As for the Kelly Brown Douglas' talk, I thought she did a great job describing the history of why blacks are seen as criminals today. Douglas talked about how America's democracy came from the Anglo-Saxon myth that people were defined by race. This eventually led to white supremacy, and the idea that "free space" turned into "white space." She discussed how we live in a "stand your ground culture" and that this intensified when slaves were freed because the "white space" became threatened. This stand your ground culture was put into place to protect that "white space." Laws after emancipation basically took rights away from blacks and they were easily arrested, which started the marker for criminalization. This was just a very brief summary of her speech, but as was brought up in the discussion, how do we get rid of this problem of racism if it is so deeply rooted? Also how do we deal with this when some people think the problem of racism is over?
A Course Blog for Elon's REL 204: Christian Traditions.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
I Met God, She's Black/Kelly Brown Douglas
During the Kelly Brown Douglas event tonight, I saw an Elon student wearing a shirt that said "I Met God, She's Black." I have seen a shirt like this before but was really intrigued by it after our class discussions on race and religion. The shirt was created by a 21 year old named Dylan Chenfeld who is actually an atheist. This was controversial partly because this white male was trying to make fun of religion and make money rather than trying to promote the issue of racism. Just as culture seems to have decided Jesus is white, I think often times God is pictured as a older, white male. Renaissance artists started painting Him as a white, older man, and now that image has stuck with Him. This continues the trend for humans' need to have a face to the name, even though God might not even take human form. Anyways, here is a link to an article about the t-shirts.
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Great summary and questions.
ReplyDeleteThese are very important, very big questions which I don't think I have the answers to. To try to make some connections, though, I want to turn back to the T-shirts. "I met God. She's black." Despite, as you say, some people thinking racism is not a problem anymore, I think these shirts betray that it is. Why would it be funny or odd or satirical to write the God is black if racism no longer existed?
ReplyDeleteFrom the article, it seems like Dylan Chenfeld, the creator of the shirts is a little ambivalent about the critique of religion he is making. On the one hand, he "taps out" when the "super religious" get sexist, but he also created the shirts because he likes "poking fun at sacred cows."
I think this raises interesting points about religion and culture. Despite the supposed siloing of religion in America, it is everywhere. This is also an interesting example of the theory of the circuit of culture, whereby a cultural artifact, such as this shirt, is identified, produced, consumed, regulated, and represented. The catch is that the meaning imbued during production isn't always consumed, as it seems is the case with these shirts.
Great insights Ali.
DeleteErin, I also saw this t-shirt at the Kelly Brown Douglas lecture and I appreciate that you took the time to look it up. I liked the idea that the tshirt brought up about what God really looks like, and maybe the widely accepted idea that God is male and white is something that needs to be questioned. In the article you posted, Rev. Dr. Jacqueline J. Lewis said, “It’s important for people to keep the contemporary conversation going about who God is, what God wants and how we relate to God.” This quote struck me because I think it related a lot to what Kelly Brown Douglas was trying to show people in her book. While she only talked about part one of her book in the lecture, I had the pleasure of reading the book in my Racism and Black Theology class, and the second half of the book was more focused on how religion related to the stand-your-ground culture of American society. While this quote from Lewis states that we should be in constant conversation about God, I think that if we were talking about race instead of God, the same idea would stay true. We need to be in constant conversation about race. Racism is not over, and it is important that people of all races, ages, and backgrounds participate in the conversation of race, because if we do not talk about it, it will be too easy to pretend racism does not exist. Lewis seemed to think that we should talk about God to gain an understanding of who God is, and I believe that we should talk about race to gain an understanding of the role it plays in our society. Kelly Brown Douglas did a great job outline the racism in the stand-your-ground culture that is america, and I believe that she helped her audience want to start to talk about race.
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