HeyJaredAmerican Blindspot: Race Religion, Power
Professor of sociology writing on contemporary issues of race, religion, power, and American culture, using my reading, research, and life experience.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 7
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- Sep 2, 2026
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- Jul 15, 2026
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The Lull of Liturgy: Why Worship Practices Meant to Cultivate Justice So Often Become Substitutes for It (opens the original)
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A Black lay leader, relatively new to her congregation, clapped after a choir anthem. It lasted a second. A white deacon went to the church’s leadership to report that her clapping had disrupted the worship atmosphere, and word eventually reached her. “I don’t know what to do in church anymore,” she told our research team.Nothing in that exchange required anyone to hold a racist belief. The deacon was defending what he experienced as reverence. The congregation understands itself as welcoming. T
PREORDER NOW 👏👏👏 Aspiring to Antiracism: The Pursuit of Antiracism in White Progressive Churches (Oxford University Press 2027) (opens the original)
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I am very happy to announce that pre-order is now available for our forthcoming book, Aspiring to Antiracism: The Pursuit of Racial Justice in White Progressive Churches, being published by Oxford University Press. <a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!u-VN!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8afa59e4-ab6f-4c86-8e7e-3
Recognition from My Academic Peers: Receiving the Sandra Barnes Anti-Racist Scholarship Award (opens the original)
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At the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association meetings of the Sociology of Religion Section held in New York City has given me the 2026 Sandra Barnes Anti-Racist Scholarship Award. I am grateful to the colleagues who prepared and supported the nomination, and to the committee for its attention to a body of work that has occupied me for several years.<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!xvBm!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive
What Sociologists Mean by a Racialized Social System: How American Racial History Looks Different in Every Generation Yet Follows Familiar Patterns (opens the original)
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A history teacher once asked me a question that has stayed with me. “Why,” she wondered, “does every generation think it has finally solved America’s racial problems, only to discover that another set of conflicts has emerged?”The question reveals a common way of thinking about American history. We tend to divide the past into distinct chapters. Slavery belongs to one era. Jim Crow belongs to another. The Civil Rights Movement marks a dramatic turning point. Black Lives Matter is treated as a co
The Cross Carried Into the Capitol: New Panel Data Show It Was Republicans, not Democrats, Who Pulled Back from Faith after January 6 (opens the original)
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On January 6, 2021, the crowd that pushed into the United States Capitol carried a great deal of Christianity with it. Wooden crosses. Painted images of Christ. Placards printed with Bible verses. Signs announcing that Jesus was Savior and Trump was President. Inside the Senate chamber, some of the men who had breached the building stopped to pray aloud. Whatever else the day was, it was a public liturgy, broadcast live, and the whole country watched it.<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-im
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