Michael O. Emerson and George Yancey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199742684
- eISBN:
- 9780199943388
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199742684.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Despite recent progress against racial inequalities, American society continues to produce attitudes and outcomes that reinforce the racial divide. This book offers a fresh perspective on how to ...
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Despite recent progress against racial inequalities, American society continues to produce attitudes and outcomes that reinforce the racial divide. This book offers a fresh perspective on how to combat racial division. The chapters document the historical move from white supremacy to institutional racism, and then look at modern efforts to overcome the racialized nature of our society. They argue that both conservative and progressive approaches have failed, as they continually fall victim to forces of ethnocentrism and group interest. They then explore group interest and possible ways to account for the perspectives of both majority and minority group members. They also look to multiracial congregations, multiracial families, the military, and sports teams—all situations in which group interests have been overcome before. In each context they find the development of a core set of values that binds together different racial groups, along with the flexibility to express racially-based cultural uniqueness that does not conflict with this critical core. The book offers what is at once a balanced approach towards dealing with racial alienation and a bold step forward in the debate about the steps necessary to overcome present-day racism.Less
Despite recent progress against racial inequalities, American society continues to produce attitudes and outcomes that reinforce the racial divide. This book offers a fresh perspective on how to combat racial division. The chapters document the historical move from white supremacy to institutional racism, and then look at modern efforts to overcome the racialized nature of our society. They argue that both conservative and progressive approaches have failed, as they continually fall victim to forces of ethnocentrism and group interest. They then explore group interest and possible ways to account for the perspectives of both majority and minority group members. They also look to multiracial congregations, multiracial families, the military, and sports teams—all situations in which group interests have been overcome before. In each context they find the development of a core set of values that binds together different racial groups, along with the flexibility to express racially-based cultural uniqueness that does not conflict with this critical core. The book offers what is at once a balanced approach towards dealing with racial alienation and a bold step forward in the debate about the steps necessary to overcome present-day racism.
Robert Mickey
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691133386
- eISBN:
- 9781400838783
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691133386.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter examines the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Smith v. Allwright that challenged the restriction on suffrage: it invalidated the all-white Democratic primary and struck at the heart of ...
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This chapter examines the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Smith v. Allwright that challenged the restriction on suffrage: it invalidated the all-white Democratic primary and struck at the heart of southern politics—one-party rule based on white supremacy. It first considers the Supreme Court's challenge to the white primary in relation to rulers' dilemmas, opportunities, and options before discussing narratives of enclave experiences with the white primary challenge in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Georgia. It then compares outer South and Deep South responses to Smith, showing that Georgia and South Carolina featured more impressive black mobilizations than Mississippi. However, the consequences of these episodes were not driven solely by such forces as economic development or black protest infrastructure. Rather, given different configurations of intraparty conflict, party–state institutions, and levels of black insurgency, Smith and the responses it invoked had different consequences for each enclave.Less
This chapter examines the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Smith v. Allwright that challenged the restriction on suffrage: it invalidated the all-white Democratic primary and struck at the heart of southern politics—one-party rule based on white supremacy. It first considers the Supreme Court's challenge to the white primary in relation to rulers' dilemmas, opportunities, and options before discussing narratives of enclave experiences with the white primary challenge in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Georgia. It then compares outer South and Deep South responses to Smith, showing that Georgia and South Carolina featured more impressive black mobilizations than Mississippi. However, the consequences of these episodes were not driven solely by such forces as economic development or black protest infrastructure. Rather, given different configurations of intraparty conflict, party–state institutions, and levels of black insurgency, Smith and the responses it invoked had different consequences for each enclave.
Elizabeth Gillespie McRae
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195177862
- eISBN:
- 9780199870189
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177862.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter draws on traditional constructions of maternal responsibilities in constructing a public role as defender of white supremacy. It argues that women had a duty to campaign against racial ...
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This chapter draws on traditional constructions of maternal responsibilities in constructing a public role as defender of white supremacy. It argues that women had a duty to campaign against racial integration in order to protect the welfare of current and future generations of white southerners. It notes that this increased public activism on the part of white southern women was by implication a criticism of the incompetence of the male power structure. It shows that white women served more than a rhetorical purpose for the segregationist cause as passive victims in need of male protection.Less
This chapter draws on traditional constructions of maternal responsibilities in constructing a public role as defender of white supremacy. It argues that women had a duty to campaign against racial integration in order to protect the welfare of current and future generations of white southerners. It notes that this increased public activism on the part of white southern women was by implication a criticism of the incompetence of the male power structure. It shows that white women served more than a rhetorical purpose for the segregationist cause as passive victims in need of male protection.
Michael O. Emerson and George Yancey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199742684
- eISBN:
- 9780199943388
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199742684.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Race relations in the United States cannot be understood by looking at our contemporary racial situation. Few individuals will dispute the fact that issues of race have had profound effects in our ...
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Race relations in the United States cannot be understood by looking at our contemporary racial situation. Few individuals will dispute the fact that issues of race have had profound effects in our society historically. Even a cursory look at our past reveals issues of slavery, extermination, labor abuse, and discrimination that are inexorably linked to our racialized society. Political and legal reforms have reduced the effects of this overt type of white supremacy, but the results of historical racism continue to affect the present. This chapter briefly examines the historical establishment of racial alienation and then looks at the development of white supremacy. It explores how this overt form of racism eventually morphed into the indirect institutional racism we see today. The chapter also discusses theories of contemporary racism that attempt to explain society's transition from the problems connected to overt racism to the issues produced in modern racialization. Finally, it illustrates how these modern forms of racialization continue to affect society.Less
Race relations in the United States cannot be understood by looking at our contemporary racial situation. Few individuals will dispute the fact that issues of race have had profound effects in our society historically. Even a cursory look at our past reveals issues of slavery, extermination, labor abuse, and discrimination that are inexorably linked to our racialized society. Political and legal reforms have reduced the effects of this overt type of white supremacy, but the results of historical racism continue to affect the present. This chapter briefly examines the historical establishment of racial alienation and then looks at the development of white supremacy. It explores how this overt form of racism eventually morphed into the indirect institutional racism we see today. The chapter also discusses theories of contemporary racism that attempt to explain society's transition from the problems connected to overt racism to the issues produced in modern racialization. Finally, it illustrates how these modern forms of racialization continue to affect society.
Leah Gaskin Fitchue and Ebony Joy Fitchue
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462005
- eISBN:
- 9781626745094
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462005.003.0009
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
James Cone’s book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, provides a reminder that it is impossible to live the lie of white supremacy and simultaneously live the truth of the cross. The argument of the ...
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James Cone’s book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, provides a reminder that it is impossible to live the lie of white supremacy and simultaneously live the truth of the cross. The argument of the current chapter is that the tragedy of American white supremacy is not only a destructive hatred of African Americans (Blacks) but also the self-destructive effects on whites living in the lie of their white supremacist attitudes. When these persons accept Cone’s invitation for confession, they will engage a newfound freedom, allowing them to shed the lie and the shackles of white supremacy and the need to hate blacks. Only at this point will these persons, who now love instead of hate, move toward closing the gap between white and black and share as brothers and sisters of the Gospel in the transformative beauty of community to which all are entitled.Less
James Cone’s book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, provides a reminder that it is impossible to live the lie of white supremacy and simultaneously live the truth of the cross. The argument of the current chapter is that the tragedy of American white supremacy is not only a destructive hatred of African Americans (Blacks) but also the self-destructive effects on whites living in the lie of their white supremacist attitudes. When these persons accept Cone’s invitation for confession, they will engage a newfound freedom, allowing them to shed the lie and the shackles of white supremacy and the need to hate blacks. Only at this point will these persons, who now love instead of hate, move toward closing the gap between white and black and share as brothers and sisters of the Gospel in the transformative beauty of community to which all are entitled.
Sandra Gunning
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195099904
- eISBN:
- 9780199855100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195099904.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
The chapter discusses responses of African Americans and American whites to the racialized and gendered discursive patterns of nineteenth-century white supremacist fiction. The author focuses on how ...
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The chapter discusses responses of African Americans and American whites to the racialized and gendered discursive patterns of nineteenth-century white supremacist fiction. The author focuses on how two novels can easily be read in opposition to white supremacist fiction—namely, Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) and Charles W. Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition (1901). Both argue in their respective novels that black/white sexual contact was a custom long upheld by whites themselves and that the real cause of violence along the color line was the white struggle to determine the rights of citizens according to race. Twain's novel embodies a struggle between black and white families and it is on the terrain of race and family that Pudd'nhead Wilson loses its battle with white supremacy over the structuring of American racial identity, property ownership, and civil rights. In the process, Twain reaches for metaphors of malignant blackness similar to those subsequently developed and exploited by Thomas Dixon. Chesnutt's novel articulates a plot that depends on the metaphor of twinning as a means of exploring regional and racial discrimination. It was written with a view to reforming black social conditions by addressing white racial attitudes. Both Pudd'nhead Wilson and The Marrow of Tradition offer radical and complex indictments of post-Reconstruction white supremacy, using the very terms that radical racists erected for their arguments. As members of a politically and racially diverse triptuch, Dixon, Twain, and Chesnutt are engaged in a fierce struggle to define black/white male heroism, and thus exemplify a traditional disclosure on lynching centered around figurations of black or white male criminality.Less
The chapter discusses responses of African Americans and American whites to the racialized and gendered discursive patterns of nineteenth-century white supremacist fiction. The author focuses on how two novels can easily be read in opposition to white supremacist fiction—namely, Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) and Charles W. Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition (1901). Both argue in their respective novels that black/white sexual contact was a custom long upheld by whites themselves and that the real cause of violence along the color line was the white struggle to determine the rights of citizens according to race. Twain's novel embodies a struggle between black and white families and it is on the terrain of race and family that Pudd'nhead Wilson loses its battle with white supremacy over the structuring of American racial identity, property ownership, and civil rights. In the process, Twain reaches for metaphors of malignant blackness similar to those subsequently developed and exploited by Thomas Dixon. Chesnutt's novel articulates a plot that depends on the metaphor of twinning as a means of exploring regional and racial discrimination. It was written with a view to reforming black social conditions by addressing white racial attitudes. Both Pudd'nhead Wilson and The Marrow of Tradition offer radical and complex indictments of post-Reconstruction white supremacy, using the very terms that radical racists erected for their arguments. As members of a politically and racially diverse triptuch, Dixon, Twain, and Chesnutt are engaged in a fierce struggle to define black/white male heroism, and thus exemplify a traditional disclosure on lynching centered around figurations of black or white male criminality.
Sandra Gunning
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195099904
- eISBN:
- 9780199855100
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195099904.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
In the late nineteenth century, the stereotype of the black male as sexual beast functioned for white supremacists as an externalized symbol of social chaos against which all whites would unite for ...
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In the late nineteenth century, the stereotype of the black male as sexual beast functioned for white supremacists as an externalized symbol of social chaos against which all whites would unite for the purpose of national renewal. The emergence of this stereotype in American culture and literature during and after Reconstruction was related to the growth of white-on-black violence, as white lynch mobs acted in “defence” of white womanhood, the white family, and white nationalism. This book investigates American literary encounters with the conditions, processes, and consequences of such violence through the representation of not just the black rapist stereotype, but of other crucial stereotypes in mediating moments of white social crisis: “lascivious” black womanhood; avenging white masculinity; and passive white femininity. The author argues that these figures together signify the tangle of race and gender representation emerging from turn-of-the-century American literature. The book brings together Charles W. Chestnutt, Kate Chopin, Thomas Dixon, David Bryant Fulton, Pauline Hopkins, Mark Twain, and Ida B. Wells: famous, infamous, or long-neglected figures who produced novels, essays, stories, and pamphlets in the volatile period of the 1890s to the early 1900s, and who contributed to the continual renegotiation and redefinition of the terms and boundaries of a national dialogue on racial violence.Less
In the late nineteenth century, the stereotype of the black male as sexual beast functioned for white supremacists as an externalized symbol of social chaos against which all whites would unite for the purpose of national renewal. The emergence of this stereotype in American culture and literature during and after Reconstruction was related to the growth of white-on-black violence, as white lynch mobs acted in “defence” of white womanhood, the white family, and white nationalism. This book investigates American literary encounters with the conditions, processes, and consequences of such violence through the representation of not just the black rapist stereotype, but of other crucial stereotypes in mediating moments of white social crisis: “lascivious” black womanhood; avenging white masculinity; and passive white femininity. The author argues that these figures together signify the tangle of race and gender representation emerging from turn-of-the-century American literature. The book brings together Charles W. Chestnutt, Kate Chopin, Thomas Dixon, David Bryant Fulton, Pauline Hopkins, Mark Twain, and Ida B. Wells: famous, infamous, or long-neglected figures who produced novels, essays, stories, and pamphlets in the volatile period of the 1890s to the early 1900s, and who contributed to the continual renegotiation and redefinition of the terms and boundaries of a national dialogue on racial violence.
Richard T. Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042065
- eISBN:
- 9780252050800
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042065.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
The Great American Myths are the commonly accepted stories that, along with the American Creed, convey to most Americans the meaning of their nation. The first edition of Myths America Lives By ...
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The Great American Myths are the commonly accepted stories that, along with the American Creed, convey to most Americans the meaning of their nation. The first edition of Myths America Lives By identified five of those myths: the Chosen Nation, Nature’s Nation, the Christian Nation, the Millennial Nation, and the Innocent Nation. The second edition adds a sixth: the myth of White Supremacy. This chapter introduces the two primary arguments of this book—first, that the myth of White Supremacy is the primal American myth that informs all the others and, second, that one of the chief functions of the other five myths is to protect and obscure the myth of White Supremacy and assure us that we remain innocent after all. Most blacks understand that white supremacy is the primal American myth since they live with its real-life consequences. But those in positions of power are not forced to live with the consequences of this myth. As a result, for most American whites the myth of White Supremacy is like the air they breathe: it envelops and shapes them but does so in ways they seldom discern.Less
The Great American Myths are the commonly accepted stories that, along with the American Creed, convey to most Americans the meaning of their nation. The first edition of Myths America Lives By identified five of those myths: the Chosen Nation, Nature’s Nation, the Christian Nation, the Millennial Nation, and the Innocent Nation. The second edition adds a sixth: the myth of White Supremacy. This chapter introduces the two primary arguments of this book—first, that the myth of White Supremacy is the primal American myth that informs all the others and, second, that one of the chief functions of the other five myths is to protect and obscure the myth of White Supremacy and assure us that we remain innocent after all. Most blacks understand that white supremacy is the primal American myth since they live with its real-life consequences. But those in positions of power are not forced to live with the consequences of this myth. As a result, for most American whites the myth of White Supremacy is like the air they breathe: it envelops and shapes them but does so in ways they seldom discern.
J. Mills Thornton III
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195382419
- eISBN:
- 9780199932641
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195382419.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter considers the impact of war on southern communities. Because the lived experience of the Alabama countryside was intensely local, few of the changes in national government actually ...
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This chapter considers the impact of war on southern communities. Because the lived experience of the Alabama countryside was intensely local, few of the changes in national government actually affected their daily lives. Conditions at the local level witnessed little, if any, change prompted by the new national discussion on citizenship and rights. They instead took direction from more immediate sources. While cities tended to implement a codified system of segregation by statute, rural areas instead relied on an informal system of white supremacy rooted in local economic dependencies. Thus, even seemingly abrupt changes in racial policies in successive state administrations during the course of the war did not affect race relations at the local level. Direct challenges to white supremacy would come slowly to Alabama, through longer term economic and demographic trends rather than the short term impact of war. And when challenges did come, they would be shaped by the peculiar circumstances of individual towns and counties, and not simply be a response to a state or regional movement.Less
This chapter considers the impact of war on southern communities. Because the lived experience of the Alabama countryside was intensely local, few of the changes in national government actually affected their daily lives. Conditions at the local level witnessed little, if any, change prompted by the new national discussion on citizenship and rights. They instead took direction from more immediate sources. While cities tended to implement a codified system of segregation by statute, rural areas instead relied on an informal system of white supremacy rooted in local economic dependencies. Thus, even seemingly abrupt changes in racial policies in successive state administrations during the course of the war did not affect race relations at the local level. Direct challenges to white supremacy would come slowly to Alabama, through longer term economic and demographic trends rather than the short term impact of war. And when challenges did come, they would be shaped by the peculiar circumstances of individual towns and counties, and not simply be a response to a state or regional movement.
Dell Upton
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300211757
- eISBN:
- 9780300216615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300211757.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines the tradition of dual heritage that has enjoyed a resurgence in the aftermath of the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. In the years following the Civil War, ...
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This chapter examines the tradition of dual heritage that has enjoyed a resurgence in the aftermath of the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. In the years following the Civil War, ex-Confederates compared their own relatively minor political disabilities to the liberties enjoyed by newly emancipated African Americans, who openly flaunted their freedom and even paraded bearing arms to stress their military role in the Union victory and exult in the South's defeat. Most white Southerners eventually accepted emancipation in the context of an unwavering belief in white supremacy and in their own right to set the terms of political and social engagement. This chapter considers the continuing political power of white supremacist symbols and how it restrains expression in the new African American memorials that were erected in the South after the Civil War, including the Confederate Memorial Monument in Montgomery, Alabama.Less
This chapter examines the tradition of dual heritage that has enjoyed a resurgence in the aftermath of the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. In the years following the Civil War, ex-Confederates compared their own relatively minor political disabilities to the liberties enjoyed by newly emancipated African Americans, who openly flaunted their freedom and even paraded bearing arms to stress their military role in the Union victory and exult in the South's defeat. Most white Southerners eventually accepted emancipation in the context of an unwavering belief in white supremacy and in their own right to set the terms of political and social engagement. This chapter considers the continuing political power of white supremacist symbols and how it restrains expression in the new African American memorials that were erected in the South after the Civil War, including the Confederate Memorial Monument in Montgomery, Alabama.
Janet G. Hudson
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813125022
- eISBN:
- 9780813135182
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813125022.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Although the white reformers embraced the various economic opportunities that were presented to them through the mobilization of the nation after the war, these opportunities also brought about ...
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Although the white reformers embraced the various economic opportunities that were presented to them through the mobilization of the nation after the war, these opportunities also brought about instability to the white supremacy. Also, the federal government's intervention on several different local issues affected how the whites dominated the then current racial relationships. In spite of experiencing disfranchisement and segregation, the black reformers served as agents of change and were able to attain the required leverage during wartime for posing threats to white supremacy. This chapter describes how the postwar black migration initiated various opportunities for the black Carolinians outside the south and somehow jeopardized the economic control scheme of the whites. The migration generally served as a means for the blacks to escape white control.Less
Although the white reformers embraced the various economic opportunities that were presented to them through the mobilization of the nation after the war, these opportunities also brought about instability to the white supremacy. Also, the federal government's intervention on several different local issues affected how the whites dominated the then current racial relationships. In spite of experiencing disfranchisement and segregation, the black reformers served as agents of change and were able to attain the required leverage during wartime for posing threats to white supremacy. This chapter describes how the postwar black migration initiated various opportunities for the black Carolinians outside the south and somehow jeopardized the economic control scheme of the whites. The migration generally served as a means for the blacks to escape white control.
Robert Mickey
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691133386
- eISBN:
- 9781400838783
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691133386.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter examines how the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education sparked a crisis over the desegregation of Clemson College in South Carolina. Prior to Brown, South Carolina's ...
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This chapter examines how the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education sparked a crisis over the desegregation of Clemson College in South Carolina. Prior to Brown, South Carolina's rulers sought to preempt the invalidation of state-mandated segregation by improving black education. After the ruling, they launched a strategy of massive resistance: decrying, deterring, and deferring threats to white supremacy in the public sphere. The chapter first reviews the state of black education before Brown and South Carolina's attempts to preempt the decision. It then considers the state's responses to Brown in the 1950s and early 1960s, showing that its leaders attacked both white civil society and black protest organizations. It also describes how the state bolstered its institutional resources to manage democratization pressures and concludes with an assessment of how politicians capitalized on ruling party cohesion and an improved coercive apparatus to navigate the Clemson crisis.Less
This chapter examines how the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education sparked a crisis over the desegregation of Clemson College in South Carolina. Prior to Brown, South Carolina's rulers sought to preempt the invalidation of state-mandated segregation by improving black education. After the ruling, they launched a strategy of massive resistance: decrying, deterring, and deferring threats to white supremacy in the public sphere. The chapter first reviews the state of black education before Brown and South Carolina's attempts to preempt the decision. It then considers the state's responses to Brown in the 1950s and early 1960s, showing that its leaders attacked both white civil society and black protest organizations. It also describes how the state bolstered its institutional resources to manage democratization pressures and concludes with an assessment of how politicians capitalized on ruling party cohesion and an improved coercive apparatus to navigate the Clemson crisis.
Sherman A. Jackson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195180817
- eISBN:
- 9780199850259
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195180817.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This book offers a trenchant examination of the career of Islam among the blacks of America. No one has offered a convincing explanation of why Islam spread among Blackamericans (a coinage he ...
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This book offers a trenchant examination of the career of Islam among the blacks of America. No one has offered a convincing explanation of why Islam spread among Blackamericans (a coinage he explains and defends) but not among white Americans or Hispanics. The assumption has been that there is an African connection. In fact, the book shows, none of the distinctive features of African Islam appear in the proto-Islamic, black nationalist movements of the early 20th century. Rather, Islam owes its momentum to the distinctively American phenomenon of “Black Religion,” a God-centered holy protest against anti-black racism. This book begins as part of a communal search for tools with which to combat racism and redefine American blackness. The 1965 repeal of the National Origins Quota System led to a massive influx of foreign Muslims, who soon greatly outnumbered the blacks whom they found here practicing an indigenous form of Islam. Immigrant Muslims would come to exercise a virtual monopoly over the definition of a properly constituted Islamic life in America. For these Muslims, the nemesis was not white supremacy, but “the West”. In their eyes, the West was not a racial, but a religious and civilizational threat. American blacks soon learned that opposition to the West and opposition to white supremacy were not synonymous. Indeed, states the book, one cannot be anti-Western without also being on some level anti-Blackamerican. Like the Black Christians of an earlier era struggling to find their voice in the context of Western Christianity, Black Muslims now began to strive to find their black, American voice in the context of the super-tradition of historical Islam. The book argues that Muslim tradition itself contains the resources to reconcile blackness, American-ness, and adherence to Islam.Less
This book offers a trenchant examination of the career of Islam among the blacks of America. No one has offered a convincing explanation of why Islam spread among Blackamericans (a coinage he explains and defends) but not among white Americans or Hispanics. The assumption has been that there is an African connection. In fact, the book shows, none of the distinctive features of African Islam appear in the proto-Islamic, black nationalist movements of the early 20th century. Rather, Islam owes its momentum to the distinctively American phenomenon of “Black Religion,” a God-centered holy protest against anti-black racism. This book begins as part of a communal search for tools with which to combat racism and redefine American blackness. The 1965 repeal of the National Origins Quota System led to a massive influx of foreign Muslims, who soon greatly outnumbered the blacks whom they found here practicing an indigenous form of Islam. Immigrant Muslims would come to exercise a virtual monopoly over the definition of a properly constituted Islamic life in America. For these Muslims, the nemesis was not white supremacy, but “the West”. In their eyes, the West was not a racial, but a religious and civilizational threat. American blacks soon learned that opposition to the West and opposition to white supremacy were not synonymous. Indeed, states the book, one cannot be anti-Western without also being on some level anti-Blackamerican. Like the Black Christians of an earlier era struggling to find their voice in the context of Western Christianity, Black Muslims now began to strive to find their black, American voice in the context of the super-tradition of historical Islam. The book argues that Muslim tradition itself contains the resources to reconcile blackness, American-ness, and adherence to Islam.
Richard T. Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042065
- eISBN:
- 9780252050800
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042065.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
The first edition of Myths America Lives By explores five Great American Myths—the Chosen Nation, Nature’s Nation, the Christian Nation, the Millennial Nation, and the Innocent Nation. This revised ...
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The first edition of Myths America Lives By explores five Great American Myths—the Chosen Nation, Nature’s Nation, the Christian Nation, the Millennial Nation, and the Innocent Nation. This revised edition introduces a sixth myth—the myth of White Supremacy—and argues, first, that the myth of white supremacy is the primal American myth that informs all the others and, second, that one of the chief functions of the other five myths is to protect and obscure the myth of white supremacy, to hide it from our awareness, and to assure us that we remain innocent after all. With one chapter devoted to each of the myths, the book relies especially on the voices of black Americans to help readers understand the pervasive power of white supremacy in American life and culture and how white supremacy translates into systemic racism, on the one hand, and white privilege, on the other. The book also explores how manifest destiny, the American dream, and capitalism have depended on the Great American Myths for their viability in American culture.Less
The first edition of Myths America Lives By explores five Great American Myths—the Chosen Nation, Nature’s Nation, the Christian Nation, the Millennial Nation, and the Innocent Nation. This revised edition introduces a sixth myth—the myth of White Supremacy—and argues, first, that the myth of white supremacy is the primal American myth that informs all the others and, second, that one of the chief functions of the other five myths is to protect and obscure the myth of white supremacy, to hide it from our awareness, and to assure us that we remain innocent after all. With one chapter devoted to each of the myths, the book relies especially on the voices of black Americans to help readers understand the pervasive power of white supremacy in American life and culture and how white supremacy translates into systemic racism, on the one hand, and white privilege, on the other. The book also explores how manifest destiny, the American dream, and capitalism have depended on the Great American Myths for their viability in American culture.
Janet G. Hudson
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813125022
- eISBN:
- 9780813135182
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813125022.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Knowing how a story ends in advance greatly affects one's perceptions or imagination. As such, certain characters are often taken for granted and some of the significant actions may be undervalued or ...
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Knowing how a story ends in advance greatly affects one's perceptions or imagination. As such, certain characters are often taken for granted and some of the significant actions may be undervalued or may even go unnoticed. Interpreting based on a known conclusion may result in less appreciation of the story and its corresponding insights, and even a misunderstanding of the context of the whole. In this book, the aim is to examine an historical narrative whose outcome is already well-known, and look into some of the possibilities that were initially considered but were not able to be fostered. The book focuses mainly on coming up with a better understanding of what both the black and white World War I-era South Carolina reformers expected since the whites originally dominated, particularly during the period between 1914 and 1924.Less
Knowing how a story ends in advance greatly affects one's perceptions or imagination. As such, certain characters are often taken for granted and some of the significant actions may be undervalued or may even go unnoticed. Interpreting based on a known conclusion may result in less appreciation of the story and its corresponding insights, and even a misunderstanding of the context of the whole. In this book, the aim is to examine an historical narrative whose outcome is already well-known, and look into some of the possibilities that were initially considered but were not able to be fostered. The book focuses mainly on coming up with a better understanding of what both the black and white World War I-era South Carolina reformers expected since the whites originally dominated, particularly during the period between 1914 and 1924.
Carol A. Horton
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195143485
- eISBN:
- 9780199850402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195143485.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter examines the highly influential position of Darwinian liberalism, which argued in favor of a minimalist conception of black citizenship rights. This position, however, was coupled with ...
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This chapter examines the highly influential position of Darwinian liberalism, which argued in favor of a minimalist conception of black citizenship rights. This position, however, was coupled with an insistence that equal rights could not and should not be expected to produce “social equality” between the races. In the context of a free-market order, Darwinian liberals claimed, the innate superiority of the white race ensured that it would forever dominate the black. The fact that this insistence on racial hierarchy was linked to a commitment to a minimal standard of black rights made it a politically moderate position in the context of the 1870s. By the turn of the century, however, this commitment had largely eroded, as Darwinian liberals forged an even more exclusive conception of white supremacy in reaction to the labor and agrarian movements of the 1880s–90s. In the context of late 19th-century America, providing the most minimal rights to African Americans remained controversial, even when accompanied by assurances of eternal white domination and racial hierarchy.Less
This chapter examines the highly influential position of Darwinian liberalism, which argued in favor of a minimalist conception of black citizenship rights. This position, however, was coupled with an insistence that equal rights could not and should not be expected to produce “social equality” between the races. In the context of a free-market order, Darwinian liberals claimed, the innate superiority of the white race ensured that it would forever dominate the black. The fact that this insistence on racial hierarchy was linked to a commitment to a minimal standard of black rights made it a politically moderate position in the context of the 1870s. By the turn of the century, however, this commitment had largely eroded, as Darwinian liberals forged an even more exclusive conception of white supremacy in reaction to the labor and agrarian movements of the 1880s–90s. In the context of late 19th-century America, providing the most minimal rights to African Americans remained controversial, even when accompanied by assurances of eternal white domination and racial hierarchy.
FRANCISCO BETHENCOURT
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265246
- eISBN:
- 9780191754197
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265246.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
This Introduction explains both the origins of this book, in a conference held at King's College London in 2009, and the questions that structure it, pointing out historical continuities and ...
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This Introduction explains both the origins of this book, in a conference held at King's College London in 2009, and the questions that structure it, pointing out historical continuities and discontinuities, tensions between taxonomy and practice, historical visions (from Hegel to Humboldt, Freyre to Boxer) and recent angles of analysis.Less
This Introduction explains both the origins of this book, in a conference held at King's College London in 2009, and the questions that structure it, pointing out historical continuities and discontinuities, tensions between taxonomy and practice, historical visions (from Hegel to Humboldt, Freyre to Boxer) and recent angles of analysis.
Janet G. Hudson
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813125022
- eISBN:
- 9780813135182
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813125022.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This book analyzes World War I-era South Carolina, a state whose white minority maintained political power by rigidly enforcing white supremacy over an African American majority. Considering the ...
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This book analyzes World War I-era South Carolina, a state whose white minority maintained political power by rigidly enforcing white supremacy over an African American majority. Considering the aspirations and actions of both black and white reformers, the book looks at the influence of a multifaceted ideology of white supremacy that became a barrier to the region's progress. Detailing African American resistance to white supremacy long before the Civil Rights era, the book illuminates the critical nature of South Carolina to the civil rights movement.Less
This book analyzes World War I-era South Carolina, a state whose white minority maintained political power by rigidly enforcing white supremacy over an African American majority. Considering the aspirations and actions of both black and white reformers, the book looks at the influence of a multifaceted ideology of white supremacy that became a barrier to the region's progress. Detailing African American resistance to white supremacy long before the Civil Rights era, the book illuminates the critical nature of South Carolina to the civil rights movement.
Donal Lowry
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199297672
- eISBN:
- 9780191594335
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199297672.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
The Natalians established a tightly knit society in Natal, similar to British settlements elsewhere in the empire. Predominantly English and middle‐class and imbued with concepts of white racial and ...
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The Natalians established a tightly knit society in Natal, similar to British settlements elsewhere in the empire. Predominantly English and middle‐class and imbued with concepts of white racial and cultural supremacy, their sense of identity was informed by Britishness. Although outnumbered by Zulus, the Natalians dominated the colony, receiving responsible government in 1893. From 1910, Natal was a province of the Union of South Africa and until 1961 the Natalians fought unsuccessfully to protect themselves and their British heritage from Afrikaner domination. Increasingly defined by what they were against rather than what they were, they developed into an idiosyncratic, separatist and impotent community with their identity defined by their province. With the advent of democracy in 1994, the Natalians lost political control of the province, undermining their sense of identity. Yet, unlike other British communities in this volume, few Natalians have gone into exile, reflecting deep roots sunk in Natal's soil.Less
The Natalians established a tightly knit society in Natal, similar to British settlements elsewhere in the empire. Predominantly English and middle‐class and imbued with concepts of white racial and cultural supremacy, their sense of identity was informed by Britishness. Although outnumbered by Zulus, the Natalians dominated the colony, receiving responsible government in 1893. From 1910, Natal was a province of the Union of South Africa and until 1961 the Natalians fought unsuccessfully to protect themselves and their British heritage from Afrikaner domination. Increasingly defined by what they were against rather than what they were, they developed into an idiosyncratic, separatist and impotent community with their identity defined by their province. With the advent of democracy in 1994, the Natalians lost political control of the province, undermining their sense of identity. Yet, unlike other British communities in this volume, few Natalians have gone into exile, reflecting deep roots sunk in Natal's soil.
Joseph Cheah
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199756285
- eISBN:
- 9780199918874
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199756285.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
In Race and Religion in American Buddhism: White Supremacy and Immigrant Adaptation, the author maintains that while race is often bracketed in the works on American Buddhism, the issues concerning ...
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In Race and Religion in American Buddhism: White Supremacy and Immigrant Adaptation, the author maintains that while race is often bracketed in the works on American Buddhism, the issues concerning race and racialization have remained not far below the surface of the wider discussion among white Buddhists and sympathizers regarding representations of American Buddhism and adaptations of Buddhist practices to the American scene. The book argues that the prevailing ideology of white supremacy that has been operative in these and other issues reflects the intimate ways in which race and religion has been circumscribed in representations of American Buddhism. Focusing primarily on Therav?da tradition, this book examines rearticulations of Asian Buddhism by white Buddhists and sympathizers through the lens of race and racialization. Using Omi and Winant’s racial formation theory, this book illustrates how Asian meditative practices have been rearticulated into specific but deliberately chosen form that helps preserve the prevailing system of racial hegemony. Furthermore, this book offers a complex view of Burmese immigrant community as they resist to not only assimilation forces in the United States but also to the Burmese military junta’s transnational reach.Less
In Race and Religion in American Buddhism: White Supremacy and Immigrant Adaptation, the author maintains that while race is often bracketed in the works on American Buddhism, the issues concerning race and racialization have remained not far below the surface of the wider discussion among white Buddhists and sympathizers regarding representations of American Buddhism and adaptations of Buddhist practices to the American scene. The book argues that the prevailing ideology of white supremacy that has been operative in these and other issues reflects the intimate ways in which race and religion has been circumscribed in representations of American Buddhism. Focusing primarily on Therav?da tradition, this book examines rearticulations of Asian Buddhism by white Buddhists and sympathizers through the lens of race and racialization. Using Omi and Winant’s racial formation theory, this book illustrates how Asian meditative practices have been rearticulated into specific but deliberately chosen form that helps preserve the prevailing system of racial hegemony. Furthermore, this book offers a complex view of Burmese immigrant community as they resist to not only assimilation forces in the United States but also to the Burmese military junta’s transnational reach.
