Providing a profoundly Christian understanding of anti-racism, Dr. Jonathan Tran, Associate Professor of Theology at Baylor University, gave the Seventh Annual Lecture sponsored by Christian Unity at Greenville University
Greenville University reporter Dave Bell writes:
As an Asian-American, Jonathan Tran knows the reality of discrimination in America.
“I came to America at the end of three wars between America and Asian countries – Japan, Korea, and Vietnam,” said Tran, who now serves as an Associate Professor of Theology at Baylor University. “People in America viewed me as perilous … not just a foreigner, but a problematic one. As a result, racism was a daily reality in my life.”…
As a person of Vietnamese descent, Tran said he was impacted by racism, but simultaneously ignored by anti-racism efforts that focused only on righting the wrongs experienced by African-Americans.
“I learned that I didn’t count,” he said. “My experiences didn’t seem to matter. In short, I was marginalized by racism, and marginalized again by anti-racism efforts. I didn’t count in efforts to expand diversity.”
That reality, he said, led him to write his book about racism from the perspective of an Asian-American.
“I tried to convert the pain I experienced into power,” he said. “I wanted to discover more about American racism from the perspective of those on the margins.”
As he researched,
