson will argue that race has become entangled with religion, taking on transcendent qualities. What emerges is a Religion of Whiteness, a powerful influence on the lives of millions of people, harmful to both Christianity and to human communities. This presentation will help us better understand why people become so invested in protecting whiteness, why they are often so passionately committed to maintaining racial inequality, and what we can do to support positive change.

Our Speaker: Michael Emerson, Ph.D., is a Fellow in Religion and Public Policy at Rice University. In his distinguished career, Emerson has published widely in the areas of religion and public policy issues, recently serving as the principal investigator of the largest ever national study of religion and race. He is the author of 15 books and nearly 100 other publications. His research and expertise have been featured in hundreds of media outlets, including CBS Evening News, National Public Radio, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, the New York Times and USA Today.

He was the founding director of Rice’s Center on Race, Religion, & Urban Life and is the co-founding director of Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research. His work focuses on understanding how religion and public policy interact, both here and abroad. He seeks to share his work with policymakers, and other leaders thus creating networks of dialogue and action.