Pub Date : 2022-03-19DOI: 10.1177/20503032221075384
Ryan Carr
Many non-Indigenous people assume that secularism—the belief that religion and politics are and should be different spheres of life—is foreign to Native American experience. This partly explains why the topic of Native conversions in early New England has always been so controversial, since conversion implies the differentiation of religion from politics. Be that as it may, history shows that Indigenous peoples are well acquainted with secularism and have been debating it within their communities for centuries. This essay demonstrates proof of concept for a history of Indigenous secularism via a case study of Samson Occom, whose vision of Indigenous self-determination was informed by secularist ideas about sovereignty and conversion. It also offers a critique of scholarly romanticizations of Indigenous peoples' primordially “holistic” a-secularism. This romanticization is the product of a secular-colonial ideology which presupposes the otherness of Indigenous peoples when it comes to differentiating between religion and politics.
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Pub Date : 2022-03-04DOI: 10.1177/20503032211044426
Per-Erik Nilsson
The 2010s was a decade during which self-acclaimed “ethno-soldiers”murdered what they consider as enemies of whiteness and the West in a spectacular mediatized and gamified fashion. Three attacks carried out against Jewish and Muslim places of worship are of particular interest here. October 9, 2019, during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the twenty-seven-year-old German citizen Stephan Balliet was setting in motion the plan he had been preparing for a long time. According to a manifesto published by Balliet (2019, 9) himself, the time had come to “[k]ill as many anti-Whites as possible, Jews preferred.” Balliet’s attack was to take place at the local synagogue in the German city of Halle. However, the plan did not play out as stipulated in his manifesto published online. Instead of entering the synagogue to slaughter members of the congregation, as the synagogue’s newly reinforced security prevented him, Balliet turned to by-passers, killing two and injuring several (Holmes 2019). Balliet broadcasted his actions on Twitch.tv, Amazon.com Inc’s gaming platform. On April 27th, John Timothy Earnest attacked the Chabad of Poway in California, killing one person and injuring three. Before the attack, Earnest (2019 1) posted a manifesto on the image-board site 8chan proclaiming, among other things, that “[e]very Jew is responsible for the meticulously planned genocide of the European race.”He also called upon “White men” around the world, “the greatest race that our God has created,” to “kill all” Jews (3). March 15, Brenton Tarrant attacked the Masjid Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Center during Friday prayer in Christchurch, New Zealand. Killing 51 people in a shooting spree, Tarrant (2019, 73) broadcasted his attack live on Facebook.com with the aim of encouraging other white ethno-soldiers to “thrive” and “march ever forward to our place among the stars” to “reach the destiny our people deserve.” Although these shooters acted on different continents, they share the same symbolical universe. In written manifestos, they declare that they are the avant-gardist defenders of the West currently under both external and internal threats. Several scholars, security experts, and journalists have set out to map these shooters’ motivational and ideological underpinnings. For example, Graham Macklin notes that while both Earnest and Tarrant were identically preoccupied with the conspiracy theory of White Genocide, Earnest’s (2019, 25) focus was “saturated with conspirational
{"title":"Manifestos of White Nationalist Ethno-Soldiers","authors":"Per-Erik Nilsson","doi":"10.1177/20503032211044426","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032211044426","url":null,"abstract":"The 2010s was a decade during which self-acclaimed “ethno-soldiers”murdered what they consider as enemies of whiteness and the West in a spectacular mediatized and gamified fashion. Three attacks carried out against Jewish and Muslim places of worship are of particular interest here. October 9, 2019, during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the twenty-seven-year-old German citizen Stephan Balliet was setting in motion the plan he had been preparing for a long time. According to a manifesto published by Balliet (2019, 9) himself, the time had come to “[k]ill as many anti-Whites as possible, Jews preferred.” Balliet’s attack was to take place at the local synagogue in the German city of Halle. However, the plan did not play out as stipulated in his manifesto published online. Instead of entering the synagogue to slaughter members of the congregation, as the synagogue’s newly reinforced security prevented him, Balliet turned to by-passers, killing two and injuring several (Holmes 2019). Balliet broadcasted his actions on Twitch.tv, Amazon.com Inc’s gaming platform. On April 27th, John Timothy Earnest attacked the Chabad of Poway in California, killing one person and injuring three. Before the attack, Earnest (2019 1) posted a manifesto on the image-board site 8chan proclaiming, among other things, that “[e]very Jew is responsible for the meticulously planned genocide of the European race.”He also called upon “White men” around the world, “the greatest race that our God has created,” to “kill all” Jews (3). March 15, Brenton Tarrant attacked the Masjid Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Center during Friday prayer in Christchurch, New Zealand. Killing 51 people in a shooting spree, Tarrant (2019, 73) broadcasted his attack live on Facebook.com with the aim of encouraging other white ethno-soldiers to “thrive” and “march ever forward to our place among the stars” to “reach the destiny our people deserve.” Although these shooters acted on different continents, they share the same symbolical universe. In written manifestos, they declare that they are the avant-gardist defenders of the West currently under both external and internal threats. Several scholars, security experts, and journalists have set out to map these shooters’ motivational and ideological underpinnings. For example, Graham Macklin notes that while both Earnest and Tarrant were identically preoccupied with the conspiracy theory of White Genocide, Earnest’s (2019, 25) focus was “saturated with conspirational","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46436267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-01DOI: 10.1177/20503032221075379
Edda Manga
This article investigates the discourse on child marriage as reflected in the entire corpus of official investigations Statens Offentliga Utredningar (SOU) and government bills (Prop.) proposing legislative measures against child marriage in Sweden since the first motions on the issue were drafted in 2001. It analyzes them as instances of sexularism: a form of secularism where the secular is construed in relation to sexual emancipation and gender equality rather than in relation to politics or the public sphere. It then connects the effects of legislation against child marriage on the right to family reunification to the racialization of migrant populations and religious minorities in Sweden.
{"title":"Child marriage and sexularism in Sweden: Constructing the nation racializing migrants","authors":"Edda Manga","doi":"10.1177/20503032221075379","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032221075379","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates the discourse on child marriage as reflected in the entire corpus of official investigations Statens Offentliga Utredningar (SOU) and government bills (Prop.) proposing legislative measures against child marriage in Sweden since the first motions on the issue were drafted in 2001. It analyzes them as instances of sexularism: a form of secularism where the secular is construed in relation to sexual emancipation and gender equality rather than in relation to politics or the public sphere. It then connects the effects of legislation against child marriage on the right to family reunification to the racialization of migrant populations and religious minorities in Sweden.","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45258207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-01DOI: 10.1177/20503032211015297
M. D. Placido
and important about the constitution of culture and society in the not so (these days!) UnitedKingdom. But I want to return to Bayart to pursue the postmodern or perhaps Deleuzian dimensions of nonreligion—the fact that non-religion is not a thing or an object but a contingent relation that emerges through specific, situated acts and performances—and what this means for the way societies and religions are understood and studied. Postmodern methodologies such as deconstruction take the instability of structures and objects for their point of departure. Not just Bayart and Deleuze but new materialists such as Jane Bennett, Rosa Braidotti, and Bruno Latour as well as post-Marxists such as Donna Haraway and Ernesto Laclau take the incompleteness of the social as a point of departure, its tendency for transformation as a given. But this point of departure is arguablymarginal to the “critical” tradition of Religious Studies with which Cotter identifies. So, why does this study of non-religion matter? Because it draws into view a range of wider questions about theory and method in Religious Studies which are only hinted at in Cotter’s otherwise excellent study.
{"title":"Book Review: White Utopias: The Religious Exoticism of Transformational Festivals","authors":"M. D. Placido","doi":"10.1177/20503032211015297","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032211015297","url":null,"abstract":"and important about the constitution of culture and society in the not so (these days!) UnitedKingdom. But I want to return to Bayart to pursue the postmodern or perhaps Deleuzian dimensions of nonreligion—the fact that non-religion is not a thing or an object but a contingent relation that emerges through specific, situated acts and performances—and what this means for the way societies and religions are understood and studied. Postmodern methodologies such as deconstruction take the instability of structures and objects for their point of departure. Not just Bayart and Deleuze but new materialists such as Jane Bennett, Rosa Braidotti, and Bruno Latour as well as post-Marxists such as Donna Haraway and Ernesto Laclau take the incompleteness of the social as a point of departure, its tendency for transformation as a given. But this point of departure is arguablymarginal to the “critical” tradition of Religious Studies with which Cotter identifies. So, why does this study of non-religion matter? Because it draws into view a range of wider questions about theory and method in Religious Studies which are only hinted at in Cotter’s otherwise excellent study.","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/20503032211015297","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48937645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-26DOI: 10.1177/20503032211044432
David Newheiser
Over the last year, many of us have found our hope to be tested. In this context, I think theorical reflection can clarify the resilience required to acknowledge and address the challenges we face, both personal and political. Because that is the aim of my book, I am grateful for these responses from four readers whose work I admire. Although their comments diverge in important ways, they constellate around a question that I see as central: how does hope become concrete? In her contribution to this symposium Sanchez (2021, 337) writes that, on its own, theological discourse “is an empty cloth without bodies to wear it.” As her own research shows, theoretical texts address real people, and they can be taken up in new ways to inform particular lives (Sanchez 2019). My book focuses on two figures, Jacques Derrida and Dionysius the Areopagite, whose work is famously abstruse. Despite their reputation, I was drawn to both authors because they helped me to better understand my own life and that of the communities I care about. In my experience, disappointment sometimes hits hard, and yet people somehow persist. Through Dionysius and Derrida, I found tools to illuminate this persistence, which holds hopes while acknowledging the possibility of loss. As Sanchez points out, in the time since my book appeared the prevalence of loss has become painfully apparent. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread suffering, and it has shattered established patterns of normalcy. Against this background, Sanchez agrees that hope should take negativity seriously, but she presses me to say more about the rituals through which hope is cultivated. I think Sanchez is right that communal practices are indispensable. Whereas the first half of my book presents hope as an ethical discipline, the later chapters argue that the personal practice of hope is also political. In my view, hope enables the receptivity and resilience through which genuine community is possible, and the bonds established in this way nurture hope in turn. Although relationship with others is always a risk, hope is the discipline that empowers people to pursue desires that are vulnerable to disappointment. For this reason, it is the precondition for mutual care and political mobilization. For me, the reciprocal relation between individual hope and communal action became particularly clear through the isolation imposed by COVID-19. DuringMelbourne’s long lockdowns, my neighbor would walk by the windowofmy homemost afternoons, and his daughters would tell mewhat they did that day at school. Although it was a lonely time, this quiet ritual sustainedmy ability to persist, and that
{"title":"How hope becomes concrete","authors":"David Newheiser","doi":"10.1177/20503032211044432","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032211044432","url":null,"abstract":"Over the last year, many of us have found our hope to be tested. In this context, I think theorical reflection can clarify the resilience required to acknowledge and address the challenges we face, both personal and political. Because that is the aim of my book, I am grateful for these responses from four readers whose work I admire. Although their comments diverge in important ways, they constellate around a question that I see as central: how does hope become concrete? In her contribution to this symposium Sanchez (2021, 337) writes that, on its own, theological discourse “is an empty cloth without bodies to wear it.” As her own research shows, theoretical texts address real people, and they can be taken up in new ways to inform particular lives (Sanchez 2019). My book focuses on two figures, Jacques Derrida and Dionysius the Areopagite, whose work is famously abstruse. Despite their reputation, I was drawn to both authors because they helped me to better understand my own life and that of the communities I care about. In my experience, disappointment sometimes hits hard, and yet people somehow persist. Through Dionysius and Derrida, I found tools to illuminate this persistence, which holds hopes while acknowledging the possibility of loss. As Sanchez points out, in the time since my book appeared the prevalence of loss has become painfully apparent. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread suffering, and it has shattered established patterns of normalcy. Against this background, Sanchez agrees that hope should take negativity seriously, but she presses me to say more about the rituals through which hope is cultivated. I think Sanchez is right that communal practices are indispensable. Whereas the first half of my book presents hope as an ethical discipline, the later chapters argue that the personal practice of hope is also political. In my view, hope enables the receptivity and resilience through which genuine community is possible, and the bonds established in this way nurture hope in turn. Although relationship with others is always a risk, hope is the discipline that empowers people to pursue desires that are vulnerable to disappointment. For this reason, it is the precondition for mutual care and political mobilization. For me, the reciprocal relation between individual hope and communal action became particularly clear through the isolation imposed by COVID-19. DuringMelbourne’s long lockdowns, my neighbor would walk by the windowofmy homemost afternoons, and his daughters would tell mewhat they did that day at school. Although it was a lonely time, this quiet ritual sustainedmy ability to persist, and that","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45303618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-25DOI: 10.1177/20503032211044430
S. Bracke, L. M. Hernández Aguilar
Understanding the ways in which Muslims are turned into “a problem” requires an analytic incorporating the insights gained through the concepts of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism into a larger frame. The “Muslim Question” can provide such a frame by attending to the systematic character of this form of racism, explored here through biopolitics. This article develops a conceptualization of Europe’s “Muslim Question” along three lines. First, the “Muslim Question” emerges as an accusation of being an “alien body” to the nation, often expressed through the Trojan horse legend. Second, the “Muslim Question” is elaborated through demands of integration and assimilation, in which the production of difference entangles with calls and measures to regulate Muslims. And third, the “Muslim Question” is brought to life upon the terrain of gender and sexuality, as the imaginary of threat at the heart of the “Muslim Question” is a replacement conspiracy centered on birthrates.
{"title":"Thinking Europe’s “Muslim Question”: On Trojan Horses and the Problematization of Muslims","authors":"S. Bracke, L. M. Hernández Aguilar","doi":"10.1177/20503032211044430","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032211044430","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding the ways in which Muslims are turned into “a problem” requires an analytic incorporating the insights gained through the concepts of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism into a larger frame. The “Muslim Question” can provide such a frame by attending to the systematic character of this form of racism, explored here through biopolitics. This article develops a conceptualization of Europe’s “Muslim Question” along three lines. First, the “Muslim Question” emerges as an accusation of being an “alien body” to the nation, often expressed through the Trojan horse legend. Second, the “Muslim Question” is elaborated through demands of integration and assimilation, in which the production of difference entangles with calls and measures to regulate Muslims. And third, the “Muslim Question” is brought to life upon the terrain of gender and sexuality, as the imaginary of threat at the heart of the “Muslim Question” is a replacement conspiracy centered on birthrates.","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48184271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-24DOI: 10.1177/20503032211044437
N. Khan
Fifty years after Loving v. Virginia, oppositional attitudes toward interracial relationships are still advanced by religious institutions in the United States. Extant social science literature characterizes these attitudes as generated largely by Evangelical and Christian nationalist traditions where members harbor negative attitudes toward interracial relationships. Hidden behind this characterization are the significant, but less obvious ways in which non-Evangelical denominations construct and disseminate similar attitudes. Through discourse analysis and digital interviews with LDS women of color, this study uses the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon) as an entry point for examining intermarriage discourses in other faith traditions. Findings highlight that LDS messaging about interracial relationships shifted over time, integrating multiple racial frames in ways that expanded the scope of LDS racism with especially harsh implications for LDS women of color. Broader theoretical implications for the study of race, gender, and religion are discussed.
{"title":"“Light cleaveth unto light”: Intermarriage discourse, LDS women of color, and the new racism","authors":"N. Khan","doi":"10.1177/20503032211044437","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032211044437","url":null,"abstract":"Fifty years after Loving v. Virginia, oppositional attitudes toward interracial relationships are still advanced by religious institutions in the United States. Extant social science literature characterizes these attitudes as generated largely by Evangelical and Christian nationalist traditions where members harbor negative attitudes toward interracial relationships. Hidden behind this characterization are the significant, but less obvious ways in which non-Evangelical denominations construct and disseminate similar attitudes. Through discourse analysis and digital interviews with LDS women of color, this study uses the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon) as an entry point for examining intermarriage discourses in other faith traditions. Findings highlight that LDS messaging about interracial relationships shifted over time, integrating multiple racial frames in ways that expanded the scope of LDS racism with especially harsh implications for LDS women of color. Broader theoretical implications for the study of race, gender, and religion are discussed.","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46129934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-23DOI: 10.1177/20503032211044435
Md. Didarul Islam, A. Siddika, Shafi Md Mostofa
{"title":"Book Review: American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present","authors":"Md. Didarul Islam, A. Siddika, Shafi Md Mostofa","doi":"10.1177/20503032211044435","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032211044435","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48781170","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-22DOI: 10.1177/20503032211044431
Elise Margrethe Vike Johannessen
This article examines the experiences of Norwegian high school girls with Muslim backgrounds in learning about Islam in religious education (RE). The empirical material consists of observations from a high school class in Norway and interviews with girls in the class. The findings support previous reports that Islam as a topic may be challenging for students with Muslim backgrounds. They also suggest that the RE classroom is a space where religious boundaries can go from blurred to bright as a result of students’ reactions to educational content and its foci on Islam. As many teachers find the topic of Islam potentially controversial and thus challenging to teach, this article offers insights that may help teachers to understand and deal with students’ reactions in the classroom context.
{"title":"Contesting religious boundaries at school: A case from Norway","authors":"Elise Margrethe Vike Johannessen","doi":"10.1177/20503032211044431","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032211044431","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the experiences of Norwegian high school girls with Muslim backgrounds in learning about Islam in religious education (RE). The empirical material consists of observations from a high school class in Norway and interviews with girls in the class. The findings support previous reports that Islam as a topic may be challenging for students with Muslim backgrounds. They also suggest that the RE classroom is a space where religious boundaries can go from blurred to bright as a result of students’ reactions to educational content and its foci on Islam. As many teachers find the topic of Islam potentially controversial and thus challenging to teach, this article offers insights that may help teachers to understand and deal with students’ reactions in the classroom context.","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48782520","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-22DOI: 10.1177/20503032211044436
Yuen-Yung Sherry Chan
Incidents of racism against Asians have been rising since the COVID-19 pandemic turned global in early 2020. Employing Foucault’s concept of panopticism and Kathryn Lofton’s insights on the function of religion to demarcate group boundaries, this article argues that American religion constructs Asian American stereotypes to limit the discursive space within which Asian Americans may negotiate their identities. These discursive limitations have, in turn, buttressed white supremacy. This article examines how some Asians and Asian Americans respond to anti-Asian sentiments during the pandemic by performing a close reading of an op-ed by prominent Asian American politician Andrew Yang in The Washington Post. This reading reveals that Yang’s colorblind solution upholds whiteness as the American gnosis and limits the discursive space in which Asian Americans may negotiate their identities. This article also discusses how the myth of America as a white Christian country withstands challenges from minority groups contesting its dominance.
{"title":"The heathen, the plague, and the model minority: Perpetual self-assessment of Asian Americans as a panoptic mechanism","authors":"Yuen-Yung Sherry Chan","doi":"10.1177/20503032211044436","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032211044436","url":null,"abstract":"Incidents of racism against Asians have been rising since the COVID-19 pandemic turned global in early 2020. Employing Foucault’s concept of panopticism and Kathryn Lofton’s insights on the function of religion to demarcate group boundaries, this article argues that American religion constructs Asian American stereotypes to limit the discursive space within which Asian Americans may negotiate their identities. These discursive limitations have, in turn, buttressed white supremacy. This article examines how some Asians and Asian Americans respond to anti-Asian sentiments during the pandemic by performing a close reading of an op-ed by prominent Asian American politician Andrew Yang in The Washington Post. This reading reveals that Yang’s colorblind solution upholds whiteness as the American gnosis and limits the discursive space in which Asian Americans may negotiate their identities. This article also discusses how the myth of America as a white Christian country withstands challenges from minority groups contesting its dominance.","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49555578","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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