“Black Lives Matter” is a great slogan. As a black man, I agree that black lives matter just as much as the lives of any of our racial counterparts. But chanting, marching, and hashtag activism will not work unless we…
Derryck GreenFebruary 15, 2023
As printed in the Catholic periodical, First Things. Racial identity has been a priority for black Americans since the end of the civil rights movement. According to a recent Pew Report, 74 percent of black adults regard being black…
Derryck GreenAugust 15, 2022
Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Carter G. Woodson, George Washington Carver, WEB Dubois, Rev. Martin Luther King. All were prominent Americans of the 19th and 20th centuries. There's one prominent American who isn't included in this pantheon of historical greats. In fact, he's…
Derryck GreenMarch 21, 2022
It’s evident from surveys or lived experience that most blacks see race as critical to their identity at levels not seen among their racial counterparts. According to a recent Pew Report, seventy-four percent of black adults said that being black…
Derryck GreenNovember 4, 2021
Since the killing of George Floyd in May, the country has been held hostage with mostly scripted “conversations” about racism. Some unscripted conversations have been constructive; the predictable ones have not. Constructive conversations about racism acknowledge that though bigotry still…
Derryck GreenOctober 16, 2020
Is individualism an “American white value”? The fad of racializing everything, even long-standing virtues of individual merit, is further eroding our already-fragile civic ties. Critical race theorists like famous author Robin DiAngelo condense the complexity of our anthropology into a collectivized…
Derryck GreenOctober 16, 2020
The police-involved shootings and deaths of George Floyd, Rashard Brooks, and Jacob Blake have currently made “racial justice” the cause of all causes. Consequently, antiracism has become the go-to, socially approved means to challenge what its followers claim are the…
Derryck GreenOctober 16, 2020
Christians are called to pursue justice and show compassion to our neighbors while helping them transcend that which diminishes their quality of life (Deut. 16: 20-22, Micah 6:8; Col. 3:12, Is. 1:17). Christians are encouraged to pursue peace where we…
Derryck GreenOctober 16, 2020
I recently came upon the antiracism belief that individualism and merit are “racist.” Antiracists refer to these traits as “American white values.” The racializing of individualism and merit-based achievement seem exclusive to those who share the antiracist worldview. More and…
Derryck GreenJuly 24, 2020