Spring 2013 Reflections YALE DIVINITY SCHOOL The Future of Race cover art interior photography David c. Driskell terry boddie took up photography as a teen in order Spirits Watching – front cover to make sense of a world that had turned strange Faces in the Forest – back cover and disruptive. He had followed his mother to the bronx, leaving his caribbean island home, nevis. David c. Driskell is an internationally regarded “Growing up, my backyard was a rainforest of painter, art historian, collector, and a leading au- greens and blues, and now in new York it was can- thority on African-American art. yons of steel and concrete,” he recalls. He received an undergraduate art degree at The dislocation affected his sense of identity. Howard university (1955), a masters in fine Arts de- nevis is mostly populated by people of African gree from catholic university (1962), and joined the descent. in the u.S., he had to navigate a new Department of Art faculty at the university of mary- race game. land in 1977, serving as its chair from 1978-1983. His “At first,i lived with labels placed on me by oth- works are featured at the national Gallery of Art, ers,” he says. “Socially i was seen as an African the High museum of Art, Yale Art Gallery, and many American, but i spoke different. i was an outsider. other venues. in 2000 he received the national over time i saw myself as a hybrid.” Humanities medal from President bill clinton. in He found creativity in hybridity, and in the two 2007 he was elected as a national Academician by decades since his move here he has used his eye the national Academy. and his camera to explore themes of ethnicity, ori- The David c. Driskell center for the Study of the gins, migration, isolation, and multi-ethnic commu- Visual Arts and culture of African Americans and nity. He teaches photography at nYu and empire the African Diaspora at the university of maryland, State college. c ollege Park, is devoted to honoring his legacy and F eatured in this Reflections is a sample of his preserving the heritage of African-American visual photography. art and culture. “the images often speak to the position of the individual in society – the solitary figure as an index of the isolated individual in search of something else, whatever that something is. for me, it is self- knowledge, as well as an alignment with community, with values of equality, justice, resolution.” in recent years, his work has taken him beyond straight photography in search of a broader vocabu- lary of visual experience. He has worked with other ReflectionS – Volume 100, numbeR 1 media – sculpture, drawing, also making use of ar- iSSn 0362-0611 chival documents, iD certificates, other modes of Reflections is a magazine of theological and ethical inquiry critical inquiry – in order to investigate peren- published biannually by Yale Divinity School. Opi nions expressed nial themes of identity in a globalized world. (See are solely those of the authors and do not represent those of the terryboddie.com.) sponsoring institution and its administration and faculty. “i like jazz, calypso, blues, reggae, and country We welcome letters to the editor. All correspondence regarding music too,” he says. “i’ve come to see the multiplic- Reflections should be addressed to Ray Waddle at the School’s ity of values in other cultures, the value of investi- address or at [email protected]. gating ideas of history and hybridity and how these might produce new ways of talking about politics For a free subscription or to buy additional copies of this issue, please go to www.yale.edu/reflections, or call 203.432.6550. and self-knowledge.” Reflections study guides, summaries of back issues, and other information can be found on the website as well. Reflections readers are welcome to order additional compli- mentary copies of this and most past issues. The only cost is the actual shipping fee. To make a request, write to [email protected] Gregory E. Sterling – Publisher John Lindner – Editorial Director Ray Waddle – Editor-in-Chief Gustav Spohn – Managing Editor Constance Royster – Senior Advisor Peter W. Johnson, YPPS – Graphic Designer Campbell Harmon – Online Coordinator ii Grandma's Hand Ω The Future of Race 1 From the Dean’s Desk Gregory E. Sterling The Reverend Henry L. Slack Dean of Yale Divinity School & Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament Everyday, too many headlines remind us that the speaks to a turbulent, unfolding scene of national brutality of racism is still with us. Too many signs soul-searching and practice. of inequality testify that the dehumanizing history For example, I think we’d all like to believe that of slavery is still with us. A weary reluctance to face the basic protection of minority voting rights – a it remains with us too. battleground for the civil rights heroism of the early And it isn’t getting easier, the issue of race. We 1960s – is accepted by now. Yet as Emilie Townes stand today at a point in the national story where points out, recent voter ID laws can look like voter raw tensions between blacks and whites remain un- suppression of the very groups who, just two gen- resolved. At the very same moment, the dialogue erations ago, were fighting for their right – fighting on race, never simple, is expanding to include other for their lives – to be full citizens. groups in an American ethnic dynamic that contin- Is Jim Crow dead? Michelle Alexander reminds ues in great flux. us that the cruelty of that era can be reinstated in Demographic shifts – increases in Latino and new forms, manifested today in a federal War on Asian-American numbers, the coming eclipse of the Drugs incarceration policy that disproportionately white majority – make this a complex, challenging, targets African Americans and other minorities. adventurous era whether you are a parish minister, National self-congratulations on race relations a national political strategist, a social-justice advo- are premature. It is hard to know where we are in cate, or a citizen trying to exercise your vote. the conversation. The last election season virtually With this Spring Reflections, we grapple with the ignored race as an issue. It is naïve to think that our multi-front subject of race, inviting some thirty con- collective silence is proof that we have moved be- tributors to share their latest thoughts and angles of yond race. We ought to be asking ourselves why it is perception on a long-simmering, sometimes erup- so difficult to discuss. Perhaps we ought to be prob- tive theme. We were keen about the timing of this ing our own habits of evasion or misapprehension. issue, which comes 150 years after the Emancipation Reflections offers the following points of view not Proclamation, fifty years after the March on Wash- as a definitive statement on race relations but as a ington, and a few months after the reelection of the collection of dispatches from a contentious field of nation’s first African-American president. resistance and hope. May it spark conversation and This edition also coordinates with an unusual action on a subject that still eats at the American initiative at YDS since Fall 2012 – a focused period soul. How we talk about it, whether with honesty of discernment and conversation in various forums and creativity or with hostility and distrust, will de- by students, faculty, and staff on race. As student termine who we become as a people. Tyrone McGowan writes here, “I believe people of faith must find creative and redemptive ways that allow us to reimagine an alternative calculus of be- longing.” This issue features YDS faculty members but also practitioners beyond Yale who are preoccupied with our theme. The diversity of their arguments Gregory E. Sterling Dean 2 ” Contents the future of Race From the Dean’s Desk – Gregory E. Sterling 2 In Search of Real Progress – Dwight Andrews 4 Welcoming a World of Complexity and Color – Mary Clark Moschella 7 A New Day for Multiracial Congregations – Michael O. Emerson 11 To Make the Invisible Visible: Interrogating Race and Racism – Keun-Joo Christine Pae 17 Living in Two Worlds – Aracelis Vasquez Haye 20 “Laughing at What I Love”: Notes on White Working-Class America – Tex Sample 21 The Jazz of Worship and Creole Faith – Otis Moss III 25 What’s Missing in the Dialogue about Race? – Ronald David 27 Our Second Declaration of Independence – Harry S. Stout 31 The Multicultural Future: An Interview with Khyati Y. Joshi 34 And Still We Struggled to be Counted – Emilie M. Townes 35 The Unfinished Business of Race – Yale Divinity students 39 We Can Be Silent No Longer – Michelle Alexander 47 Evangelizing the Evangelizers: Juan Diego’s America – Roberto S. Goizueta 48 The Sound of Silence in the American Pulpit – Andrew M. Manis 51 From the Archives: Whither the Black Church In the Twenty-first Century? – Moses N. Moore Jr. and Yolanda Y. Smith 55 American Religious Freedom: Pride and Prejudice – Tisa Wenger 59 The Color of Racism – Frederick J. Streets 63 The Spirit of Ubuntu: An Interview with Allan Boesak 66 Pledging Allegiance to a New America – Hua Hsu 70 Becoming Trustworthy White Allies – Melanie Morrison 73 Editor’s Column: Off-White – Ray Waddle 80 Poems Marked – Carmen Tafolla 10 Soul Food – Janice Mirikitani 13 Black Poet, White Critic – Dudley Randall 38 Rehabilitation & Treatment in the Prisons of America – Etheridge Knight 46 Lunar – Jim Harrison 53 i am accused of tending to the past – Lucille Clifton 5 6 If Eve Side-Stealer & Mary Busted-Chest Ruled the World – Natalie Diaz 62 3 In Search of Real Progress by Dwight Andrews “In this country American means white.