{"id":76950,"date":"2020-09-11T00:55:31","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T04:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=76950"},"modified":"2020-09-18T12:47:47","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T16:47:47","slug":"professor-blames-white-christian-privilege-for-slavery-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/professor-blames-white-christian-privilege-for-slavery-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor blames \u2018white Christian privilege\u2019 for slavery, genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>UPDATED<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>A professor from Fairleigh Dickinson University recently presented for Rutgers University and explained how \u201cwhite Christian privilege\u201d and \u201cChristian privilege\u201d are responsible for slavery, genocide and colonialism.<\/p>\n<p>Rutgers University held the lecture on September 9 to explore the topic of \u201cwhite Christian privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The law school\u2019s Center for Security, Race and Rights hosted Professor Khyati Joshi for the presentation. Joshi published a book in July with the same title as her presentation, <a href=\"https:\/\/nyupress.org\/9781479840236\/white-christian-privilege\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">called<\/a> \u201cWhite Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The professor of education also said she consults regularly with employers and schools on these topics.<\/p>\n<p>Joshi\u2019s presentation discussed how whiteness and Christianity are responsible for \u201cgenocide,\u201d \u201cslavery\u201d and \u201ccolonialism.\u201d She said she wants people to understand \u201cthe role Christianity has had in the construction of whiteness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said that concepts like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.com\/topics\/westward-expansion\/manifest-destiny\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">manifest destiny<\/a>, the idea that colonizers were led by God to take over land, prove her points about white supremacy and Christianity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to also take into account the Biblical justification for slavery,\u201d Joshi added.<\/p>\n<p>During the hour-long presentation, Joshi explained what white Christian privilege is and the way it manifests itself in society. She said Christian privilege is \u201cbuilt into the edifice\u201d of American jurisprudence. She also talked about how even non-white Christians enjoy some privileges.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SikhProf?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SikhProf<\/a> writes on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ProfKJoshi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ProfKJoshi<\/a>&#39;s new book, saying that it argues &quot;that our perception of whiteness suffers from an \u201coptical illusion\u201d: that religion is one place where there is equality in America.&quot;<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oBexCPqsJx\">https:\/\/t.co\/oBexCPqsJx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Religion News Service (@RNS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RNS\/status\/1286685068665057280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 24, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Joshi said during the virtual presentation, attended by <em>The College Fix<\/em>, that she noticed while in school that research on whiteness in America often missed the \u201cexplicit role of religion in the development of whiteness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Joshi, who said she is Hindu, noted that she witnessed white Christian privilege her whole life but \u201cdidn\u2019t have the language to be able to articulate what I was experiencing.\u201d She said that sometimes there is white Christian privilege and sometimes there is just Christian privilege.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-76960 \" src=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Joshi2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"363\" height=\"211\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Joshi2.jpg 663w, https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Joshi2-370x215.jpg 370w, https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Joshi2-560x325.jpg 560w, https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Joshi2-135x78.jpg 135w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 363px) 100vw, 363px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When talking about this history of the country and privilege \u201cwe should talk about Protestant Christian\u201d privilege \u201cbecause the United States has a long and drawn-out history of anti-Catholicism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Christian privilege is part of \u201cwhite Christian supremacy,\u201d according to one slide that Joshi used.<\/p>\n<p>This form of privilege is made up of Christian hegemony, normativity and privilege. Christian privilege, according to Joshi, is \u201ca product of systemic religious oppression over the history of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Claims Christians do not regularly have to fight for their religious freedom<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>In her presentation, Joshi said that court cases on the religious freedom of non-Christian religions is indicative of Christian privilege.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-76959 \" src=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Joshi3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"418\" height=\"230\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Joshi3.jpg 719w, https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Joshi3-370x204.jpg 370w, https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Joshi3-560x308.jpg 560w, https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Joshi3-135x74.jpg 135w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 418px) 100vw, 418px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Joshi pointed to three cases to prove her point, including <a href=\"https:\/\/supreme.justia.com\/cases\/federal\/us\/475\/503\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Goldman v. Weinberger<\/em><\/a>, a 1986 ruling where the Supreme Court allowed the military to prevent an Orthodox Jewish military officer from wearing a yarmulke while serving.<\/p>\n<p>She also discussed <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/1989\/88-1213\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Employment Division v. Smith<\/a><\/em>, where the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 against two drug counselors who the state of Oregon fired after they tested positive for drugs after ingesting peyote.<\/p>\n<p>She cited a 1988 <a href=\"https:\/\/supreme.justia.com\/cases\/federal\/us\/485\/439\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Supreme Court case<\/a>, <em>Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery<\/em>, where the court ruled that Native Americans did not have a religious right to prevent the harvesting of timber on lands they considered sacred.<\/p>\n<p>Joshi did not respond to several emailed requests for comment from <em>The College Fix<\/em> for clarification on why counter-examples were not discussed in her presentation. She told <em>The Fix<\/em> on Thursday via email that she would provide a comment, but did not respond by Thursday evening.<\/p>\n<p>Joshi later responded on September 18 to\u00a0<em>The Fix<\/em> via email.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every person who runs for office is going to be questioned about their faith. My point was that it&#8217;s the religious minority candidates who face the situation where their religious identity may be used to call into question their ability to represent their constituents,&#8221; Joshi said, in response to a question about Christian candidates who have had their faith challenged.<\/p>\n<p>In her email, Joshi explained the difference between individuals seeking to stop the law from oppressing them and &#8220;litigating for the right to enforce your faith on your employees and your neighbors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s the difference between seeking the right to practice one&#8217;s own faith, and the right to enforce it on others. What\u2019s remarkable about the Hobby Lobby decision is that the Supreme Court found that, yes, Christians have a legal right to enforce their faith on others without legal penalty,&#8221; Joshi said.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Non-white Christians can have privilege, too<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>On the topic of non-white Christians, Joshi said that they can sometimes have privilege.<\/p>\n<p>Christian communities of color \u201calso have Christian privilege\u201d but \u201cwhen we take into account intersectionality \u2026 the race element is there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said people need to understand the \u201coverarching theme is always white Christian privilege or white Christian supremacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Joshi said that \u201con a certain level, Hispanic Catholics have Christian privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She added that one way to decrease Christian privilege is actually to embrace religious differences and say things like \u201cMerry Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said she tries to say \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d instead of \u201cHappy Holidays\u201d with the hope that other people will respond by wishing non-Christians a happy celebration of their holidays.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Joshi did say that one way to understand each other better is for people to look at their \u201csphere of influence\u201d and consider if they were only talking to people like them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not going to make change only listening,\u201d the professor said; instead \u201cwe have to get close to some of the challenges we need to solve\u201d and examine the \u201csphere of influence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the director of the Center for Security, Race, and Rights, Sahar Aziz, agreed with that statement during the presentation, she did not respond to several emailed requests from <em>The College Fix<\/em> since Wednesday asking for comment on Christian privilege and if she planned to host people with different views at the university.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Joshi emailed <em>The College Fix\u00a0<\/em>on September 18 and said &#8220;[s]chools are very hesitant to deal with the topic, for reasons I talk about in my book,&#8221; but noted that several years ago &#8220;students from Drew University and their professor were successful in teaching a world religions class at Madison High School.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Future topics in the <a href=\"https:\/\/csrr.rutgers.edu\/transnational-rights-security\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lecture series<\/a> from the center, which focuses on the experience of \u201cMuslim, Arab, and South Asian communities,\u201d includes a presentation on sanctions against Iran and another presentation about counterrorism in Somalia.<\/p>\n<p>Americans United for Separation for Church and State <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/americansunited\/status\/1303874597184573440\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">will host Joshi<\/a> next week as part of a panel on \u201cdismantling white privilege\u201d and \u201cChristian nationalism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s<\/strong> <strong>note:\u00a0<\/strong><em>Professor Joshi e-mailed <\/em>The College Fix <em>on September 18. The article has been updated.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/uconn-to-pay-white-fragility-scholar-robin-diangelo-20000-for-antiracism-workshop\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">UConn to pay &#8216;white fragility&#8217; scholar $20,000 for antiracism workshop<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>IMAGES: Khyati Joshi \/ khyatijoshi.com<\/p>\n            <div class=\"article-truncate-control\">\n                <button class=\"show-complete-article\">\n                    Read More                <\/button>\n            <\/div>\n\n        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Claims Christians do not regularly have to fight for their religious freedom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1171,"featured_media":76956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1085,1077],"tags":[19241,38733,38731,5772,38734,38732],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/JoshiMainImage.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Oh4L-k18","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76950"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77288,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76950\/revisions\/77288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}