Panel: WRESTLING WITH WHITE HABITS. RACE AND RELIGION IN WESTERN NORMS.



402.2 - RACISM AS A TOPIC OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION?

AUTHORS:
Lehner-Hartmann A. (University of Vienna ~ Vienna ~ Austria)
Text:
Racism also and especially plays a role in religious education processes when religious belonging justifies racist behavior. With Aladin El-Mafaalani, it can be said that awareness of racism has grown. This is also due to the fact that PoCs are making greater use of their experiences of discrimination. Plural societies are challenged to respond to this. Education can provide impulses that help to develop a reflective attitude. It should be noted that not only aggressive, explicit forms of racism are addressed, but also structural forms, such as those found in Eurocentric perspectives and hegemonic differentiations. Is social diversity reflected in the respective target groups, or can one-sided shifts be identified that result in disadvantages for a particular group? In educational processes, ideological statements must be taken into account as well as structural aspects and processes in which Othering can lead to people being regarded as inferior or excluded from participation in social and ecclesiastical areas of life. Here, the question of how educational processes can be initiated and accompanied that raise awareness of our racist entanglements, but which at the same time do not lead to the derivation of a moral superiority, remains as one major challenge.