Race, Religion, and Politics: Toward Human Rights in the United States
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Stephanie Y. Mitchem is professor of religious studies and women and gender studies at the University of South Carolina, where she also teaches African American studies . She is the author of several books, including Introducing Womanist Theology and African American Folk Healing.
Given the historical and socio-political emphases of Race, Religion, and Politics, upper-level undergraduate and graduate students would benefit most from reading this text, particularly those with a scholarly interest in Christian Ethics.
Many authors hope events will make their book timely. Few could be more perfectly timed than Race, Religion, and Politics: Toward Human Rights in the United States. The book ends on a hopeful note--that we should pursue "human rights from below," finding"solidarity" in neighborhoods and communities.
Recommended: Mitchem (religion, African American studies, and women's and gender studies, Univ. of South Carolina) extends the scholarship on religion and politics to engage with human rights in light of the complexity of racism in the US. Her skilled analysis encompasses indigenous struggles for sovereignty, anti-racist struggles of African Americans and Latinx populations, Asian American efforts toward equality, and American Muslims resisting racialization. She assesses the history of human rights advocacy and the frequent failure to account for the impact of religion; she notes that white nationalism has continually been shaped by religious factors, among other things. As Mitchem examines the history and contemporary plight of human rights activism, she renders a lucid portrait of how the US has shaped the global plight of human rights. She also demonstrates that American systems of religion and race are integral to the political structures that determine how human rights are sustained or imperiled. Mitchem's analysis of how religion, race, and politics intersect serves her larger argument, which is that human rights advocacy must include local (not just global) activism that is attentive to how religion works and the continuing growth of white nationalism.
Mitchem proposes an impressive and comprehensive socio-historical analysis informed by critical race and feminist theories of the intersections of religion, race, and politics in the United States.
While many have worked to identify complicated interrelations of religion and race or politics and race, bringing the three into intersectional analysis leads to powerful insights for those engaged in efforts to bring systemic change.
In the continuing debacle of white supremacy power practices characterizing life in this country, there is perhaps no greater need than a continuing exposé of the inter-workings of race-politics-religion in their convoluted warping of social reality. Stephanie Mitchem's new book engages that task with verve and nuance, clearing the air of misconception, while mapping the landscape of complex historical encounters necessary to understand our current struggle. Juggling, as she has, the categories of race, religion, and politics in their recombinant articulations is a service to both academy and society that demands a wide hearing and deep pondering.
