Abstract
The emergence of the neoliberal age in the United States signifies a historic transition from a system of racial domination to a hegemonic racially driven neoliberalism. This study argues that in the neoliberal age a matrix of governance strategies are utilized: (1) to maintain the full reign of the free market; (2) to contain left behind sectors of the population whose presence discloses the system’s inequities; (3) to control segments of t he society who pose a threat to the system’s stability; and (4) to secure the continued contributions of those who are indispensible to the system’s operations. These governance strategies engender material and epistemic violence in the lives of countless African Americans, overwhelming personal and cultural meaning making capacities. The neoliberal age is, subsequently, regarded as a traumatogenic environment for many black Americans and countless other populations worldwide who are equally confronted by these same forces. This racialized neoliberal hegemony, however, is not impenetrable. Modes of resistance are not totally suspended during hegemonic moments. West similarly notes, “No matter how wide the scope of hegemonic culture may be, it never encompasses or exhausts all human practice or every transformative modality in a society.
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Notes
Cornel West, “Black Theology and Marxist Thought,” in African American Religious Thought: An Anthology , ed. Cornel West and Eddie Glaude (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003), 887.
See Cedric C. Johnson, “Resistance Is Not Futile: Finding Therapeutic Space between Colonialism and Globalization,” in Healing Wisdom: Depth Psychology and the Pastoral Ministry , ed. Kathleen Greider, Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger, and Felicity Kelcourse (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010).
D. W. Winnicott, Playing and Reality (Philadelphia: Brunner-Routledge, 1991), 2.
Ann Bedford Ulanov, Finding Space: Winnicott, God, and Psychic Reality (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 44.
Michel Foucault, “Of Other Spaces,” Diacritics 16, no. 1 (Spring, 1986): 24.
West, Race Matters (New York: Vintage Books, 1993), 24.
Robert J. C. Young, Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 113.
Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence—From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror (New York: Basic Books, 1992), 159.
This conception of transformative theater is informed by a syn- thesis of two counseling frameworks. The first is narrative theory as articulated by Michael White and David Epston. The second is the field of psychodrama and sociodrama as discussed by Peter Felix Kellermann. See Michael White and David Epston, Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends (New York: Norton, 1990) and
Peter Felix Kellermann, Sociodrama and Collective Trauma (Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2007).
Rory Remer, “Secondary Victims of Trauma,” in Psychodrama with Trauma Survivors: Acting Out Your Pain , ed. edited by Peter Felix Kellermann and M. K. Hudgins (Philadelphia, PA: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2000) (see note 53), 329.
Rebecca Todd Peters, Search of the Good Life: The Ethics of Globalization (New York: Continuum, 2004), 160.
Hall, “Gramsci’s Relevance for the Study of Race and Ethnicity,” in Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies , edited by David Morley and Kuan-Hsing Chen (New York: Routledge, 1996), 429.
Metaphor is t ypic ally understood as a dev ice of poe tic i mag i nat ion or rhetorical flourish. For most people, it is understood to be a matter of extraordinary rather than ordinary language. Metaphor is similarly characterized as a matter of words as opposed to thought or action. Lakoff and Johnson contend however that the concepts which govern our thoughts and actions are also thoroughly metaphorical. They argue that, not just in language, but in the thoughts and actions of everyday life, what we do is very much a matter of metaphor. See George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1980).
See Robert C. Dykstra’s discussion in Images of Pastoral Care: Classic Readings (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2005).
National Center for Cultural Competence, “Bridging the Cultural Divide in Health Care Settings: The Essential Role of Cultural Broker Programs ,” Georgetown University Medical Center, Spring/ Summer 2004, 2.
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See Catherine Y. Kim, Daniel J. Losen, and Damon T. Hewitt, The School-to-Prison Pipeline: Structuring Legal Reform (New York: New York University, 2010) and Richard Mora and Mary Christianakis, “Feeding the School-to-Prison Pipeline: The Convergence of Neoliberalism, Conservatism, and Penal Populism,” Journal of Educational Controversy , Woodring College of Education, Western Washington University, retrieved March 10, 2015 (www.wce.wwu.edu).
See Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Herder and Herder, 1970).
Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth , trans. Constance Farrington (New York: Grove Press, 1963), 169.
Benita Parry, “Resistance Theory/Theorising Resistance or Two Cheers for Nativism,” in Contemporary Postcolonial Theory: A Reader , ed. Padmini Mongia (New York: Arnold, 1997), 85.
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Deborah Hunsinger, Pray Without Ceasing: Revitalizing Pastoral Care (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006), 138.
Patrick D. Miller, “Heaven’s Prisoners: The Lament as Christian Prayer,” in Lament: Reclaiming Practices in Pulpit, Pew, and Public Square , ed. Sally A. Brown and Patrick D. Miller (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 16.
Kathleen D. Billman and Daniel L. Migliore, Rachel’s Cry: Prayer of Lament and Rebirth of Hope (Cleveland, Oh: United Church Press, 1999), 107.
See James H. Cone, The Spirituals and the Blues: An Interpretation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1972).
Eugene Peterson, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1980), 144.
James H. Cone, The Spirituals and the Blues: An Interpretation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1972), 58.
Langston Hughes, “Harlem,” in Selected Poems of Langston Hughes (New York: Random House, 1990).
Zachary Braiterman, (God) after Auschwitz: Tradition and Change in Post-Holocaust Jewish Thought (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998).
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Globalization and It’s Discontents (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003), 9.
Winslow, Capital Crimes (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1999), 158–159.
Peters, InSearch of the GoodLife:The Ethics of Globalization (New York: Continuum, 2004), 48.
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© 2016 Cedric C. Johnson
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Johnson, C.C. (2016). Prophetic Soul Care. In: Race, Religion, and Resilience in the Neoliberal Age. Black Religion/Womanist Thought/Social Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137526144_6
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