Description
Book SynopsisThis book uses the 2015 Charleston shooting as a case study to analyze the connections between race, rhetoric, religion, and the growing trend of mass gun violence in the United States. The authors claim that this analysis fills a gap in rhetorical scholarship that can lead to increased understanding of the causes and motivations of these crimes.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Was Blind but Now I See: Rhetoric, Race, and Religion in the Charleston Shootings Sean Patrick O’Rourke Melody Lehn Part I: The Killer’s Manifesto: Rhetorics of the Lost Cause and Race Warfare 1 “The South Shall Rise Again”: Setting the Lost Cause Myth in Future Tense in Dylann Roof’s Manifesto Margaret Franz 2 Charleston and the Postracial Logics of “Race War” Daniel A. Grano Part II: Gun Control: The Debates That Did Not Happen and the Language of Lynching 3 The Racial Politics of Gun Violence: A Brief Rhetorical History Craig Rood 4 The Charleston Church Shooting and the Public Practice of Forgetting Lynching Samuel P. Perry Part III: Civic Eulogies and Exhortations: The Responses of Barack and Michelle Obama 5 The Act of Forgiveness in Barack Obama’s Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney, Charleston, South Carolina, June 26, 2015 David A. Frank 6 Challenging the Myth of Postracialism: Exhortation, Strategic Ambiguity, and Michelle Obama’s Response to the Charleston Killings Melody Lehn Part IV: Rebels and Flags: The Rhetorics of Heritage, Hate, Continuity, and Change 7 In the Aftermath: The Rhetoric of Heritage and the Limits of the Mythical Past Luke D. Christie 8 The Rebel Flag and the Rhetoric of Protest: A Case Study in Public Will Building Sean Patrick O’Rourke Part V: Neo-Confederate Monuments: Rhetorics of Contested Public Memory 9 “Remove Not the Ancient Landmark”: Making the Confederate Distortions of Religion Apparent Camille K. Lewis 10 In the Aftermath: Memorials of the Neo-Confederacy, Symbols of Oppression, and the Rhetoric of Removal Patricia G. Davis Conclusion: Zenith and Nadir Donna Hunter
