Postmodern Since 1619

Anthony "Postmodern Negro" Smith has written an article called "The Panopticon of Ecclesial White-ness: Taking Foucault to a Church Divided," in response to the book Who's Afraid of Postmodernism by James K.A. Smith. Below are my comments on Anthony's essay and the content of K.A. Smith's book. It would be helpful to read Anthony's article if you have time, but if not, my remarks touch on some of the major issues that are raised.
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First, Anthony has rather skillfully brought the issue of race (the proverbial elephant in the room) into a wonderful discussion on Christian faith and postmodernity which has been stimulated by James K.A. Smith's recent book on the topic.

As an African-American, I am both fascinated by the growing interest in posmodern Christianity and skeptical at the same time. In various conversations with Anthony, a.k.a. "Postmodern Negro" (we are close friends) I have made the observation that black folk are postmodern by default. Intuitively and intellectually we knew like Derrida, "there is nothing outside the text," (the Gospel story as received in the midst of white racial oppression and the black struggle against it); before Lyotard was born we were very suspicious of metanarratives (especially one's which sought to justify our subjugation in the name of God), and we knew that white power is knowledge to paraphrase Foucault, which meant that we had to develop our own epistomology and hermeneutics. Had we not understood these theological, philosophical and spiritual realities we would have been vanquished long ago.

In essence, we were engaging in a more sophistocated form of pre-modern religious thought, and postmodern Christianity potentially follows on that trajectory if it truly embraces the voices, traditions and experiences of all members of the body.

Which is why I am skeptical. While we have this very stimulating discussion, tens of thousands of displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina (mostly black) are unemployed and homeless; which is but a fraction of the total number of African-Americans who are impoverished and undereducated. Both the Katrina survivors specifically and African-Americans in general suffer from the historical and still present panopticon of white superiority (let's just call it what it is). There are countless numbers of other people throughout the world who struggle against the reverberations of systems of apartheid and colonialism as well. And there are many who are considered white today who were under the oppressive gaze of whiteness in the past. As Anthony has pointed out, this is not about a few bad, individual white people. This is about principalities and powers which are opposed to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and God's Kingdom.

Even the most highly educated black people will rarely use the term postmodern even if they are familiar with the concept. Although postmodernity isn't a fixture in our collective vocabulary, we are a living testimony of it. It's not a mere philosophical exercise. That's what the Negro Spirituals, Blues, Jazz and Hip-Hop at its best are all about.

The kind of hip-hop that Smith references* as highlighted by Anthony in his post is the product of white cultural and economic power. Did black hip-hop artists develop the capitalist mantra "sex sells" or violence for that matter. Were black entertainers the first to sexually objectify women of color in this country? Are the stereotypical images that black artists perpetuate created in a vacuum that has no historical precedent (who taught us to degrade ourselves?). The hip-hop that so many people rail against is financed by large media corporations that are run by white executives and unfortunately the growing number of black executives are too deceived or too powerless to challenge the white panopticon in their industry.

All that being said, I think Smith's book is an outstanding introduction for the subject at hand. Dialog can lead to and must precede effective action/redemption. Grace and peace to all who have taken the time to participate in this discourse.

* To say there is nothing outside the text is to say that there is no aspect of creation to which God’s revelation does not speak. But do we really let the Text govern our seeing of the world? Or have we become more captivated by the stories and texts of a consumerist culture? Is our worldview shaped by the narratives of a hip-hop culture more than the stories of God’s convenantal relationship with his people? (Smith, James; p. 55)