Transgressing Race: Readings, Theologies, Belongings

By Jione Havea

Transgressing is an appropriate response to race as "a crime against humanity." No one chooses their race at birth, yet many suffer because of their race. And while many people choose to change citizenship, their accents and faces can give them away as outsiders. Racism thrives on the categorization of people according to their race. Like the Black and White dichotomy, other racial and ethnic discriminations such as casteism, antisemitism, Zionism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia undergird and promote segregation all around the world. Dismantling racism requires challenging racialized oppressions and segregations in sacred texts and contexts, in beloved traditions and hallowed theologies. This book offers such biblical and theological discourses in order to transgress the discriminative segregations of racism in connection with other forms of exploitative systems (or shitstems). The book engages with racialized biblical texts and religious theologies, with acts of racial discrimination in connection with slavery and colonialism, with agonies of people in diaspora, struggles of postcolonial minoritized people, courage of indigenous people to subvert, and with the race-insensitive practices of theological and religious education. The contributors are located in Africa, Asia, North America, Europe, and Oceania.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Release date: Aug 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9781666741315

Book preview

1

Transgressing Race

Jione Havea

Two bodies hung facing each other (see figure 1.1). Their faces turn toward one another, and away from the viewers. The viewers see them on their sides, with one body (to the left) appearing to have breasts and long hair—they are (trans)gendered female. The other body (to the right) hangs a little higher—their gender is not obvious, but for this reading i

¹

imagine them as male. Both bodies have been stripped. Naked. Lifeless. They are hung together, but they do not reach out to one another. They are armless. Powerless.

Figure 1.1:

Immanuel Paul Karunakaran, Rising to Life from the Cross of Lynching (

2021

). Used with the permission of the artist

The body to the right is hung from a branch, while the body with breasts is hung from the stem of a big red fruit. The title for the painting—Rising to Life from the cross of lynching—locates this work in the US’s bloody racist history that slaughtered many black African American people—across all genders and ages.

²

This artwork is the creation of Dalit activist scholar and pastor, Immanuel Paul Karunakaran. The same work is on the front cover of this book, where readers can view the striking colors in, and the shades of, the painting. I draw attention to four details that could be lost even in the color image.

First, gathered below the big red fruit are viewers. These viewers would have been present during the lynching, like spectators at ancient Roman gladiatorial arenas, and they stayed to celebrate the kill. The lynching was for them. It is possible that some of them also participated in the lynching. They were not innocent observers. Their presence would have encouraged the lynchers.

Second, on the back of one of the viewers, the one who stands at the center under the figure that hangs to the right, is the shape of a cross. Given that the term cross is in the title for this artwork, the shape of the cross suggests that the lynching was sanctioned by the Christian faith. The viewers were Christians for whom the lynching of black bodies in the US was an act of faith.

Third, the color of the ropes. The bodies are hung with white ropes, which represent the white society that lynches black people in the USA. If the scenery was from the context of India’s Hindutva, i expect the ropes to have been dark yellow or orange—colors that represent purity in Hinduism. Whether white, yellow, or orange, the point is clear: some religious understanding of purity has determined that black and Dalit (in Indian communities around the world) people are impure and thus disposable.

And fourth, at the feet of the lynched bodies are droplets—dark, red droplets—that give the impression that the two bodies were bleeding. These droplets were made with the artist’s own blood. The blood of a Dalit activist represents the bleeding of the lynched bodies. With his own blood, Karunakaran offers viewers of his painting and readers of this collection of essays an image of the consequence of racism. Racism—including racism inspired by Christian faith and by religious elitism—is bloody.

Transgressing

To borrow a religious judgment, racism is evil. In response to that, this collection of essays seeks to set up a platform on which readers would be encouraged and empowered to transgress racism. Put directly, to transgress racism requires naming and interrogating, breaking and humiliating, the powers of racism. To that venture this work adds voices from the global south, as well as voices from the global north whose roots go back to the global south—seeking to reach libraries and classrooms,

³

where they may flow back to the streets and public places. Racism is everywhere, and transgressing racism needs to reach into that ‘everywhere.’

Racism

Racism is the manifestation of a shitstem (to use reggae speak) that segregates, and discriminates against, some people—because of their race. This manifestation comes in many forms, but they share the common drive to deny resources and opportunities from people who are minoritized—because of their race. Life situations are more complex than i sketch here—for not all people belonging to a minority race are minoritized, and the teeth of discrimination are cut on the edges of gender, class, sexuality, religion, etcetera—but my aim is to spotlight that wealth (read: capitalism) and power (read: colonization) incite racism. Racism discriminates on the ground and in the mind and heart, by normalizing senses of superiority and inferiority.

On the ground, racism is experienced the world over by black and diaspora (migrant, refugee) people in predominantly white societies. In other words, Afrophobia and xenophobia inflame the racism that white societies dish out against black and diaspora communities. The Black Lives Matter (#BLM) movements, sparked by people of African descent in the US, are examples of attempts to transgress racism in white societies. #BLM has moved from the streets and public places into the narrow halls of the academy, to also inspire black and diaspora scholars.

⁴

Moreover, #BLM has reached indigenous communities in distant lands like Australia, Kanaky / New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea—among the islands in our oceanic part of the world, Pasifika (for Pacific Islands, Oceania).

Racism is not limited to white-versus-black settings. To use a water imagery, there are tributary (smaller, minor, sub) versions of racism within and between minoritized communities. These tributary versions exist within minoritized diaspora communities—e.g., between Pasifika islanders in Australia, and between Asians and Africans in Europe—at the proverbial belly of the beast (read: white empire), as well as in societies of predominantly colored people (outside of white societies).

In Pasifika, diaspora communities that have settled for over three and four generations still experience discrimination—because of their outside (foreign, minority, sub) race. I am thinking here of the Fijian community in Tonga (where i was born and raised), the Solomon Islander community in Samoa, the iKiribati communities across the Solomon Islands, and the Melanesian, Tuvaluan and iKiribati communities in Fiji. These are diaspora Pasifika communities that have settled in neighboring Pasifika islands prior to the 1950’s, and they continue to experience discrimination—on the streets, and in the private and public sectors—because of their race.

⁵

Similar racial profiling and discrimination are experienced by diaspora communities that cross language and national borders in Asia, Africa, Latin and South America. Xenophobia is not the sin of white people only, and it is not limited to Europe and North America.

In the case of Indians in Fiji, their experience of racism includes class and economic elements. Beginning in 1879 the British colonial rulers brought poorer Indians to Fiji as indentured workers in sugarcane plantations, and a few Indians also came on their free accord to pursue business ventures. But in Fiji, they all were seen as one group—Indians.

Two and three generations later, Indo-Fijians began to succeed in education, law, medicine, business, and politics. There were and are many struggling and poor Indo-Fijians, but those who succeed outnumber the successful iTaukei (indigenous) Fijians. In the 1970s, when i was a student in Fiji, the racial tension was already at a boiling point that there were social unrests and unconstitutional moves by the Fiji government (led by Ratu Kamisese Mara) to prevent an Indo-Fijian—Siddiq M. Koya, at the 1977 election—becoming the Prime Minister. At that time, the Indo-Fijian population had risen high enough to make a difference at the poll; more importantly—they showed up to vote, and to let their numbers work. When Timoci Bavadra (iTaukei) was elected Prime Minister (for 31 days in 1987) with the support of the Indo-Fijian population, the first coup d’état took place with the expressed intention to privilege iTaukei Fijians: which meant the disempowering of Indo-Fijians.

⁶

This is an example of tributary racism between two colored communities, between local iTaukei and Indo-Fijian diaspora communities.

Racism against Chinese communities in Fiji is also mixed with class and economic elements. Chinese people started arriving to Fiji in the 1850s, through Australia (during the boom of gold mining), and they established themselves primarily as merchants. Their numbers in Fiji are not as many as the Indo-Fijians, but since the 1960’s several Chinese communities (many are actually from Taiwan) have risen across Pasifika where they experience racism—on the streets, and in the public and business sectors—from native Pasifika people.

International and imperial racisms have recently returned to Pasifika, the theatre of World War II—which started in Europe and concluded in northwest Pasifika with the USA dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nakasaki, Japan (1945). With China’s growing presence and influence in Pasifika, the geopolitical scenery is boiling up. Since 2022, the US empire has declared that it is coming back to Pasifika in order to push China out. This scrimmage—in which racism intermixes with wealth and power—is just starting. Stay tuned.

⁷

The forms of racism wielded in Pasifika, along with their intermixtures with other obsessions and discriminations, are multiplied many times over in other parts of the world. Where the human race moves, there racism grows. There also religions, scriptures, and theologies grow—in the shades of, and to give shades to, obsessions and discriminations.

Race

Race is a crime against humanity

⁸

Racism is evil, but that does not mean that race is fair or innocent. No one chooses their own race at birth, but everyone can transgress the limitations with which their race enslaves them. The latter applies to both they who buy into and act (un/consciously) as if they are racially superior, as well as they who are gagged and dejected by racial inferiority complexes. Racial superiority and racial inferiority are shackles of the shitstem that justifies and benefits from racism.

For minoritized people who are raced and raised under inferiority pressures, from religious and social traditions, what they need is an opportunity to transgress race. I find the courage to grab such, albeit small, opportunities among dirt poor people, like Shaktheeswari, a young woman from the Vyasarpadi slum (outside Chennai, India). During a conversation facilitated by John Roberts, i witnessed her courage:

I began to realize that my lack of confidence came from my life . . . In my school and surroundings we were denied of various opportunities because of my caste. Gradually I began to realize how much more important it now was for me as a Dalit girl to grab the opportunity. (

27

Dec

2022

)

With the one inch that she received from her soccer coach (Master), Shaktheeswari has gone ten miles: she returned to the sixth standard (class, grade) in primary school, learned to play soccer and represented India in the international soccer tournament for homeless kids in Paris, completed a law degree, became a soccer referee, and is now working toward becoming the first Dalit woman judge. All of these was possible because she did not let her race and caste stop her. She grabbed the opportunity, and she worked at it.

And for the people who benefit from the entitlements of superiority, what they need to do is to give opportunities for people who are minoritized—because of their race. It will not cost the superior people much, but it will make a difference for minoritized people like Shaktheeswari. When doing so becomes a habit, transgressing race becomes real.

Flow of the Book

The platform that this collection sets up is for both the racial superior and the racial inferior. It is a platform upon which they may see, judge, and act upon the influence of readings of scriptures, and theologies drawn upon religious traditions and public struggles, to the shitstem that undergirds race and racism.

The chapters are set in three overlapping sections—Transgressing readings; Transgressing theologies; Transgressing belongings—but the scopes of each chapter reach across the organizational divides of this book. All chapters present some readings, theologies, and senses of belonging. So the chapters could migrate to a different section in the book, but i call attention to the third cluster because those essays privilege indigenous belongings. Those essays bring the insights of some of the (e)razed people in Oceania who grabbed their opportunity.

Transgressing readings

The four chapters in the first cluster of essays engage with scriptural texts in the contexts of literature and African America (Tat-siong Benny Liew, chap. 2), Islam (Arif K. Abdulla, chap. 3), Hinduism (Elizabeth Joy, chap. 4), and Christianity (HyeRan Kim-Cragg, chap. 5).

Tat-Siong Benny Liew (chap. 2) opens this first cluster with a reading of Zora Neale Hurston’s rewrite of the biblical story of Moses in Moses, Man of the Mountain. Hurston was a critically acclaimed African American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker who pioneered a trail for black women writers; gave special attention to orality and non-urban settings; and became a trickster-ancestor for those who dare to dabble in deconstruction.

The Exodus story is significant for Africana readers,

⁹

and Hurston’s rewrite have to do with the freedom struggles in general and the post-World War One migration (exodus fever) of Blacks to the north in particular. Hurston gave special attention to racial and national identity, leadership, religion, and the challenges involved in the quest for freedom and liberation.

The protagonist in Hurston’s novel is the powerful Moses, and the narrative is set in Egypt, Africa. However, inspired by Hortense J. Spillers, who showed that careful reading of literary texts can reveal configurations of reality as well as ideological blind spots, Liew focuses on Hurston’s characterization of Miriam. This is an example of the hermeneutical transgressing (or tricking) that takes place in this collection.

Arif K. Abdullah (chap. 3) shifts to the Qur’an with a different hermeneutical trick. Abdullah’s drive is to trigger interest in the humanistic approach, which is side-lined by faith-based and religion-centered educational institutions, and to make it central in teaching the Qur’an in both Islamic and non-Islamic institutions. The study promotes humanism as a belief system based on universally mutual values and the reflection of God’s greatness and love in the creation of human beings regardless of their identities.

Abdullah proposes four pillars that the humanistic approach requires: pluralism, historicity, purposefulness, and thematism. The chapter concludes that in our multi-faith world it is a real danger and a substantial paradox to claim the universality of Islam yet continue teaching the Qur’an exclusively without recognition of human experiences and traditions inclusively.

Elizabeth Joy (chap. 4) brings Hinduism to the mix, with another reading of the Aqedah—the story of the binding of Isaac (Gen 12:1–19). This story is puzzling because of its brutality, but the story is also a bridge between Judaism (Passover), Islam (creed), and Christianity (atonement, see also chap. 8). Joy brings Hinduism to the interfaith platform provided by the Aqedah, through a caste lens.

Joy turns to the Hindu Saivism tradition in the Tamil culture, focusing on a story and a rite of passage. This is the rite Upanayana in Sanskrit and Poonool in Tamil culture (the threading ceremony) practiced among upper castes but forbidden to the lowest and out castes. However, in reading this Hindu tradition with the Aqedah–Joy makes the threading ceremony accessible to Dalits.

HyeRan Kim-Cragg (chap. 5) turns to a key text in Christian circles, Luke 1:39–55. Kim-Cragg features Mary and Elizabeth as a model of transgressive companionship by employing practical theological methods with Korean/Asian postcolonial feminist optics. She uses various practical theological methods including case study, poetics of testimony, narrative approaches, and attention to particular situations—in this essay, the Atlanta shooting and the racism and misogyny against Asian women in March 2021.

The case study method requires readers to use imagination and to self-identify with the characters in the story (Mary and Elizabeth). In terms of the poetics of testimony, and narrative methodological approaches, Kim-Cragg creates a fictional preacher in a plausible congregation, Hannah Park-Smith, who is the sole pastor for High Hill church, a congregation in Toronto, Canada, that is becoming ethnically diverse and yet struggling to address issues of racial justice. It is the voice of Park-Smith in the first-person narrative as the interpreter of the biblical text that invites readers, preachers, and learners of preaching to wrestle with the text in ways that transgress oppressive social norms in service of the Word.

Transgressing theologies

The two essays in this cluster negotiate the intersections of politics, church, and identity around the complexities of race and racism. Edmund Kee-Fook Chia (chap. 6) reflects on the intersection of religion and culture in the politics of post-colonial Malaysia; and Y. T. Vinayaraj (chap. 7) brings Dalit realities to bear upon atonement theologies that fail to critique violence. Together, these essays transgress long-established theologies on the key themes of religious plurality (Chia), and atonement (Vinayaraj).

Edmund Kee-Fook Chia (chap. 6) explores the race-religion-politics dilemma in the context of post-colonial Malaysia. Chia’s exploration is set against the backdrop of the country’s majority-minority racial dynamics as well as the political system that has been shaped along racial lines. The essay offers a glimpse into the Malay world struggling to come to maturity as a young democratic nation while holding on to its identity as a culturally and religiously plural society.

The context of Chia’s study is an event on December 8, 2018, which saw Malaysia caving-in to the demands of race, religion, and politics by agreeing that it will not ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). The decision was made following street-protests by the predominantly Malay-Muslim community in the capital city. It was a major setback for the new government, but it also gave pause to assess the deeper issues surrounding identity politics in the country.

Y. T. Vinayaraj (chap. 7) turns to atonement theories that attempt to address the scandal of the cross in the history of the church. Atonement theories denoted the notions of ‘sacrifice’, ‘propitiation’, ‘satisfaction’, and ‘vicarious suffering’ to define the theological meaning of the crucifixion. However, there are theologians who believe that atonement theories had legitimized the concept of a sovereign God who justifies violence for the project of redemption.

Feminist theologians like Rosemary Radford Ruether condemned the ‘satisfaction model’ as "sadomasochistic theology and practice based on the idea of an ‘offended’ God who can only be mollified through the payment