Open AccessRECKONING AND REPAIR: THE URGENT CONVERSATION ABOUT RACE IN THE BLACK CHRISTIAN PODCAST CIRCUIT
Author(s) -
Corrina Laughlin
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
selected papers of internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2162-3317
DOI - 10.5210/spir.v2021i0.11967
Subject(s) - conversation , white (mutation) , black church , race (biology) , christian faith , faith , sociology , african american , christian church , economic justice , police brutality , portrait , affordance , gender studies , christianity , law , political science , religious studies , criminology , history , theology , psychology , philosophy , anthropology , art history , communication , chemistry , biochemistry , gene , cognitive psychology
This paper focuses on the Black Christian response to the 2020uprisings against police brutality in the United States. Through a critical discourseanalysis of three podcasts and interviews with podcasters, this paper argues that the Black,Christian podcast circuit is a counterpublic (Squires, 2002) that seeks to change Christianculture in America. I argue that it is the affordances of the medium of podcasting that makethis counterpublic possible and that make it a potent force for changing the Christianconversation about race. These podcasters offer a portrait of a divided Christian church inneed of repair and they make the case that repair is only possible through decolonizing theChristian faith, repenting and offering reparations for the racial trauma caused by whiteChristians, sparking Christians’ activist inclinations in favor of racial justice causes,and interrogating and correcting sexism within both the Black church and white evangelicalculture.