This Revolution Cannot Be Televised: African Americans in Pursuit of Liberation

Abstract

ABSTRACTBeneath the obvious expressions of White supremacy in the United States is a grounding mythos, which guides the representation of African Americans as innately criminal and violent and of Euro-Americans as the stewards of civilization. These representations are central to the plot of a ruling narrative, which conveys the discursive power of the mythos in which Euro-America carries the promises and responsibilities of ancient Israel. Trapped in the belief that we properly identify with ancient Israel, many African Americans have developed commitments and habits that reflect a misguided sense of what God’s favour looks like. As such, their pursuit of the American Dream only strengthens socio-economic and ideological systems that oppress us all. As a corrective course of action, African Americans must adopt the stance of intentional self-marginalization. This unsettling term characterizes a disposition toward life in America, which contrasts radically with that privileged at the normative centre of the nation where the structures that establish social worth in an imperial ethos and signal success in a capitalist system are anchored. With self-marginalization, the space will be opened for discernment of a truly liberating God and engendering communal health through the focused address of the consequences of a tragic history in the United States.