Stand your ground : Black bodies and the justice of God /

This volume analyzes the legal and cultural origins and theological implications of armed self-defense. An Episcopal priest and a professor of religion, Douglas (Goucher College) focuses on the killing of Trayvon Martin, one of hundreds of innocent, unarmed blacks--male, female, and transgendered; youths; and adults--killed with impunity, despite posing no lethal threat, by white police officers and civilians. Douglas explicates the structural racism and social systems that permit the white killers of innocent, unarmed blacks to enjoy the legal privilege of innocence. She begins by examining Manifest Destiny and Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism, which constitute key theological dimensions of structural racism in the US. She then analyzes the chattel concept of slavery and the corporeality of racial domination, which she argues have generated violent attacks on black bodies in multiple forms, among them mass incarceration (sometimes in the service of the so-called war on drugs). In the second half of the book, Douglas addresses the challenge of conceptualizing divine justice amid anti-black violence, drawing on Exodus theology and the implications of Martin's death for interpreting the theological meaning of Jesus's execution. This thoughtful and insightful study is a worthy read. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. --Sylvester A. Johnson, Northwestern University

Douglas (The Black Christ), an Episcopal priest and professor of religion, connects politics, theology and history in arresting ways in this meditative analysis on American cultural attitudes toward black bodies. She construes "stand your ground" as more than a law; it's a concept embedded in American ideas and practices from manifest destiny to redlining and restrictive housing covenants. "This is a culture that turns deadly in relation to the black body," Douglas writes. Religious thinkers and institutions are not exempt from perpetuating this particularly insidious aspect of American culture and thought, sharing the attitude that whiteness is valued and black bodies are disposable. Brown strikes a good balance between political theology and analysis. Names that have been in the news, including Michael Brown, combine with her own personal perspective as a mother to give the narrative poignancy and timeliness. The connection between Trayvon Martin and Jesus, or, more generally, black youth who have been victimized by violence initiated by whites, is not as clear or potent as her argument about the meaning of "stand your ground," but the book nonetheless raises important spiritual and social questions. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.