University Press of Mississippi Contesting Post-Racialism: Conflicted Churches in the United States and South Africa

"In light of the continuing systemic misdirection and misinformation around the world about post-racialism, so-called, there is an urgent need for prophetic truth telling in the United States, South Africa, and wherever peoples of African descent are found. With critical acumen and refreshing candor, the contributors to this volume serve to remind us that the near permanence of racism in its most subtle and incendiary forms requires the need for people of vision and faith to fight on." -Dr. Alton B. Pollard, dean and professor of religion and culture, Howard University School of Divinity "Contesting Post-Racialism is a powerfully persuasive analysis of the ways that race still operates in the United States and South Africa. This book effectively dispels the notion that we now reside in a post-racial or post-apartheid society. The arguments represent perspectives that are theological and sociological, as well as ecclesial and communal. Not without hope for a day when race will be less definitive, the authors propose both the dismantling of systems of racism and the building of an inclusive and egalitarian society. This book needs and deserves a wide readership." -Curtiss Paul DeYoung, executive director of the Community Renewal Society and former professor of reconciliation studies, Bethel University R. Drew Smith is professor of urban ministry at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and research fellow at University of South Africa. His books include From Every Mountainside: Black Churches and the Broad Terrain of Civil Rights. William Ackah is lecturer in community and voluntary sector studies at Birkbeck University of London and author of Pan-Africanism: Exploring the Contradictions: Politics, Identity and Development in Africa and the African Diaspora. Anthony G. Reddie is tutor in Christian theology and coordinator of community learning at Bristol Baptist College. He is editor of Black Theology: An International Journal. Rothney S. Tshaka is professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology at the University of South Africa. His articles have appeared in Missionalia, Verbum et Ecclesia, and Journal of Theology in Southern Africa.