My new ebook, "Letter to a 'Racist' Nation" is now available on Kindle! It is priced to sell. The style is not measured or gentle, because I am not in a gentle mood, and I don't think America needs soft or appeasing words right now. The book can be compared to a loving slap in the face administererd to someone who is suffering dangerous delusions.
That, I argue, is the condition the US is in right now. No, the police are not racist thugs, by and large. They are being scapegoated under circumstances that Rene Girard, the brilliant student of the human condition, long ago prophesied. The accusation of "racism" is inevitable in our culture, for the same reason ealier generations of scapegoats were accused of "incest," "poisoning the wells," "counter-revolution," and other crimes considered especially vile in their cultures. The mentality that lodges such accusations indiscriminately, which one might call "Woke Fragility" (with no apologies to Robin DiAngelo, she owes them to us) has also consumed the Academy and Woke Big Business.
I argue that the Gospel helps us understand this moment, and lends us the chief hope we have for escaping from the ditch we have so foolishly dug for ourselves.
I have not studied this form of neo-Marxism so long as at least two of my Facebook friends. But I bring a few unique understandings or perspectives to the subject: (a) Cultures, which I believe matter more than Race today; (b) History of Religions; (c) a brother who served as a cop in Greater Chaz for three or four decades, and told me his stories; (d) living in Greater Chaz; (e) sharing a university with DiAngelo, which "awoke" me to the phenomenon of Woke Fragility: (f) experience as an educator, since it is from the public schools that much of the contagion has spread; (g) I have also done a bit of research, especially on police shootings.
Do enjoy the book. I'm letting Facebook and blog friends know first, hoping you'll post interesting reviews, and if you like it, pass the word along.
This is not an academic work: it is a cry from the heart. I have, however, done my best to get my facts straight, which I can't say about all those I criticize.
PS: Thanks to Michael Hunt for creating the cover image, and to The Stream for publishing early versions of Chapter 8 and Chapter 11. I neglected to include that note of gratitude in the book yet; I'll have to go back and add it later.
