Discussing Racial Justice in Light of 2016: Black Lives Matter, a Trump Presidency, and the Continued Struggle for Justice

Abstract

The broad fields of ethical reflection on racialization, racial justice, black liberation theology, and queer theology of color must come to terms with the year 2016, which can be framed on one side with the Black Lives Matter movement, and on the other side with a presidential election cycle in which racism and racial justice played particularly salient roles. Against this backdrop, this book discussion looks at recent literature on racial justice asking three questions. How does historical consciousness shape contemporary ethical thought on racial justice? In what ways do the intersectionalities of gender and sexuality, immigration and transnationality, class, and contemporary culture present particular challenges and new possibilities? And how do the ethical frameworks of religious traditions contribute to the development of public theology for racial justice? The conclusion considers how religious ethics concerned with racial justice does harm or contributes to religiously grounded responses to racial injustice. Reflection on these questions points to the need for ongoing engagement with the black experience—broadly construed and within the context of multiple intersections—in the United States and globally in ethical analysis. However, this in turn makes particular and critical demands on how it is that we are to both teach and read religious ethics and political theology at our institutions, as well as in the churches.

Reflecting and Advancing the Transformation: Catholic Theological Ethics and the Journal of Religious Ethics, 1973–2023

“…Maureen O'Connell (2012) and Michael Jaycox (2016) each also highlight the limits of the virtue of solidarity in societies marred by systemic racism and inequality. Recent focus issues of the JRE have advanced this analysis of the politics of power in the elaboration of virtues, although only Davila's JRE book discussion does so with a focus on race (2017). In the focus issue on Laudato si ’ (2018), Flores argues that the virtue of solidarity envisioned by Pope Francis is fatally flawed because of its failure to reckon with the gender subordination latent in Catholic social teaching (2018b), while, in contrast, Martins applauds the way in which Laudato si ’ envisions this virtue through its critique of the politics of power embedded in neoliberal economic practices (2018).…”

“…Patrick develops "a social theory of conscience that takes account of the paradox that although conscience is an individual religious experience, one's personal sense of obligation is reached and held in the presence of a community of accountability" (2014,17). Bryan Massingale (2015), Davila (2011), and Elizabeth Sweeny Block (2017, 2019 also develop theologies of conscience in this vein and give voice to the destructive impact that systemic racism and sexism have on conscience formation. Eugine Rodrigues writing from India (2015), Eric Genilo from the Philippines (2015), and Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator from Africa (2015) highlight the ways in which colonization and globalization can limit how the demands of conscience are understood as well as how conflicts of conscience are framed, analyzed, and resolved.…”

The Ethics and Politics of Religious Ethics, 1973–2023

“…To be sure, religious traditions are hardly innocent, and for that reason it is important to interrogate religious beliefs and practices to speak about systemic evils and individual wrongs authorized as sacred obligations (for example, Gutierrez 1988; Robb 1981; Farley 1993; Schilbrack 2002; Miller 2010; Dávilia 2017; and see also Rorty 2003). In a descriptive register, religious ethicists can track patterns of reason‐giving within a tradition's ethical teachings that provide resources for its own self‐understanding, immanent self‐criticism, and possible self‐correction (see Stout 2004; Kelsay 2005; Bucar 2016; and Kellison 2014).…”

Germany's silence: Testimonial injustice in the NSU investigation and willful ignorance in the NSU trial

“…18 This is not the case in all academic disciplines; see, for example, Schmincke and Siri (2013), Dosdall (2018), Nobrega et al (2021 for sociological research on the NSU and Pichl (2022) as well as Karakayali et al (2017) for a legal perspective. 19 See, for example, the many articles concerned with Trump and the rise of fascism in the United States that were produced in the last years: Stanley (2018), Dávila (2017), Zembylas (2019), Cherry (2022), Bailey (2020), andPark (2017), to name but a few. 20 Compare to research on resistant imaginaries by Medina (2012b).…”

“…1919See, for example, the many articles concerned with Trump and the rise of fascism in the United States that were produced in the last years: Stanley (2018), Dávila (2017), Zembylas (2019), Cherry (2022), Bailey (2020), and Park (2017), to name but a few.…”