Black Religious Studies, Misogynoir, and the Matter of Breonna Taylor’s Death

Ahmad Greene-Hayes

doi:10.3390/rel12080621

Abstract

This article reflects on the matter of state-sanctioned death in Black religious studies, with the murder of Breonna Taylor as its central focus. It examines how scholars of Black religion engage with the issues of state-sanctioned murder, antiblackness, and misogynoir, and it endeavors to underscore ways for Black male* scholars of Black religion to respond to the religious experiences and deaths of Black women and Black people of all gendered experiences. This article’s central claim is that if Black male* scholars of Black religion continue to underscore how Black religion has been a catalyst for Black liberation without attention to how cisheteropatriarchy functions as antiblackness, then we ultimately will be unable to speak the name of Breonna Taylor in earnest.

Highlights

The police killed Breonna Taylor, a Black emergency medical technician, in her sleep at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic—a global crisis that has disproportionally affected Black and other communities of color
I use two examples—in Black Theology and African American religious history, respectively—to think about the masculinist ethos that has historically and contemporaneously remained constant in Black religious studies as a way of calling upon Black male scholars of Black religion to adequately respond to the precarious experiences of Black women and all Black genders
If Black male scholars of Black religion continue to underscore how Black religion has been a catalyst for Black liberation without attention to how cisheteropatriarchy functions as antiblackness, we will be unable to speak the name of Breonna Taylor in earnest

Summary

Introduction

The police killed Breonna Taylor, a Black emergency medical technician, in her sleep at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic—a global crisis that has disproportionally affected Black and other communities of color. I build upon Williams to suggest that it is not unlike the use of Black women’s services in religious institutions while they are alive, and the simultaneous disregard of Black women’s roles as parishioners, clergypersons, leaders, healers, church founders, and funders (Best 2006; Butler 2007; Casselberry 2017) It is a fact, and Black women scholars—especially Black feminists and womanists—confirm it, that Black women keep Black religious institutions like the Nation of Islam open, and yet those same institutions often fail to honor Black women in life and speak Black women’s names when they die (Frederick 2003; Taylor 2017; Lomax 2018)

Black Women’s Death in Black Religious Institutions

Conclusions