Description
Book SynopsisCoined in the middle of the nineteenth century, the term voodoo has been deployed largely by people in the U.S. to refer to spiritual practices--real or imagined--among people of African descent. Voodoo is one way that white people have invoked their anxieties and stereotypes about Black people--to call them uncivilized, superstitious, hypersexual, violent, and cannibalistic. In this book, Danielle Boaz explores public perceptions of voodoo as they have varied over time, with an emphasis on the intricate connection between stereotypes of voodoo and debates about race and human rights. The term has its roots in the U.S. Civil War in the 1860s, especially following the Union takeover of New Orleans, when it was used to propagate the idea that Black Americans held certain superstitions that allegedly proved that they were unprepared for freedom, the right to vote, and the ability to hold public office. Similar stereotypes were later extended to Cuba and Haiti in the late nineteenth and ea
Trade ReviewPainstakingly researched, Danielle Boaz's analysis shows that the denigration of African religions has always had an overarching purpose of denying Black people's humanity and of justifying colonial enterprise, enslavement, and white supremacy. This book is essential reading. * Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, Editor of Fragments of Bone: Neo-African Religions in a New World *
Bold and evidence-driven, Voodoo: The History of a Racial Slur exposes the disturbing truth that 'religious racism' levied upon custodians of African heritage religions is the only type of racism that most people still find permissible and even necessary in the twenty-first century. In this long overdue volume, Boaz provokes readers to investigate why and demolishes all rationalizations of the past. * Dianne M. Stewart, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Religion and African American Studies, Emory University *
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Emancipation, Civil Rights, and the Origins of "Voodoo" in the 1850s--1880s 2. "Voodoo" and U.S. Imperialism in Cuba in the 1890s--1920s 3. Love Cults and "White Slaves" in the 1920s 4. Human Sacrifice and African American Muslims in the 1930s 5. "Sacrifices at Sea" and Refugees in the 1980s 6. Sex Trafficking and Sacred Oaths in the 1990s to the Present Conclusion Bibliography Index
