WHO ARE YOUR PEOPLE? A Decolonizing Framework for Black Christian Well-Being Restricted; Files Only
Mackinson, Shari (Fall 2022)
Abstract
“Who Are Your People? A Decolonizing Framework for Black Christian Well-Being” probes the
possibilities for black identity and black moral leadership to emerge from unassuming places. Who
Are Your People is a theological ethics project which proposes a new way of being black,
producing a new way of doing black theology and ethics. My project explores black theological
ethics: how the community operates (ethics) based on their beliefs (theology) in a life-giving and
liberating (black) God. I place black feminist/womanist theology and ethics in conversation with
postcolonial theory and theology to reimagine black identity in ways that disrupt hierarchies and
exclusionary logic within black communities. Critical to my methodology are the ethnographic
interviews I conducted with formerly incarcerated women (often labeled the wrong kind of black
woman). The women articulate the moral sources they rely upon, the moral wisdom that guides
their lives, and their experiences of inclusion (or exclusion) with their home communities upon
release. “Who Are Your People” utilizes the storied wisdom of one of black America’s most
marginalized populations as a starting point for a new way of doing black theological ethics that
provides new conceptions of black identity, definitions of black moral leadership, and strategies to
embrace marginalized black identities.
Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 1
Locating the Work ........................................................................................................................................................ 4
Black Identity in Black Christian Ethics ......................................................................................................................... 5
Methodological Commitments ..................................................................................................................................... 9
Theological Commitments .......................................................................................................................................... 11
Chapter Roadmap ...................................................................................................................................................... 13
Chapter 1: Building Liberation by Faith ................................................................................................................... 16
Blackness .................................................................................................................................................................... 18
Major Keys to Black Religion ...................................................................................................................................... 25
Black Liberation Theology .......................................................................................................................................... 32
Black Liberation Theology and Postcolonial Theology ............................................................................................... 35
Competing Ideas of Liberation ................................................................................................................................... 36
Black Liberation Theology’s Struggle for Relevancy ................................................................................................... 44
Doing Black Theology ................................................................................................................................................. 45
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................................. 52
Chapter 2: How Do We Do (or Don’t Do) Black Well-Being ..................................................................................... 54
Source Material for Constructing Black Theology and Ethics ..................................................................................... 55
Experience«Revelation ............................................................................................................................................. 71
Challenges to Experience«Revelation ...................................................................................................................... 79
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................................. 85
Chapter 3: The Black Future is Decolonial ............................................................................................................... 87
Colonialisms ............................................................................................................................................................... 87
(Black) America the Colony ........................................................................................................................................ 97
Postcolonial Theory/Theology & Black Theological Ethics ....................................................................................... 100
Black Identity: “The Difference Within” ................................................................................................................... 105
Postcolonial Interventions in Black Christian Ethics ................................................................................................. 110
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................ 117
Chapter Four: “When Did We See You in Prison?” ................................................................................................ 119
The United States of Incarceration ........................................................................................................................... 120
The Cell Block Black: An Intersectional Look at Black Women’s Incarceration ........................................................ 128
Encountering God Among Formerly/Incarcerated Black Women ............................................................................ 144
In Pursuit of Black Well-Being .................................................................................................................................. 152
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................... 162
Bibliography ......................................................................................................................................................... 167
Appendix ............................................................................................................................................................. 176
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File download under embargo until 11 January 2029 | 2022-12-07 12:17:02 -0500 | File download under embargo until 11 January 2029 |
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