Why should race be the most intimate of identities to the human condition in all facets and matters of life in the United States? At some point the human condition must move beyond this juvenile engagement of life.
I am an intellectual, an academic and a mystic at heart. I engage social justice issues regarding race, gender and sexuality from that reference point. That said, the context presented in the opening
statement and throughout this post in regard to queering race seeks to present
a most intimate encounter of the republic. I must say that in my experience, both at the personal and institutional level,
race is the most
intimate affair of humanity in the North American U.S. context. Seemingly, all things great and small begin and end with race. I humbly ask the reader, "Is this my imagination?" Now, I am compelled by the memories of Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, and the transgender and queer communities, of which I am apart, to engage this master deception of race. I am also compelled because of the shifting demographics which require, no, demand that race be less of a factor in American life. To contribute my thoughts and reflections to this transformative, even liberating discourse. My experience of “truth”,
“authenticity”, “hope” and their credibility in regard to race is that they can
be very emotional and tense, inflicting physical as well as spiritual violence
upon the mind, soul, and body, they can
get really, really messy. As such my
goal is to frame these particular contexts in terms of healing, sustainability
and a longed for embrace of the intimate sacred.
Literary text:
James Baldwin
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One of my favorite authors, James Baldwin writes, in
On being White and other lies: The White World and Whiter America
writes eloquently of racial credibility in America. He writes of the many communities in the
United States and how these communities, through a process of racialization
become white, like it or not. People
formerly Irish, French, Jewish, Swiss, who, when they enter the United States,
historically through Ellis Island in New York City, become white[1],
these identities then given access to economic empowerment and realization, in
essence, I suggest here that they become the imperial identity with all the
rights and privileges not afforded to those of a lesser hue.
Primary and Secondary Biblical Texts: Genesis 1:26-27, Galatians 3:28, 2 Timothy
2:15
On queering Sacred Text: For a moment I would like to focus on the
sacred text. Queer rips off the
deception of white supremacy as it seeks to uncover the realness of a diverse
humanity and not some representation of empire.
Queer, whether a question of being or doing empowers a critical lens that
should be applied to the sacred text as it cannot and should not be separated
from the people and their agency, i.e., institutions of political, social,
cultural or economic power in which it was written. Human
interactions and associated agenda’s have a huge say in what goes in and how
interpretations arise. One might ask,
“Where then is God in all of this?”
Well, I suggest that God is looking and watching and is intimately engaged
and does partner with each of us yet will not violate our human agency except
on occasion, culturally and historically known as miracles. That said, there are no qualifiers regarding
“made in God’s image.” Whatever
qualifiers there may be are related to power, position, voice, fear,
responsibility; policies of colonization, but God has no particular qualifiers
beyond a divine spark of imagination.
In Genesis 1:26-27 there is no mention of
qualifications except that the human is created, gifted and given a name. In Galatians 3:28, God’s image is taken
further by the Apostle Paul to say constructs of identity fall in the presence
of God. So, then the only qualifiers put
upon “God’s Image” are pretty much a matter of deception for the sake of some
type of survival usually experienced as human empirical control. Into the
mix of this deception, the one who finds themselves in this unfortunate
situation, that, for some actually seems concrete and normative, understanding
life as inherently unequal, and accepting that “this is just the way it is”, 2
Timothy 2:15 provides solace as this text provides some relief if received from
a point of non-qualification. This text is critical as we queer the construct of race.
The text reads, “Study to show thyself approved before God a worker that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Now while this text, at least in my experience, has been traditionally interpreted for some as an external call to study the bible, I suggest that it should be interpreted as a more intimate internal calling of God. What I mean is that you and I are the book; you and I are the incarnation as well as cosmological presence and authenticity of God and this has no qualifier. In this sense race becomes the ultimate deception leading to a culture of exploitation, and self hatred. And this is what maintains white supremacy.
Race, similar to the constructs of gender and
sexuality are tools of white supremacy, a legacy of the plantation culture of
the southern slaveocracy. This has
become the ground of race, gender and sexuality and their many institutions in
the American context. And this is the
context in which the biblical sacred text is immersed. Queering race, queering consciousness then is
subversive in that it challenges the very deception of white supremacy and a
sacred text which has been sequestered and even perverted. It seeks to impart a different consciousness
of human existence as it addresses the very real inequities of the American
construction of race.
What does it mean to queer race?
I. Queer is living beyond the constructions
and norms determined and authorized as true by the Church, culture and/or
society and supported by interpretations of sacred text as a matter of
colonization framed in terms of survival.
Queer then is living out loud a particular divinity. Queer necessarily challenges the accepted common
vernacular narrative in place. In some
sense queer is a matter of doing and being what sustains you and not those
interlocking oppressions which are the ground and support of white supremacy. The one who lives queerly recognizes that
race, like gender and sexuality is a construct, challenging indeed.
Queer
engages those questions which address, “how do I live authentically and awake
“and” survive within those interlocking oppressions agreed upon and determined
by American society as structures of and for survival.
As
one who seeks to live queerly, this is a matter of critical faith. Queer means
not living or embracing the deception that, for some, means survival. It is what Martin Luther King, Jr. terms
cruciform living. Queer, for me as one
professes Jesus of Nazareth is grounded in cruciform living, which is shaped by
the cross and not necessarily by even the institution of the church.
Bodily
mixing and matching or going where no one has gone before
I
find a fair number of people embracing more than one race. They proudly define themselves for themselves
and not as the “systems of racialization” dictate. They move in the world of hybridity becoming
a new gospel for the world to experience.
They realize that race is a construct as they bend and blend this
construct as they see fit in accordance with their authenticity, and their
survival.
II.
The call to queer race
a. There
are significant issues that need to be addressed that are obscured by
race. Reflecting on the words of preeminent scholar and activist Dr. Cornel
West, daily I experience a catastrophe visited upon humanity which is never
addressed as race becomes a means to separate people, who, although have a
different color of skin, actually suffer from similar issues. Poverty, crime, homelessness, unemployment,
etc. I remember when I went on an
immersion in Appalachia where I met people and systems which had similar
experiences to South Central Los Angeles.
Race is the ultimate distraction!!!
Race consumes our humanity for the sake of power and profit which
denotes further a plantation culture.
b. To
authentically engage those interlocking oppressions which impact each one of
us. The interlocking oppressions seek to
maintain the power of the wealthy, the well to do, and the 1%. Engaging oppression must be an “all in”
strategy. No one can be left out. As such race, gender or sexuality cannot be
privileged. You may ask, “why?” Simply put the privileging of one identity
over the other negates the very intimate work so needed to liberate humanity
from the vestiges of white supremacy.
c. If we are going to live into this liberation a
new consciousness must emerge which frames humanity in terms of a different ground
of legitimacy. We must transition
notions of legitimacy from white supremacy and its various regimes to one that
is life giving and sustainable. What I
mean is that my legitimacy is intimately engaged with sustainability. Who I am then comes down to a matter of
sustainability and this at a personal spiritual level.
d. Creation
of a common ground begins as we no longer look to white supremacy for the
words, cues, concepts and ideas of a common ground based in and on
social-cultural and economic disparity rooted in a plantation culture but on a
radical non appropriated love. This non
appropriated love calls for a critical lens that really looks at love and the
agenda’s that emerge from love. Is it
the type of love displayed by Jesus on the Cross, a love that regards the Simone
Weil’s needs of the soul or is it a Madison avenue or k street kind of love
with it various agenda’s.
e. The
construct of race is unique to the U.S. North American context. It is a means to promote certain modes of privilege
and consumption as well as economic and political discourse. It imparts a false sense of importance
becoming abusive to the soul. In his
book, Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented
Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class, published by Oxford University
Press, Ian Haney Lopez, The John H. Boalt Professor of Law at UC Berkeley writes
of a Republican Party that seeks to reconstruct race through expanding the
definition of white. Their strategy, because of the increase in the population
of black folks and folks of color, they are actually using a strategy to embrace
certain Hispanic, Asian and other groups as white. What this means is that for the Republican Party
and more conservative groups such as the Tea Party and their allies and agents America
must always be a “white” project designed and produced for the consumption of
whiteness. It is about controlling and
maintaining power. In other words white
supremacy must always define what it means to be American. For these groups then shifting demographics
is a crisis of immense proportions creating notions of global war terrorism. Whiteness actually inhabits a state of
terrorism. Now while this strategy has
not been embraced by more conscious democratic justice oriented peoples this is
the narrative put forward by those elements who value racist political and
economic realities and power.
f. Queering
race is queering consciousness and in this sense it is about creating new space,
to shift the thought processes from one of white supremacy to a different more
“diverse” thought process. Shifting
demographics is an opportunity to create new spaces of thinking, to transform
the structure of thought from what bell hooks calls a plantation culture to one
that actually reflects a country and an economic system of the 21st
century.
g. Holding
space. I recently mentioned this to a
friend who told me that there are groups like the Buddhist who are holding the
space as demographics shift. I suggest here
that this that must be an interfaith project welcoming all in this space of
healing.
III.
A question of obligation, who or what
are we obligated to?
a. For the sake of
liberation, freedom and the evolution of mankind we have an obligation to queer
race. When you know the truth there is
an obligation to live the truth. Without
this obligation the questions of life go unanswered, as the deception, like
pacman, eats away at your humanity. Simone Weil, French philosopher, mystic and
activist has a lot to say about this matter.
She writes, in her book, The Need
for Roots, of obligations to mankind and in this sense to the soul and the
criticality of that obligation.
b. Considerations
of persons and institutions. Rising
suicide rates, unemployment, various forms of abuse are signs that race and its
associated constructs are unsustainable and as such become systems of
abuses. Within this discourse we must
question what French philosopher, mystic and activist Simone Weil entitled
“needs of the soul”
c. Obligation
becomes a matter of history as we remember the ancestors. Remembering those who have gone before and
made the way in which we journey.
d. An obligation to contribute to a discourse which seeks to decenter and delink race regarding the various systems of identity that characterize life in the U.S.
And obligation becomes the ultimate reason to queer race. An obligation to the spirit, soul and body of God's humanity and to the quest for a better life for all people in the United States of America. I guess for me, in the final analysis, it does come down to an obligation to my relationship with God.
[1]
James Baldwin. On Being White and Other
Lies: The White World and Whiter
America. (New York, NY: Orbis Books, 1987) pp 177-178.
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