Beyond Ontological Blackness e-bog

In this study, Victor Anderson traces instances of "e;ontological blackness"e; in African American theological, religious and cultural thought, arguing that African American critical thought has been trapped in a racial rhetoric that it did not create and which cannot serve it well. Drawing together 18th- and 19th-century accomodationism and its assimilationist heirs with the movements of Black Power and Afrocentrism, Anderson shows that all exhibit a similar structure of racial identity. He suggests that it is time to move beyond the confines of "e;the cult of black heroic genius"e; to what Bell Hooks has termed "e;postmodern blackness"e;: a racial discourse that leaves room to negotiate African American identities along lines of class, gender, sexuality, and age as well as race.