White-Washing History: A Theatrical Habit

Rather than a true Christmas movie (like we’ve screened in the past), this year the Anti-Racist Film Club watched Sister Act (1992) as our final feature for 2025. Since we’ve already covered many holiday films starring and made by People of Color, this December we chose a nostalgic, family-appropriate comedy to bring our community together in the dark of Winter. Of course, the lighter material wasn’t devoid of an important lesson. 

As we rapidly approach Christmas Eve in just a few short weeks, I’m reminded of  the way the Nativity story is presented in mainstream media. I work in church communications so I know from personal experience that it’s often difficult to separate images of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph from their prolific white-washing. For centuries, the largely Eurocentric Christian church has depicted its holy family with light skin—despite the fact that both Bethlehem and Nazareth are located in the Ancient Near East. Historically, we know Jesus and his mother had brown skin. Yet, most public domain images of the holy family show a blonde baby boy. Of course, there are resources that depict them as Black, Brown, or racially ambiguous (such as the beautiful icons created by Kelly Latimore). But, often inclusive imagery is not only seen as subversive… and also locked behind a pay wall. 

As part of our discussion on Sister Act, our club learned that stage productions of the musical will occasionally cast a white actress as Deloris Van Cartier (originally played by Whoopi Goldberg in the film). After all, race is never specifically addressed in the text and arguably doesn’t play a major thematic role compared to economic class and religion. Is this erasure of a Black role… or simply a regional adaptation? To complicate the conversation, we were reminded that the character of Deloris was first written with Bette Midler—a white, Jewish actress— in mind for the role of our favorite lounge singer turned undercover nun. In fact, the writer of the film was so displeased with the recasting that he asked to be credited under a pseudonym. So, would a white woman in this role still be offensive if the source material was already written with seemingly, racially-blind casting?

Our club discussion ultimately decided that yes—because there are a minority of roles for People of Color in the world of commercial theatre and the cultural understanding of this character is of a Black actress—it would be inappropriate to cast someone from the dominant culture instead. Moreover, the production inherently has more to say by displacing a Black person into a traditionally hierarchical and racist system such as the Catholic Church. In her research for the discussion, Pastor Heather discovered a book called, Subversive Habits : Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African-American Freedom Struggle by Shannen Dee Williams. This book dove into the history of Black women in convents and the difficulties they faced at the intersections between racism, misogyny, and religious structure. Many participants in the discussion were not only surprised that this book existed… but that there was a history of Black nuns to research. Like white-washed images of Nativity, the Catholic Church has been depicted so often as a uniformly white organization, the suggestion that there have historically been Nuns of Color is considered “subversive.”

This is why seeking to highlight representation is an important tenant of our shared anti-racist journey. If we erase the impact of Black and Brown people from our history books, then we ignore a series of basic truths: Baby Jesus was never blonde; his mother was a Jewish woman from the Ancient Near East; and Black nuns have been present in the Catholic church for much longer than a comedy film from the 90’s. 

This Christmas, as you gather with your own friends and family, try to remember that our faith is grounded in People of Color—both at the center of the Nativity and through countless contributions over the thousands of years we’ve celebrated this Holy day.