Religion and race: the need for an intersectional approach

2025/03/17 by Mareike Riedel, Vanessa Rau · 1 voice · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #American Constitutional Law and Politics #Race, History, and American Society #Religion and Society Interactions

paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/1070289x.2025.2476300

openalex publication_date 2025/03/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

Despite its omnipresence in Western history, it is only recently, that the intersection of religion and race has caught again the attention of scholarship, especially with the rise of populist debates about the place of Islam in the West. This article is the introduction of a themed section on ‘Intersections of Religion and Race’, in which we shed light on this neglected intertwinement. We propose and argue for approaching the relationship between religion and race through the lens of intersectionality. The analytical and political project of intersectionality allows us to critically centre the power relations at play as well as the resulting forms of oppression, marginalization, and discrimination at the intersection of White and (secular) Christian supremacy. Moreover, we use the concept to connect a growing body of work on the race-religion-nexus across different disciplines to core concerns of intersectional analysis.

Citations

• Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies: Theory, Applications, and Praxis
• Between nationalism and civilizationism: the European populist moment in comparative perspective
• From disconnection to intersection: making race and religion at the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
• Flying While Muslim and Driving While Black: examining the differences in racialized surveillance and policing for African American Muslims
• Formations of the Secular
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Cited by

• The effects of perspective‐taking on multiple dimensions of discrimination: Can one size fit all?

Discussions

• '#Religion and #race: the need for an #intersectional approach' by Mareike Riedel & Vanessa Rau From our Themed Section in the latest #Identities issue, 32.3: doi.org/10.1080/1070... @nasarmeer.bsk [bsky, 7 points, 0 comments]

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