The Scandal of White Complicity in US Hyper-incarceration

"This book fills a major lacuna in Roman Catholic moral and theological reflection. Through careful social and cultural analysis of US hyper-incarceration of African Americans and Latinos, the authors address the nation's historical and continuing enmeshment in racism with its reproduction of white privilege and cultural power. Crucially, they invite the reader beyond guilt or dismissal or blaming the victim to conversion of mind and heart, to contemplative action rooted in a spirituality that takes social responsibility seriously. Mikulich, Cassidy, and Pfeil challenge us to uncover and face the social consequences of our complicity in social sin." - M. Shawn Copeland, Associate Professor, Systematic Theology, Boston College, USA

"Provocative. Ground-breaking. Courageous. Hopeful. Seldom have Catholic ethicists been so searingly honest about the 'white way of being' and its deep entanglement with social evil. The authors boldly name and brilliantly expose the limits and silences of theological ethics in the face of racial complicity, and yet hopefully illuminate faith-based resources for personal and social transformation. This text is a model of authentic racial solidarity." - Bryan N. Massingale, Professor of Theological Ethics, Department of Theology, Marquette University, USA

"As millions of African American lives are quietly destroyed out of white sight and white mind, we need prophets like Alex Mikulich, Laurie Cassidy, and Margeret Pfeil to show us the full meaning of sin in 'Racist America,' and to summon us to conversion." - Jon Nilson, Professor, Department of Theology, Loyola University of Chicago, USA

"This volume exposes the truth about the participation of white cultural imagination in the dynamics of racism, while also offering communal practices of resistance like witness memory and lament in the peacemaking circle. An important intellectual and spiritual resource in the struggle to transform white privilege." - Mary Elizabeth Hobgood, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross, USA

"The Scandal of White Complicity in US Hyper-incarceration represents the cutting edge in theological work on white racism. It takes an unflinching look at white complicity in a criminal justice system that incarcerates young people of color at rates far exceeding those of apartheid South Africa or Stalinist Russia. The book also examines how, as convicted felons, ex-prisoners face a future with severely narrowed economic opportunity and the loss of the fundamental right to vote. Especially insightful is the economic and cultural analysis of how the white music industry subverted the piercing social justice critique frequently heard in early hip hop music. Instead, hip hop was twisted to reflect a commercially successful 'gangsta' image that was just another historical variation on the racist stereotype of hyper-sexual, uncontrollably violent black men. This book offers clear insights into how the belief in shared human dignity, rooted in the creation of every human being as imago dei, requires that white Christians face up to the moral scandal of the hyper-incarceration of African Americans. This book challenges white Christians to oppose hyper-incarceration through a spiritualty and a strategy of non-violent resistance." - Barbara Hilkert Andolsen, Nancy and James Buckman Chair in Applied Ethics, Theology Department, Fordham University, USA