By Andy Hale

If any good has come out of the year 2020, it might be that many Americans’ blinders to systemic racism have come off. But why did we ever think that it went away? Did we honestly believe that constitutional legislation would change the hearts and minds of the American landscape?

But before I go any further, it is essential to point out that the last thing this world needs right now is another middle-class white guy to mansplain that racism still exists in America. If anything, we are well past the time where white American Christians need to stop talking, listen and absorb, confess and repent, being a part of the day-to-day change necessary to achieve equality.

“Acknowledgement of the truth is the necessary first step to reconciliation. Complete reconciliation between Blacks and Whites in America comes when Whites become an advocate in the fight against systemic racial injustices and the call for reparations, and when justice is finally given to the American Descendants of Slavery,” said Cheri L. Mills on the CBF Podcast.

And what better season to begin this crucial process than Lent. Mills, the founder of the One Voice Movement and the prayer director at Simmons College, has written a new book in the Lenten season framework: Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery.

We sat down with the Baptist Seminary of Kentucky Master’s candidate to discuss her design of quoting former slaves with uncovering the modern-day systems of enslavement. 

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This podcast episode is brought to you by The Center for Congregational Health, Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, and McAfee School of Theology Doctor of Ministry program.

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Andy Hale is the creator and host of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Podcast. Hale is the senior pastor of University Baptist Church of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, following eight years as the founding pastor of Mosaic Church of Clayton and five years as CBF’s church start specialist. Follow on Twitter @haleandy