(This
is a re-post of a draft of a piece that was asked to write in Mach 2012 on multiculturalism
for a publication with the General Commisssion on Religion and Race of the
United Methodist Church)
By Rev. C. Anthony Hunt, Ph.D.
I am convinced that to speak of multiculturalism in the church today, we must take into account the ongoing complexities of race and race relations across our society. As I write this reflection, America finds itself in the midst of tremendous turmoil surrounding the case of the death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida on February 26, 2012. Trayvon’s killing, and the lack of an arrest in his case to-date, conjures painful memories for many of the murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955, and the 1992 race riots in Los Angeles at the acquittal of the police officers charged in the brutal beating of Rodney King. In the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots, Cornel West wrote the provocative book, "Race Matters," in which he appropriately argued at the time that race continued to matter in America. Twenty years later, it is my belief that race continues to matter in America in both the church and society.
We continue to grapple with what it means to interact across cultures, what type of discourse is appropriate in the areas of immigration reform, health-care reform, the ongoing expansion of the prison industrial complex (and disproportionate arrest and incarceration rates for young black and brown men), and ongoing economic distress that points to widening disparities between the richer and the poorer, serving to disproportionately affect African-Americans and Hispanics.
By Rev. C. Anthony Hunt, Ph.D.
I am convinced that to speak of multiculturalism in the church today, we must take into account the ongoing complexities of race and race relations across our society. As I write this reflection, America finds itself in the midst of tremendous turmoil surrounding the case of the death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida on February 26, 2012. Trayvon’s killing, and the lack of an arrest in his case to-date, conjures painful memories for many of the murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955, and the 1992 race riots in Los Angeles at the acquittal of the police officers charged in the brutal beating of Rodney King. In the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots, Cornel West wrote the provocative book, "Race Matters," in which he appropriately argued at the time that race continued to matter in America. Twenty years later, it is my belief that race continues to matter in America in both the church and society.
We continue to grapple with what it means to interact across cultures, what type of discourse is appropriate in the areas of immigration reform, health-care reform, the ongoing expansion of the prison industrial complex (and disproportionate arrest and incarceration rates for young black and brown men), and ongoing economic distress that points to widening disparities between the richer and the poorer, serving to disproportionately affect African-Americans and Hispanics.
