Spencer Dew
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226647968
- eISBN:
- 9780226648156
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226648156.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines Aliite engagement with surveillance, from public performances of Aliite nationality through garb and parades to Aliite responses to the constant accusation that such performance ...
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This chapter examines Aliite engagement with surveillance, from public performances of Aliite nationality through garb and parades to Aliite responses to the constant accusation that such performance of identity is, in fact, a masquerade. Examining Aliite claims about and performance of true identity, this chapter draws a parallel between Aliite visual display and the practice of “masking” engaged in by Mardi Gras Indians before turning to Aliite understandings of and responses to the gaze of the state, from MSTA responses to investigations by federal law enforcement to Yamassee emphasis on use of public media to Washitaw faith in FBI surveillance as a path to state recognition. The chapter concludes with a note on Aliite investment in self-surveillance, on the use of cell phone cameras both to document displays of identity and as protection against state violence.Less
This chapter examines Aliite engagement with surveillance, from public performances of Aliite nationality through garb and parades to Aliite responses to the constant accusation that such performance of identity is, in fact, a masquerade. Examining Aliite claims about and performance of true identity, this chapter draws a parallel between Aliite visual display and the practice of “masking” engaged in by Mardi Gras Indians before turning to Aliite understandings of and responses to the gaze of the state, from MSTA responses to investigations by federal law enforcement to Yamassee emphasis on use of public media to Washitaw faith in FBI surveillance as a path to state recognition. The chapter concludes with a note on Aliite investment in self-surveillance, on the use of cell phone cameras both to document displays of identity and as protection against state violence.
Spencer Dew
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226647968
- eISBN:
- 9780226648156
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226648156.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Noble Drew Ali, leader of the Moorish Science Temple of America movement in the early twentieth-century, taught that "citizenship is salvation." This book examines the legacy of Ali's thoughts on ...
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Noble Drew Ali, leader of the Moorish Science Temple of America movement in the early twentieth-century, taught that "citizenship is salvation." This book examines the legacy of Ali's thoughts on citizenship, law, and race in the MSTA and two other Aliite religions, the Washitaw de Dugdahmoundyah and the Nuwaubian Yamassee movement. In all three African American religious movements, members insist on an identity other than "negro, black, or colored" as a way of insisting upon full citizenship as a status. Thinkers within these religions also reiterate Ali's claims about citizenship as a process, a work of "sacred duty" wherein, through activity ranging from voting to pro se legal performance, citizens contribute to the perfection of the world. Such claims not only respond to American racism in creative ways, they also advance an understanding of "law" as an eternal, metaphysical reality, divine, aligned with justice and truth. The work of citizenship, then, is aimed at aligning the unjust and oppressive legal system of the state with that of True Law.Less
Noble Drew Ali, leader of the Moorish Science Temple of America movement in the early twentieth-century, taught that "citizenship is salvation." This book examines the legacy of Ali's thoughts on citizenship, law, and race in the MSTA and two other Aliite religions, the Washitaw de Dugdahmoundyah and the Nuwaubian Yamassee movement. In all three African American religious movements, members insist on an identity other than "negro, black, or colored" as a way of insisting upon full citizenship as a status. Thinkers within these religions also reiterate Ali's claims about citizenship as a process, a work of "sacred duty" wherein, through activity ranging from voting to pro se legal performance, citizens contribute to the perfection of the world. Such claims not only respond to American racism in creative ways, they also advance an understanding of "law" as an eternal, metaphysical reality, divine, aligned with justice and truth. The work of citizenship, then, is aimed at aligning the unjust and oppressive legal system of the state with that of True Law.
Spencer Dew
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226647968
- eISBN:
- 9780226648156
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226648156.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines Aliite engagement with recognized sources of state authority and the ways Aliites court favor by claiming—and offering evidence of—past recognition by the state, from the ...
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This chapter examines Aliite engagement with recognized sources of state authority and the ways Aliites court favor by claiming—and offering evidence of—past recognition by the state, from the citation of the original MSTA's state registration paperwork as proof of endorsement of Ali's mission to the citation, by Washitaw, of an imagined Supreme Court precedent they call “the 1848 Supreme Court Case” “United States v. Henry Turner’s Heirs.” After consideration of Aliite emphasis on the Supreme Court’s actual decision in Dred Scott v. Stanford, which is widely read by Aliites as authorizing the ongoing legal exclusion of “negroes” from citizenship in the United States, the chapter concludes with a caution about describing Aliite use of legal texts as “magical” and consideration of how Aliite examples can contribute to contemporary academic criticism of the politics of recognition.Less
This chapter examines Aliite engagement with recognized sources of state authority and the ways Aliites court favor by claiming—and offering evidence of—past recognition by the state, from the citation of the original MSTA's state registration paperwork as proof of endorsement of Ali's mission to the citation, by Washitaw, of an imagined Supreme Court precedent they call “the 1848 Supreme Court Case” “United States v. Henry Turner’s Heirs.” After consideration of Aliite emphasis on the Supreme Court’s actual decision in Dred Scott v. Stanford, which is widely read by Aliites as authorizing the ongoing legal exclusion of “negroes” from citizenship in the United States, the chapter concludes with a caution about describing Aliite use of legal texts as “magical” and consideration of how Aliite examples can contribute to contemporary academic criticism of the politics of recognition.
