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Peniel Joseph

White Christian Privilege: A Case Study

At two points in her story on the Camden 28, Michelle Nickerson takes on a thorny topic: racial privilege. It is indexed in Spiritual Criminals as “white privilege.” In the historical circumstances of the book, and in the larger context of the Catholic-Christian faith, let’s call it ‘white Christian privilege’. Framing it this way helps to distinguish it from the anti-Vietnam War protests by not only citizens of color, but also those who professed Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, atheism, or allegiance to the Nation of Islam. Christianity afforded an additional layer of privilege that protected white Camden 28 activists from Read more