Reef Reads

In this Southlands College Reef Reads review for Black History Month, Chaplaincy Community Worker Peter Greenfield writes about the book Is God Colour-Blind? by Anthony Reddie (2nd ed, SPCK, 2020).

Peter writes:

‘Would a Black person as “average” in intellectual acumen and judgement as Donald Trump ever make it to the White House?’

anthony reddie

Peter writes:

The only time I met Anthony Reddie was when he came to preach at my college chapel in Cambridge. He impressively spoke without a script and simply ended his sermon by saying, “I think I should stop there”.

Skipping forward several years, I saw his book Is God Colour-Blind? advertised and with questions of racial justice gaining greater attention, I thought I would give it a read. As a theology (that is the study of God) undergraduate student at Cambridge, I had never studied any Black theology. Black theology seeks to ensure that the realities of black experience are represented at the theological level. It was not prescribed reading and unfortunately there was no module called ‘Black theology’.

I think it is important to establish the work that has already been done in this field pre-Black Lives Matter. This book was first published in 2009. It helps to place the death of George Floyd in the wider context. Writers like Reddie and Robert Beckford have been drawing attention to questions of racial equality for years. Reddie still does add an afterword in this 2020 edition where he engages with Black Lives Matter.

Christians consider the Bible as important, but Reddie wants to stress that Black experience (that is the experience of those marginalised and oppressed) is even more important. The Bible was written by people who were oppressed and it is this experience that, for him, was the foundation for the writing of it. I have always believed that God was biased to the poor, but before reading this book it had not clearly registered in my mind that many of the biblical writers wrote from the personal experience of oppression.

The book contains several group exercises that might be used in worship. These exercises reflect that Black people may feel they have to suppress their identity when trying to integrate with White majority Christian-influenced societies. It is often felt that people must conform in order to be accepted. Rather, as Reddie points out, we should celebrate one another’s differences. Whilst I try to embrace diversity, this observation really brought home to me the need that we have as a community to take extra care to make sure that others are welcome and accepted. Two reflections that I must offer on this book: firstly, I convened a pub theology meeting with some churchgoers in Herefordshire where, using this book, we discussed Black theology. In the villages in which I worked, there were no Black people. The discussion about this book raised fundamental questions as to why that was the case. Secondly, I am challenged by the notion that Reddie holds Black experience to take primacy over the Bible, which itself was written from the perspective of oppression. This would not for me take away from the possibility of the Bible being divinely inspired, but rather (if pointed out) might increase its attractiveness (both to those inside and outside the church) as a potential resource in fighting racism and other forms of prejudice.