“You Can’t Just Give People Food”: Whiteness in Practice at an Evangelical Food Pantry

Abstract

Whiteness continues to be a focus of scholarly research particularly as it informs understandings of white evangelical religious structures, organizations, and practices. This study draws on 34 months of ethnographic study to present a case study of an evangelical food pantry in central Texas and analyzes the policies, roles, and norms of the volunteers. The findings document examples of white, conservative, evangelical religious practices that promote the meaning–making and worldviews of evangelical volunteers while erasing and disempowering the recipients. Taken together, these findings add to our understanding of whiteness, which is already evidenced at the structural level by documenting examples of everyday practices in public spaces that promote racialized hierarchies.