ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how English language arts (ELA) curricula in Catholic schools might respond to the reality of historical and contemporary racism in Christian spaces. It presents a framework for an anti-racist and Catholic—and also catholic, in the sense of universal—ELA classroom. The chapter highlights scholarship on race, Catholic schools, and ELA classrooms. It offers one example of Black Catholic resistance to racism in the US through the historical experiences of Black women religious. The chapter discusses how ELA teachers and students in Catholic schools might analyze Catholicism, race, and anti-Blackness through the analysis of texts. The examination of the historical erasure and resistance of Black Catholics may inform the curriculum and pedagogy of anti-racist and Catholic secondary ELA classrooms. The chapter outlines the ways in which Catholic spaces are necessarily bound up in White supremacy.
