Which Way to Justice? Dismantling Racism as a Spiritual Practice 

Those of us engaged in the life-giving work of racial justice-making know that collective collaboration is both essential and challenging. Long histories of racism, which have given power to “whiteness” in culture and communities, shape our social structures but also impact our relationships to one another. In this day of work together—part retreat and part workshop—we will work to understand anti-racist practice as a spiritually formative practice that can strengthen our multi-racial, multi-religious justice work in personal and communal ways. We will reflect on and share the ways our distinct spiritual and religious traditions nurture our racial-justice commitments, but also name the ways whiteness challenges our work. The goal is to further develop our abilities to meet these challenges and understand more deeply how we can dismantle racism as a spiritual, justice practice. 

This workshop-retreat is open to people of all racial, ethnic and religious identities. We will attend to the different ways our identities impact and are impacted by social justice work, while also taking a close look at the ways whiteness and legacies of racism impact our collective, multi-racial, multi-religious work for justice.

Rev. Dr. Jennifer Harvey is a writer, speaker, and professor of religion at Drake University where she also serves as Faculty Director for the Crew Scholars Program. She has a Ph.D. in Christian Ethics from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. Her work focuses primarily on racial justice and white anti-racism. Dr. Harvey's most recent books include Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in Racially Unjust America (Abingdon Press) and Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation (Wm. B. Eerdmans). Dr. Harvey has contributed to the New York Times, CNN and been a guest on both Iowa and National Public Radio (including NPR’s “It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders”) She is a widely sought after public speaker and is ordained in the American Baptist Churches (USA).