‘The utter failure of white religion': W.E.B. Dubois' ‘The Souls of White Folk’ and the challenge of dismantling whiteness in the (post-) Trump era
Perhaps we, as folk of simpler soul and more primitive type, have been most struck in the welter of recent years by the utter failure of white religion. We have curled our lips in something like contempt as we have witnessed glib apology and weary explanation. Nothing of the sort deceived us. A nati...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
2022
|
| In: |
Practical theology
Year: 2022, Volume: 15, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 38-49 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CG Christianity and Politics FD Contextual theology KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history KBQ North America |
| Further subjects: | B
DuBois
B Religion B Souls of White Folk B Trump B Whiteness |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Perhaps we, as folk of simpler soul and more primitive type, have been most struck in the welter of recent years by the utter failure of white religion. We have curled our lips in something like contempt as we have witnessed glib apology and weary explanation. Nothing of the sort deceived us. A nations’ religion is its life, and as such white Christianity is a miserable failure.-DuBois, The Souls of White FolkOriginally published in 1920, W.E.B. DuBois’ ‘The Souls of White Folk’ is a scathing critique of the workings of whiteness in the wake of the first World War. For DuBois, the World War represented nothing other than a European power struggle for the exploitation of the darker people of the world, which could only lead to the global uprising of the latter in protest. As such, writing from a US-based perspective, this article offers a close reading of DuBois’ deconstruction of whiteness as ‘religion’ and ‘world war-cry,’ and analyzes the failures of white religion a century later in the culmination of the Trump era, which has been marked by simultaneous articulations of violent white religious nationalism, nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, and global expressions of solidarity with the movement for Black lives. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1756-0748 |
| Reference: | Kommentar in "Dismantling Whiteness – A response (2022)"
|
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Practical theology
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/1756073X.2022.2030888 |