Jennifer Harvey is a writer and Associate Professor of Religion at Drake University. She is interested in how social structures shape who we are and how we can transform ourselves into people who create more just, compassionate social structures. She is particularly passionate about matters of racial justice and the problem of whiteness, as well as queer and lgbt life in comtemporary religious contexts. She is the author of Whiteness and Morality: Pursuing Racial Justice through Reparations and Sovereignty (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), co-editor of Disrupting White Supremacy: White People on What We Need To Do (Pilgrim Press, 2004) and author of numerous other articles. She is an ordained minister in the American Baptist Churches (U.S.A.). You can follow her blog at http://livingformations.com.
Violence comes in many forms. Like me, many of you are committed to anti-racist, feminist ways of being and, no doubt, have spent much energy this week engaged in challenging conversations in classrooms, faith communities and other environments. We insist that public discourse on “violence” in Baltimore be framed around police violence and white supremacist […]
The temptation to comment on the violence in Ferguson is almost irresistible. It doesn’t matter if we’re condemning it, worrying about it, lamenting it. We feel the need to say something about it while commenting on Ferguson’s resistance. Most of us should resist this temptation mightily. When Detroit burned in 1967, “the mother of the movement,” Rosa Parks […]
This post is mostly for other white Christians. It’s not about what we should all be doing today in response to what’s happening in #ferguson and dozens of other cities today. Nearly two weeks into this spreading eruption there’s so much powerful and precise writing out there now on that, that not a one among us can possibly say again, “I’m so upset and […]
The killing of Renisha McBride keeps me up. So does her killer’s non-arrest. What most keeps me up though is the way her death fails to shock so many of us. I don’t mean those of us who “aren’t shocked” (but are dismayed and outraged) because we know McBride’s death (like Jonathan Ferrell’s before it) […]
I’m feeling grateful once again for Marcia Rigg’s mediating ethic. The debate over Syria and U.S. intervention there (or not) has left me befuddled for days. So many thinkers and activists I respect are strongly articulating a “no more war” message as a way to stand against a military strike. I understand this. I am […]
More than forty years after the advent of Black Liberation Theology, Trayvon Martin’s predator and murderer walked. More than twenty years after critical studies of whiteness began to gain traction in the academy Trayvon Martin’s predator and murderer walked. Free. Went home. I feel frozen. Caught tight between the demand for an endless flow of […]
My relationship with prayer in my christian tradition has long been as complex, if not more so, than my relationship with the church. The source of this complexity seems to always go back to the problem of theodicy and “God’s power.” Prayer became complex for me when I noticed christians often gave thanks for things […]
I’ve been blogging a lot during sabbatical. It’s been great to write pieces that feel relevant and have them read by more than just those who can afford an $80 hardcover. It’s one way I’ve been responding to a part of my feminist spirit that’s been unsettled lately. I have a great teaching job at […]
I always straddle a line in presidential elections. Voting democrat usually feels like endorsing a failed, corrupt two-party system. So I’ve voted Green Party more than once. But I never did it when I lived in a swing state and knew the election would be close. I abhor Obama’s complicity in the killing of innocents […]