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Anthony B. Bradley, PhD Profile picture
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Feb 1 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
I hate seeing the Confederate Flag & hearing “Southern Rock.” When I was a student at Clemson, I had this beer-drinking church-raised white guy pull me aside to explain to me why I was a “good nigger.” He said there are “bad niggers” out there. #BlackHistoryMonth
I’ve been called “nigger” my entire career by Calvinists and evangelicals. The worst of it was 2004-2011. How many leaders publicly came to my defense? Answer: Zero. No, not even one. Many said, “we’re praying for you.” Me: “Anyone want to help stop this?” abradleyexposed.blogspot.com
This included the creation of multiple websites, blogs, radio programs, racially harassing anonymous phones to my office, racially harassing mail sent to my school, calls to seminary president to have me fired, etc. Lasted for years. They’re more sophisticated these days…
The first time I was called a “nigger” it was by a white guy who look like this. So, when I walk in your church and see your pastor come on stage looking like this, I’m heading straight for the door. Can’t worship triggered, right?
The black experience in America is unique. Unlike Asians, Hispanics, Nigerians, Kenyans, etc., we’re not immigrants. We’re American descendants of slavery and descendants of those who survived Jim Crow. This month is for the #ADOS community. Black Americans have slavery surnames.
The good news is that worst of these guys emailed me recently to apologize. He admitted that he had combined Calvinism & Christian Nationalism in a dangerous way & wasn’t even a Christian. He actively posted Reformed theology but wasn’t a Christian. He said that he still isn’t.
So, yeah, this month matters to a few of us. The extraordinary part of the story is that America is the only country on the planet where in just a few generations the descendants of slaves could excel to great heights like serving on the Supreme Court! No where!

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More from @drantbradley

Anthony B. Bradley, PhD Profile picture
Jan 30
Margaret Sanger was a eugenist committed to reducing the number of "unfit" negroes. This is anti-black racism infused with classism. Using today's "white-supremacy-explains-everything" logic, the abortion industry is white supremacist anti-blackness. From the beginning... Image
Some say, slave patrols invented modern policing, so all policing is inherently racist and should be abolished. The 1939 "Negro Project" was created to cull the number of "unfit" negroes through abortion. Why isn't, then, abortion, inherently racist & a candidate for abolishment?
BTW, modern policing did not start with slave patrols. Policing began in Boston in 1838 but eugenicists were classists and racist. The racism remained in policing but magically disappeared from controlling low-income black births? Really? Huh. ekuonline.eku.edu/blog/police-st…
Read 4 tweets
Anthony B. Bradley, PhD Profile picture
Jan 27
This still isn’t accurate. There are more ways to other people than racism or anti-blackness. So, no Memphis was not about racism but it *was* about othering. Memphis was about the police vs. those whom they consider “rabble.” It’s a separate “race” of deviants pursued by police.
Using racial categories in this instance is profoundly unhelpful even if one goes the “self-hating” route. In-group violence has other explanations. Mr. Nichols was beaten to death b/c the police considered him “rabble.” For ex, Hutu’s called the Tutsis, “cockroaches” in Rwanda.
We will never find solutions to social injustice in this country if we reduce all injustice to some form of racism. Evil is more complex & variegated than racism. Dehumanizing people to rabble is racelessn at times & often more sinister. International comparisons are helpful!
Read 4 tweets
Anthony B. Bradley, PhD Profile picture
Jan 25
The *real* scandal is the evangelical marginalization of Christian college scholars and seminary ethicists & the elevation of pastors as "intellectual leaders" of complex issues. TGC is an example of what happened. Christian college scholars are ignored. thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/evangeli…
Think about it. TGC was created as way to serve pastors but the organizational design was to intentionally exclude Christian scholars. Instead, pastors were chosen to discuss some of the most complex issues in society rather than Christians who are specialists in those fields.
In fairness, it's not that way as much anymore but in the early days, Christian scholars with expertise should have been the lead bloggers on the a multitude of issues facing Christians, esp. in the areas where they were specialists. That never made any sense.
Read 17 tweets
Anthony B. Bradley, PhD Profile picture
Jul 7, 2022
Already tried. Me: I'd say the church needs a new radical movement that pursues @racelessgospel and fully embraces @SheenaMasonPhD's work on @Racelessness because racial reconciliation always maintains racism. We dismantle racism by dismantling race. This is true liberation!
You can't fight racism and racial injustice by racializing the discourse. Jonathan Tran makes this clear.
And no, I don't mean what many conservatives call "colorblindness." Racelessness is more radical.
Read 5 tweets
Anthony B. Bradley, PhD Profile picture
Jun 6, 2022
This entire kerfuffle boils down to one thing: in 2022, white people, esp. males, fear being called “a racist” above anything else. Racism is a mortal sin. The psychology of how this functions on the right & the left is extraordinary. Both are driven by anxiety.
Progressives will make sure they have #BLM, etc. in their Twitter bio even though they don’t have actually black friends, as seen in their wedding photos. They make a point to signal that they read current on black opinions, etc. “Oh, yeah, I’ve read X…”, etc.
Conservatives will avoid the topic like the plaque or will socially isolate themselves in spaces where they can talk about race without being called “a racist.” Or they’ll find a black person who says what they believe. “A black person says what I think, so I can’t be racist…”
Read 5 tweets
Anthony B. Bradley, PhD Profile picture
Jun 1, 2022
Finally got around to the Renn piece. Here’s the flaw: evangelicalism is not the sum of Christianity. Just because Americans are hostile to white evangelicalism does not mean it’s hostile to Christianity. Ex: Rev. Raphael Warnock was elected to the senate. firstthings.com/article/2022/0…
The three worlds of evangelicalism is only about evangelicalism. The article wrongly conflates evangelicalism with “Christianity.” Those stages are irrelevant to current US cultural dispositions toward the mainline church, black church, the Catholic Church, Orthodox Church, etc.
If Renn wants to narrow the discourse to only evangelicalism, then, yes, he has great points but Christianity is much larger, diverse, and differentiated than his US evangelical narrative. It’s a blindspot in the whole Keller/anti-Keller debate.
Read 7 tweets

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