The book by Kelly Brown Douglas, Stand Your Ground, is a thought-provoking and opportune annotation of one of the most significant flaws of America, which is the plunder of the black body. The author has effectively expressed his awareness of the current events together with a close capacity to analyze the various ways the past relates to the present circumstances. The book is generally centred on the ideology emphasized by Douglas that American exceptionalism is a “theo-ideology” that leads to the rise of a vicious cycle of violence against people who are not of white descent. Even though being white is considered a highly-arbitrary procedure, Douglas implies that whiteness is majorly created by demonizing blackness. The book Stand Your Ground by Kelly Brown Douglas presents a doctrinal viewpoint of Black forms and Black spiritual faith in the American context based on the socio-cultural narratives and religious canopies which shape the ideology of “stand-your-ground.”
From the beginning of the book, the author focuses on providing an intense evaluation of the past events that have enabled the ideology of “the Anglo-Saxon myth” within American society. The doctrine scrutinized by the author is traced back to the first-century Roman historian Tacitus’s Germania, which implied that the Germanic people were a better race. Hence, the discourse has been used as a feed for the pilgrims and the founding fathers to indistinguishably link America to the Anglo-Saxon legend. Therefore, the effect of the mythology has been witnessed in various societal dimensions of America, ranging from religion to science to politics, all of which were exploited to idealize white flesh and similarly demonize non-white meat. Hence, the European immigrant races such as the Jews, Irish, Italians, and Greeks who were determined to identify themselves as white had the opportunity to do so at the expense of the segregated people to be of the black race.
Therefore, in the first part of the book, the author gives the readers a flashback to AD 98, when the Roman historian Tacitus penned Germania. The author has extolled outstanding traits of the Germanic tribes, the forebears of the Anglo-Saxons. Thus, the author argues that even the American founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson were also influenced by Anglo-Saxon heritage, which led to the commitment to avoiding race through racial mix-ups. Accordingly, immigrants from Ireland, together with countries of Eastern Europe, were eventually made part of the Anglo-Saxon community even though they were not originally of the heritage. That was the course of the dominant culture of “stand-your-ground”, which is marked by the “hyper valuation of whiteness and the denigration of blackness” (Douglas Brown xiv).
The culture evaluated in the book is arguably a result of the pseudo beliefs that comprise the acknowledgement of the black body as a hypersexualized, chattel, dangerous and always guilty. This is affirmed by the trials of those who engaged in the shooting and murder of several black people, such as Renisha McBride, Jonathan Farrell, and even Trayvon Martin. Hence, Douglass argues that in all the cases, “it was as if these black victims were ‘being charged with [their] own death[s]” (Douglas Brown 49). Thus, in the second section of the book, the author restores the faith ascriptions of the mothers and fathers of African ancestry, enslaved and free, together with the show of how the faith prerogatives “provided a counternarrative to the grand narrative of Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism” (Douglas Brown 154). The counternarrative has been carried forward to the current times in new voices. It stimulates the current and future generations to portray ground-breaking natures together with the act of fighting. The faith privileges comprise those that the father of Trayvon Martin claimed after the verdict of the murder of his son was handed down.
Consequently, Douglass upholds the assertion that the murders of the black sons and daughters are more like the crucifixion of the stand-your-ground culture together with the lynching of the twenty-first century are not Godly. Douglass is motivated by the faith in the resurrection to emphasize that the power of God supersedes the power of death in non-violent and counteractive ways. Hence, Douglas completes the book by emphasizing that the book is her denial to be consoled until the revelation of God’s justice all over the world (Douglas Brown 232). The sentiment is also expressed in the creative artwork, which gives the book’s first impression on the cover page, portraying an inconsolable black Madonna who embraces her dead son, whose clenched fist is depicted as a prompt of resistance and revival. Therefore, the cultural, historical and religious exploration conducted by Douglas in her book is a motherly attempt to determine the validity of the idea of why it is increasingly becoming normalized to kill unarmed black people and why black people have become easily portrayed as a threat or even how black parents can ensure the safety of black children.
However, by evaluating the significance of black faith in reaction to the culture of Stand Your Ground, Douglass acknowledges the paradoxical faith that emphasizes the need for freedom amid captivity and life in the centre of death. Thus, Douglas argues that we should appreciate the significance of the crucifixion of Jesus just by acknowledging it as a lynching; hence, the statement on page 177, “On the cross, Jesus fully divests himself of all pretensions to power, privilege and exceptionalism.” Douglas proceeds to emphasize that if black people were to react to the culture of Stand Your Ground with the energy of black faith, then it would be prudent to work with determination to terminate the laws of a culture that robs black bodies of freedom and life (Douglas Brown 165). Douglas proceeds to argue that the culture isolates people from the outstanding goodness of their being and sets people against each other, encouraging the ideology that single life has more significance than another because that type of culture does not take into consideration the elements of dialogue, empathy, respect together with compassion (Douglas Brown 191).
The second section of the book presents a firm theological interpretation of the meaning of God in the times of stand-your-ground, and the author does not shred words regarding the inescapable evil of the culture of stand-your-ground. Hence, the author argues that the culture of stand-your-ground represents death and damages humanity and terminates life (Douglas Brown 195). Accordingly, Douglass proceeds in the fourth section of the book; she ascertains that upholding the faith of the black Christian culture ” finds its meaning in the absurdities and contradictions of black life” (Douglas Brown 169). Hence, as she finalizes her masterpiece, Douglas recalls the necessity of prophetic culture that reconceives humanity in community. This tradition inaugurated a fresh way of identifying with other people and God (Douglas Brown 208). The author also reviews the account of American exceptionalism by referring to the prophetic statement of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the tradition of Black faith to emphasize the role of God within the culture of Stand-Your-Ground. Therefore, Douglas has meticulously weaved together some of the most sensitive topics within the realm of her theological reaction to the anti-Black state-endorsed violence. Douglas reflects on the historical and philosophical developments of the idea of whiteness and the Black body. Also, he enunciates the meaning of justice and hope in the illogicality of stand-your-ground culture.
In conclusion, the book Stand Your Ground by Kelly Brown Douglas presents a theological viewpoint of Black bodies and Black religious faith within the American context based on the socio-cultural narratives and religious canopies which shape the ideology of “stand-your-ground.” The author shows determination to provide an intense evaluation of the past events that have enabled the ideology of “the Anglo-Saxon myth” within American society. Douglas then argues that even the American founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson were also influenced by Anglo-Saxon heritage, which led to the commitment to avoiding the race through racial mix-ups. The author is motivated by the faith in the resurrection to emphasize that the power of God supersedes the power of death in non-violent and counteractive ways. However, Douglass acknowledges the paradoxical faith that underscores the need for freedom amid captivity and life in the centre of death by acknowledging the Black faith and stand-your-ground culture. Therefore, the book Your Ground by Kelly Brown Douglas provides a window for reflection on the historical and philosophical developments of the idea of whiteness and the Black body.
Work Cited
Douglas Brown, Kelly. Stand your ground: Black bodies and the justice of God. Orbis Books, 2015.
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