"People interested in critical race theory and Christians concerned about faith integration and social justice will find this book to be very helpful."--Library Journal Critical race theory has become a lightning rod in contemporary American politics and evangelical Christianity. This irenic book offers a critical but constructive and sympathetic introduction written from a perspective rooted in Scripture and Christian theology. The authors take us beyond caricatures and misinformation to consider how critical race theory can be an analytical tool to help us understand persistent inequality and injustice--and to see how Christians and churches working for racial justice can engage it in faithful and constructive ways. The authors explore aspects of critical race theory that resonate with well-trod Christian doctrine but also that challenge or are corrected by Christian theology. They also address the controversial connection that critics see between critical race theory and Marxism. Their aim is to offer objective analysis and critique that go beyond the debates about social identity and the culture wars and aid those who are engaging the issues in Christian life and ministry. The book includes a helpful glossary of key terms.

Explores the power of faith to drive resistance to anti-immigration policies in the United States God’s Resistance chronicles the work of faith-based activists who have mobilized to counter the effects of mass detention and deportation. Focusing on Southern California, home to a large undocumented population, the authors examine which strategies have been most effective, as well as the obstacles that faith presents to organizing effectively. In-depth interviews with over forty activists, leaders of congregations, lay participants, and immigrants allow us to hear at first hand the challenges and occasional triumphs of this work. The authors show how faith-based organizations have a distinctive set of advantages to leverage in social movements that are often overlooked and underappreciated by secular activist organizations, but they also face particular challenges that can hinder their effectiveness. The volume offers insights into how these advantages can be maximized, and how the obstacles can be overcome. The powerful testimony from asylum seekers and detained immigrants found in these pages, along with the concrete examples of effective strategies, are indispensable for anyone invested in the fight to recognize the humanity of one of the nation’s most vulnerable populations.

Explores the power of faith to drive resistance to anti-immigration policies in the United States God’s Resistance chronicles the work of faith-based activists who have mobilized to counter the effects of mass detention and deportation. Focusing on Southern California, home to a large undocumented population, the authors examine which strategies have been most effective, as well as the obstacles that faith presents to organizing effectively. In-depth interviews with over forty activists, leaders of congregations, lay participants, and immigrants allow us to hear at first hand the challenges and occasional triumphs of this work. The authors show how faith-based organizations have a distinctive set of advantages to leverage in social movements that are often overlooked and underappreciated by secular activist organizations, but they also face particular challenges that can hinder their effectiveness. The volume offers insights into how these advantages can be maximized, and how the obstacles can be overcome. The powerful testimony from asylum seekers and detained immigrants found in these pages, along with the concrete examples of effective strategies, are indispensable for anyone invested in the fight to recognize the humanity of one of the nation’s most vulnerable populations.

Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Finalist Interest in and awareness of the demand for social justice as an outworking of the Christian faith is growing. But it is not new. For five hundred years, Latina/o culture and identity have been shaped by their challenges to the religious, socio-economic, and political status quo, whether in opposition to Spanish colonialism, Latin American dictatorships, US imperialism in Central America, the oppression of farmworkers, or the current exploitation of undocumented immigrants. Christianity has played a significant role in that movement at every stage. Robert Chao Romero, the son of a Mexican father and a Chinese immigrant mother, explores the history and theology of what he terms the "Brown Church." Romero considers how this movement has responded to these and other injustices throughout its history by appealing to the belief that God's vision for redemption includes not only heavenly promises but also the transformation of every aspect of our lives and the world. Walking through this history of activism and faith, readers will discover that Latina/o Christians have a heart after God's own.

Are you a "revolutionary"? Are you curious about exploring issues of race and social justice from a Christian perspective? This book by UCLA Professor and Pastor, Robert Chao Romero, is for you! Topics covered include: a biblical framework for understanding poverty, race, and gender; undocumented immigration; politics; affirmative action; mixed race issues; Christian social justice pioneers; and, an introduction to the Christian world of social justice and community development.

An estimated 60,000 Chinese entered Mexico during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, constituting Mexico's second-largest foreign ethnic community at the time. "The Chinese in Mexico" provides a social history of Chinese immigration to and settlement in Mexico in the context of the global Chinese diaspora of the era.

Robert Romero argues that Chinese immigrants turned to Mexico as a new land of economic opportunity after the passage of the U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. As a consequence of this legislation, Romero claims, Chinese immigrants journeyed to Mexico in order to gain illicit entry into the United States and in search of employment opportunities within Mexico's developing economy. Romero details the development, after 1882, of the "Chinese transnational commercial orbit," a network encompassing China, Latin America, Canada, and the Caribbean, shaped and traveled by entrepreneurial Chinese pursuing commercial opportunities in human smuggling, labor contracting, wholesale merchandising, and small-scale trade.

Romero's study is based on a wide array of Mexican and U.S. archival sources. It draws from such quantitative and qualitative sources as oral histories, census records, consular reports, INS interviews, and legal documents. Two sources, used for the first time in this kind of study, provide a comprehensive sociological and historical window into the lives of Chinese immigrants in Mexico during these years: the Chinese Exclusion Act case files of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and the 1930 Mexican municipal census manuscripts. From these documents, Romero crafts a vividly personal and compelling story of individual lives caught in an extensive network of early transnationalism.