informed by Jennings’ and Carter’s theological visions. While the Introduction proposed an identification of the problem, the Conclusion proposes an account of reconciliation that aims to resist the distortions of the racialized Christian imagination.
1. Throughout this text, I will be referencing the transcript of the call Zimmerman placed to 911 that evening. Zimmerman, “Full Transcript.”
In reference to Zimmerman being told not to follow Martin after Martin saw Zimmerman tailing him and responded by running away, the text reads as follows: Zimmerman: “Shit, he’s running.” Dispatcher: “He’s running? Which way is he running?” Zimmerman: “Down towards the other entrance to the neighborhood.” Dispatcher: “Which entrance is that that he’s heading towards?” Zimmerman: “The back entrance . . . f**king [unintelligible].” Dispatcher: “Are you following him?” Zimmerman: “Yeah.” Dispatcher: “Ok, we don’t need you to do that.”
2. While family stories hold that my great-grandmother’s father was Sioux, and while there are aspects of claiming that heritage that have influenced the way I perceive the world, my light skin and community of origin mean that I functionally exist in modern society as a white male.
3. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk, 15.
4. See Patte, Ethics of Biblical Interpretation, 1–2.
5. Pastor James David Manning’s problematic view of blackness as taint was on display as he preached: “You have not changed yet. You’re black . . . So why do you blame George Zimmerman? Why? Because you’re black, that’s why. You’re not saved, you don’t know nothing about Jesus and you’re full of hate . . . There ain’t no truth in you, ain’t no Jesus in you, condemning George Zimmerman, ain’t no Jesus in you. You’re black, that’s all you’re ever gonna be” (Blair, “Pastor Calls Trayvon Martin . . .”).
6. King, “I Have a Dream . . .”
7. Although I will use the term genealogy to describe both Jennings’ and Carter’s methodology, I must qualify this categorization: Carter’s archeological account is a sort of “anti-genealogy” to theological retrievals of Hellenic virtue while Jennings’ historical methodology is consonant with Stephen Greenblatt’s “New Historicist” account. See Greenblatt, Practicing New Historicism.
8. Jennings, Christian Imagination, and Carter, Race.
9. I use this phrase to refer to what I take to be both a spiritual and political reality (Eph 6:12; Wink, The Powers that Be.)
10. There was an effort on the part of some white folk to take offense at the testimony of Rachel Jeantel, a close friend of Trayvon who was on the phone with him while he was being pursued by Zimmerman. She testified that Martin was aware that he was being followed, was fleeing, had communicated to her his fear of the man following him, and had described the man as a “creepy-ass cracker.” In the days following her testimony, many people found Martin’s description of Zimmerman as evidence of Martin’s racism. However, such a judgment drastically misunderstands (or misrepresents) the phrase used by Martin. First, Martin’s description of Zimmerman came from the underside of modernity, from the bottom of the power structure. The term “cracker” was historically applied by African Americans to the white masters who “cracked” their whips at the backs of livestock and black slaves. It was a term of resistance, subverting the impossible load of subjugation whiteness had forced others to bear. A white person referring to a person of color with a derogatory racial slur and Martin referring to Zimmerman as a “cracker” are not as similar as often assumed. While it is undoubtedly the case that neither terminology encourages the sort of mutuality toward which Jennings and Carter are pointing, it is important to remember that the former was that which classified and kept others “in their place,” while the latter was defense against such categorization. Second, it should be remembered that to “creep” is to surreptitiously maneuver oneself so as to avoid detection, usually for nefarious purposes. Tracking a person in a car certainly fits this definition. It turns out that perhaps the phrase “creepy-ass cracker” is not an altogether inappropriate designation for a white man with a gun trailing a black youth running in fear. Either way, the outrage over Jeantel using this term seems to be hollow or manufactured.
11. Consider the Florida case of Marissa Alexander, who, one year before Zimmerman was acquitted in the same state, was sentenced to twenty years in prison for firing a shot into the air, from a gun she legally owned, as a warning to her husband, who had a history of abusing Alexander. Alexander stated that she was afraid that her husband was going to seriously injure or kill her. While she neither shot at nor killed her husband, the jury deliberated for only twelve minutes before finding her guilty. Alexander is black.
12. Capeheart, “George Zimmerman.”
13. See, for example, Williams, Life on the Color Line, in which Williams’ father, Buster, passed himself off as Italian in order to be able to run a business. The majority of this story took place in Muncie, Indiana, the town in which I live and minister, in the 1950s and 1960s.
14. Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation.
15. Cone, Black Theology and Black Power; Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation; and Cone, God of the Oppressed.
16. Deloria, God is Red; and Deloria, Custer Died for Your Sins.
17. See Reuther, Sexism and God–Talk; Reuther, Gaia and God; Schussler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her; Schussler Fiorenza, But She Said; Coakley, God, Sexuality and the Self; Rogers, Sexuality and the Christian Body; and Loughlin, Queer Theology. This is not to say that there have not been advances in critical queer theory toward resisting gender essentialization. One example of a post-structuralist account of gender is Sullivan, A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory. While I am sensitive to the manner in which Sullivan builds her case, I am resistant to her overly tidy conflation of race and gender identity and am unconvinced that her conclusions hold up theologically.
18. See Hopkins, Shoes that Fit Our Feet; Hopkins, Down, Up, and Over; and Hopkins, Cut Loose Your Stammering Tongue.
19. Sims, Ethical Complications of Lynching.
20. See Noel, Black Religion; Noel, “African American Art”; and Noel, “African American Religions.”
21. Jones, Is God a White Racist?
22.
