The Color of Life with Cara Meredith
In the last ten years since moving to Little Rock, I’ve received a great education. I’ve learned a lot about racial injustice, and my heart has been broken. I’ve drawn near to friends and I’ve tried to understand their experiences. I’ve discovered that even though I grew up in a small town that was racially diverse, I never really understood the racial privilege that I’ve taken for granted. I’m still learning, and that’s why I love conversations with people like Cara Meredith. These types of conversations help me to understand better and to love deeper.
Cara Meredith is a white woman who married a black man. She’s learned a lot about race from her husband and from her father-in-law Civil Rights Activist James Meredith. She’s also learned a lot from being a mom of two mixed-race boys.
Cara’s shared her experiences in the beautiful book The Color of Life, and today she also shares them with us on this podcast. I love our conversation and Cara’s heart. I know that you will, too!
Who is Cara Meredith?
Cara Meredith is a writer and speaker whose work has appeared in numerous print and online publications, including Christianity Today, iBelieve, and For Every Mom. She writes the Coloring Outside the Lines blog for Patheos.com. A former high school English teacher and outreach ministry director, she holds a Masters of Theology from Fuller Seminary. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two sons.
You can order The Color of Life HERE.
About the Book:
In this spiritual memoir, a white woman in an interracial marriage and mixed-race family paints a beautiful path from white privilege toward racial healing, from ignorance toward seeing the image of God in everyone she meets.
Author and speaker Cara Meredith grew up in a colorless world. From childhood, she didn’t think issues of race had anything to do with her, and she was ignorant of many of the racial realities (including individual and systemic racism) in America today. A colorblind rhetoric had been stamped across her education, world view, and Christian theology.
Then as an adult, Cara’s life took on new, colorful hues. She realized that white people in her generation, seeking to move beyond ancestral racism, had swung so far in believing a colorblind rhetoric that they tried to act as if they didn’t see race at all.
When Cara met and fell in love with the son of black icon, James Meredith, the power of love helped her see color. She began to notice the shades of life already present in the world around her, while also learning to listen in new ways to black voices of the past. After she married and their little family grew to include two mixed-race sons, Cara knew she would never see the world through a colorless lens again.
Cara Meredith’s journey will serve as an invitation into conversations of justice, race, and privilege, asking key questions, such as:
- What does it mean to navigate ongoing and desperately needed conversations of race and justice?
- What does it mean for white people to listen and learn from the realities our black and brown brothers and sisters face every day?
- What does it mean to teach the next generation a theology of justice, reconciliation, and love?
- What does it mean to dig into the stories of our past, both historically and theologically, to see the imago Dei in everyone?
Plus, Cara offers an extensive Notes and Recommended Reading section at the end of the book, so you can continue learning, listening, and engaging in this important conversation.
Walk It Out Scripture
“For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.” Isaiah 61:11
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Resources, books, and links mentioned in this episode:
- The Color of Life | Cara Meredith
- Justice for Breonna
- KIND (Kids in Need of Defense)
- Embrace Race
- Coloring Outside the Lines Blog
- The Warmth of Other Suns | Isabel Wilkerson
- Caste | Isabel Wilkerson
- All the Colors We Will See | Patrice Gopo
Connect with Cara Meredith
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
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