The material consequences of injustice can be a source of unity or division within minoritized communities. The papers in this panel offer social scientific analysis of how religion has both fostered solidarities and created fractures among communities with common experiences of oppression. Authors explore the church’s role in fostering interracial anti-capitalist solidarities among Black and white West Virginia coal miners prior to implementation of the Southern Strategy, religious trauma among Millennials and Gen Zers in the Black churches, and the harmful legacy of Roger Williams’ “liberty of conscience” in centering Christian anti-racism on shared ideology rather than in common work for more just material conditions.
At the turn of the twentieth century, Appalachians of all racial backgrounds came together to unionize and fight industrial capitalism. During the West Virginia Coal Wars, miners argued that racial divides only benefited industrial capitalists looking to exploit labor. Organizing in local churches before and after services, Appalachian coal miners formed an integrated movement that raised class consciousness in the region. Ultimately, the United States would side with the capitalists and send the army to crush the rebellion. Miners would not be allowed to organize again until the 1930s. During this interim period, widespread poverty and further interference from industrialists stoked racial tensions once again. Looking at the West Virginia Coal Wars nuances how race, religion, and anti-capitalist movements impacted one another leading up to the Civil Rights Movement.
As Black Millennials have been impacted by the violence of an anti-Black, queer and trans-antagonistic, ableist, late-stage capitalistic world, Black Millennials and subsequently Black Generation Zers are highlighting how the Black Church has been complicit in upholding power structures of oppression or at least not fully engaged in liberating politics of the world. The purpose of this proposed study is to explore the impact of religious and spiritual trauma in Black churches among Black Millennials and Gen Z. This presentation will highlight the preliminary results of the mixed-methods dissertation study currently in process that will triangulate the data using digital auto-ethnography, quantitative survey, and interviews from Generation Z and Millennials who report adverse religious experiences within a Black Church Context.
This paper interprets Adolph Reed Jr's critiques of antiracist and anti-disparitarian pedagogies through the lens of Roger William's "liberty of conscious." Because Reed argues from a historical materialist lens, it is his contention that contemporary racial culture wars are grounded primarily in debates over ideological disputes, not material consequences. Because race exists primarily as a theological and ideological construct, it is nearly impossible to legislate racial wrongdoings without tipping American politics into an abstracted spiritual battle for the "soul" of the nation. I argue that Reed's desire to counter what he sees as "idealistic mystifications" is an evolution of Roger Williams' desire to fight for the "liberty of conscience" in the American politics. This must not deter us from fighting for racial justice. Instead, it should spur activists to confront the material ways in which Black Americans remain economically oppressed.