Document Type
Speech
Date
3-19-2023
Abstract
Dr. Mary J. Lomax-Ghirarduzzi frames reparations for the descents of enslaved persons in the United States as a spiritual issue that requires social action. She has advanced equity and social justice as a professor and leader in California higher education for thirty years. This body of work, inspired by Black Liberation Theology and Catholic Social Teachings, is a unique contribution to the knowledge and resources on anti-Black racism and reparations. California is the first state in the nation to launch a comprehensive process to study and make recommendations on the negative effects of slavery to living African American descendants. Her body of work broadens our understanding of reparations as public policy as a spiritual issue that requires interfaith and religious institutional social action.
This work is a call to action to help interfaith and religious-affiliated institutions:
- engage in private and public commentaries on reparations in a more just, nuanced, and faith-informed manner based upon qualitative and quantitative data and evidence-based findings.
- provides a redemptive framework with steps to reconcile from the harmful inheritance of manifest destiny embedded in Eurocentric faith traditions with a way forward to heal from the collective sin of slavery.
- urges the interfaith community and religious institutions, as standard bearers with authority from their faith traditions, to engage and stand as transformative allies with African Americans as the California Reparations Task Force prepares it’s findings and recommendations.
Recommended Citation
Lomax-Ghirarduzzi, Mary J., "Anti-Blackness, Reparations, and Reconciliation: A Redemptive Call to the Altar" (2023). Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Webinar Recordings and Conversations. 20.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/dei-webinars/20
Included in
Inequality and Stratification Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Religion Commons, Social Justice Commons
Comments
Grace Cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of California and the seat of the California Diocese for the Episcopal Church is a house of prayer for all.
The cathedral is home to a community where the best of Episcopal tradition courageously embraces innovation and open-minded conversation, where inclusion is expected and people of all faiths are welcomed, where beliefs are put into action and where people are encouraged to seek God and progress on their own spiritual journeys. The cathedral itself, a renowned San Francisco landmark, serves as a magnet, where diverse people gather to worship, celebrate, seek solace, converse, and learn.
University of the Pacific is California's first and oldest institution of higher education. A private Methodist-affiliated university with campuses in Stockton, San Francisco and Sacramento, the Pacific community believes that diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential to the fulfillment of our institutional mission and seeks to become a national model for anti-racism in higher education. We value inclusiveness in learning, curricular and cocurricular programming, campus climate, recruitment, admissions, hiring and retention.