Demographics, Democracy, and Destiny: Dr. Robert P. Jones

As American society evolves, Dr. Robert P. Jones explores how rigid, traditional norms are losing their influence, leading to a growing need for greater religious and racial diversity and inclusion. His latest book, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future, analyzes the historical and ongoing legacy of White supremacy, offering a comprehensive exploration of how colonialism, genocide, and racial violence are deeply woven into the fabric of America’s history.

For this week’s episode of The State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, Robby  joins host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush to explore how political and religious landscapes are continuously altered by the growing cultural diversity within American society, driven by the rise of interfaith and interracial families, and the many who identify as religiously unaffiliated.

“We had Barack Obama and Kamala Harris, who are mixed-race candidates. And that’s also a reality in most of America. And I think this kind of blending of racial and religious identities…this is the way that most Americans are actually navigating their lives. It doesn’t look like the hierarchical, patriarchal, homogeneous, white picket fence… neighborhood where all the people look like them, and all the people their kids go to school with look like them. That’s not the reality that most Americans are living with today, whatever mythology is out there. So I think that we’re just seeing it come in more public, symbolic ways that we’re seeing at the top of these tickets, even on the Republican side.”

– Dr. Robert P. Jones, president and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute and a prominent author whose recent book, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future, became a New York Times bestseller and has just been released in paperback with a new and compelling afterword. His previous works include White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, which won a 2021 American Book Award, and The End of White Christian America, which was honored with the 2019 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. Robby’s writing is regularly found in The Atlantic, TIME, and Religion News Service and is frequently featured in major media outlets, including CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and The New York Times. Robby also writes a weekly newsletter focused on confronting and healing from the legacy of White supremacy in American Christianity, found at www.whitetoolong.net.