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Khyati Joshi’s new book reveals the deep pro-Christian bias in America, which discriminates against people of other faiths, and non-believers.Joshi is Professor of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and her provocative new book is White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America.
As an Hindu immigrant from India who grew up near Atlanta, Joshi has experienced Christian privilege in many forms. In this remarkable conversation, she doesn’t hold back. She calls the guarantees in the First Amendment an “optical illusion”, and calls out the expressions of religious entitlement by Christians, large and small.
We discuss recent Supreme Court decisions that purportedly protect Christians from religious discrimination–like in the Hobby Lobby case–while allowing Christians to discriminate against their employees. She argues that Christianity is a central, often hidden, factor in racism. We go back to Spain in the 15th century to identify the origins of racism based on religion, and discuss American immigration laws written by the Christian majority, that have limited the entry of many non-white non-Christians over the years.
Joshi deserves credit for a book and body of work that challenges many assumptions of Christian white influence in our culture, and PBC highly recommends her book.