Glenn Bracey, PhD
Assistant Professor of Sociology | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Villanova University
- Villanova PA
Glenn Bracey, PhD, is an expert on race and social movements, race and the law and religion in contemporary society.
Media
Social
Areas of Expertise
Biography
Most recently, Dr. Bracey's research has focused on the complicated relationship between race and Christianity in the United States—and the challenges faced by people of color in congregations across the country. Applying a critical lens, he examines the harmful rhetoric and iconography to which Black, Latino and Asian churchgoers are often exposed, contributing to feelings of betrayal and, in many instances, crises of faith.
Select Media Appearances
Despite Multiracial Congregation Boom, Some Black Congregants Report Prejudice
Religion News Service
2021-04-28
Even as the percentage of multiracial churches has dramatically grown, particularly in Protestant churches, there remain divisions on how to address racial justice among Christians as well as a willingness to do so, says the report, titled "Beyond Diversity: What the Future of Racial Justice Will Require of U.S. Churches"... Glenn Bracey, a Black man and... co-principal investigator for the research, said in the report's introduction that the new study aims "to uplift the Church—not to shame it."
NFL Tells Players to Stand and Respect the Flag and National Anthem
NPR
2018-05-24
What does this decision [the NFL's requirement that players stand for the national anthem] mean for this whole social movement that Colin Kaepernick started... I asked a professor at Villanova, a sociology professor named Glenn Bracey, who's followed the story closely. He says, in the short term, the new policy will have a chilling effect because the power of the protests was in being public... not hidden away. And he thinks it now falls on the players to find creative ways to continue bringing attention to the issues.
NFL Owners to Meet, With Racial Divide on the Agenda
The Christian Science Monitor
2017-10-16
Team owners want Black players to stop kneeling during the playing of the national anthem, which has drawn the ire of the president, angered many fans and threatens to turn off sponsors and advertisers… "Unfortunately, this is not a unifying moment," Glenn Bracey, a Villanova University sociologist who studies racism and social movements, says in an email. "The NFL is prioritizing profit over Black people's lives and addressing racist policing."
Can the NFL Convince Players to Stop National Anthem Protests?
USA Today
2017-10-10
"Savvy viewers of the NFL's 'unity' efforts could see that owners were not protesting the same thing that many players were protesting. [Colin] Kaepernick and other players protested police brutality and racial injustice; owners protested President Trump making it more difficult for them to use Black players to make money," Glenn Bracey, a sociology professor at Villanova who specializes in racism and social movements, said via email. "In any case, President Trump and NFL owners' actions brought more attention to the core issue, which is racist policing."
How "Race Tests" Maintain Evangelical Segregation
Religion Dispatches
2017-05-17
Despite all that's occurred over the past 50 years in the culture more broadly, and all the Christian handwringing, American churches have remained largely segregated. And, while many have sought more benign explanations, others have spoken for quite some time, albeit in hushed voices, about the racial gatekeeping that persists in much of white Christian America... In a recent study called "'Race Tests': Racial Boundary Maintenance in White Evangelical Churches," published by Sociological Inquiry, researchers Glenn E. Bracey II and Wendy Leo Moore sought to reveal how evangelical religious organizations, many of which claim to be open, remain so heavily segregated.
In "Handmaid's Tale," a Post-Racial, Patriarchal Hellscape
Andscape
2017-04-26
So, Gilead [the setting of "Handmaid's Tale"] is post-racial because the human race is facing extinction, and that prompted Americans to get over several hundred years' worth of racist education and social conditioning that depicted Black people as inferior and less than human?... Recent findings from researchers at Villanova and Texas A&M suggest that's highly unlikely. Glenn E. Bracey II and Wendy Leo Moore found that white evangelical Protestant churches subjected Black parishioners to "race tests" and would push them out if they were found wanting.
Select Academic Articles
Beyond Movements: The Ontology of Black Lives Matter
Mobilization: An International QuarterlyGlenn E. Bracey
2021
"Race Tests": Racial Boundary Maintenance in White Evangelical Churches
Sociological InquiryGlenn E. Bracey, Wendy Leo Moore
2017
Black Movements Need Black Theorizing: Exposing Implicit Whiteness in Political Process Theory
Sociological FocusGlenn E. Bracey
2016
