ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the intersection of Black liberation theology and practical theology, wrestling with the complexity of human subjectivity and epistemology. Practical theology has often been at the forefront of exploring the relationship between experience and knowledge production, often in terms of gender and sexuality. Yet, like other forms of theological articulation, the impact of Whiteness has rarely been explored, particularly in relation to the converse visibility of Blackness and its paradoxical absence in the British theological academy. This chapter seeks to open up that discussion. What might it mean for practical theology in Britain if Whiteness were acknowledged, especially in our Brexit epoch? This chapter demonstrates how many poor White British people were in voting for Brexit effectively imprisoned by their Whiteness and its assumptions of superiority and entitlement. It was this false consciousness of Whiteness that convinced many ordinary poor White people to believe that rich, privileged and politically conservative White politicians had their best interests at heart when constructing the rational for Brexit. This chapter uses a participative exercise as a means of showing how notions of ‘complex subjectivity’ can provide avenues for engaging with the other and refuting debilitating binaries of ‘them’ and ‘us’.
