Brian Bantum says that race is not merely an
intellectual category or a biological fact. Much like the incarnation,
it is a "word made flesh," the confluence of various powers that allow
some to organize and dominate the lives of others. In this way racism is
a deeply theological problem, one that is central to the Christian
story and one that plays out daily in the United States and throughout
the world.
In The Death of Race, Bantum argues that our
attempts to heal racism will not succeed until we address what gives
rise to racism in the first place: a fallen understanding of our bodies
that sees difference as something to resist, defeat, or subdue.
Therefore, he examines the question of race, but through the lens of our
bodies and what our bodies mean in the midst of a complicated,
racialized world, one that perpetually dehumanizes dark bodies, thereby
rendering all of us less than God's intention.
