Papers by Brandon Stanley
Exclusion and Embrace and Anti-Black Racism in the United States In Exclusion and Embrace, Mirosl... more Exclusion and Embrace and Anti-Black Racism in the United States In Exclusion and Embrace, Miroslav Volf theorizes how two conflicting groups can seek peace. Centering his discussion on geopolitical conflicts and systems of oppression, he examines the roles that identity and story play in exacerbating or mediating conflicts. While Exclusion and Embrace is largely devoted to a theoretical model of reconciliation, I am wanting to use Volf's framework to shed light upon the current state of anti-black racism in the United States. Applying the ideas promoted in Exclusion and Embrace, reconciliation and embrace between "white" and "black" 1 in the United States necessarily entails identifying and condemning harmful exclusion, honestly wrestling with the history of oppression, and seeking peace through justice. For Volf, a native Croatian, Exclusion and Embrace is deeply personal. This book serves as Volf's own theological reaction to ethnic conflict and civil war in former Yugoslavia. While the book has reached a broad audience he admits, "I wrote it for myself, to figure out how to manage the identity-centered conflict that was raging in my own soul, an internal echo of the war that was tearing apart the country in which I was born," (p. 10). While embrace and reconciliation are topics that anyone can support in theory, it is important to bear in mind the deep pain at hand whenever we discuss conflict. Out of the wrestling going on in his own soul, Volf calls groups to reconcile and to find the will to embrace, as he states in his thesis, "The will to give ourselves to others and 'welcome' them, to readjust our identities to make space for them, is prior to any judgment about others, except that of identifying them in their humanity," (pg. 29). Before we begin the messy process of embracing one another, we must have the will to do 1 I would argue that the categories of "black" and "white" have historically acted themselves as systems of oppression. However, I am wanting to focus my discussion on other topics (though discussion of these terms certainly pertains to my presented argument). For simplicity's sake and due to the brevity of this examination, I will be using the terms "black" and "white" throughout this essay.
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Papers by Brandon Stanley