Jeannine Hill Fletcher

Caught my eye on the New shelves at the library. This book's small size maybe made it less of a commitment, or made it feel less intimidating and easier to pick up, but ultimately I kept wishing for more.

I mean, there is a lot of good stuff in here. The book starts out with the history of America and Western thought at the time of its founding (wow, I didn't know Kant was so racist), and uses a wide variety of examples to show how white supremacism, Christian supremacism, and American nationalism were so bound up in each other. I found a lot of eye-opening connections here, but I kept wishing the author had gone a little harder on Christian supremacism and the myth of the "Christian nation," which I think there still aren't enough critiques of from a Christian framework.

Then things shift into theology and what our response as Christians should be for this legacy of racism. I appreciated her tour of the gospels and her vision of shared worship and ritual intimacy that reminds me of Giovanni's "Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea."

Despite the places where I wanted more, I thought this was a beautiful and strong little book and I hope it's more widely read.… (altro)