R. Marie Griffith - Making the World Over: Confronting Racism, Misogyny, and Xenophobia in U.S. History

Richard E. Myers Lectures

Presented by University Baptist Church, Charlottesville

REV. DR. MATTHEW A. TENNANT, EDITOR

R. Marie Griffith

University of Virginia Press

Charlottesville and London

University of Virginia Press

2021 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

First published 2021

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Griffith, R. Marie (Ruth Marie), author.

Title: Making the world over : confronting racism, misogyny, and xenophobia in U.S. history / R. Marie Griffith.

Other titles: Confronting racism, misogyny, and xenophobia in U.S. history

Description: Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2021. | Series: Richard E. Myers Lectures | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020051379 (print) | LCCN 2020051380 (ebook) | ISBN 9780813946344 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780813946351 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: XenophobiaUnited StatesHistoriography. | RacismUnited StatesHistoriography. | MisogynyUnited StatesHistoriography. | United StatesRace relationsHistoriography. | United StatesEthnic relationsHistoriography. | MinoritiesUnited StatesSocial conditions. | National characteristics, American.

Classification: LCC E184.A1 G892 2021 (print) | LCC E184.A1 (ebook) | DDC 305.800973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020051379

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020051380

Cover photo:Women should take part, we are all part of this. (iStock/Tassii)

For those honest enough to confront the failures of the past, unquiet enough to seek justice in the present, and brave enough to make the world over

We made the world were living in and we have to make it over.

James Baldwin, Notes for a Hypothetical Novel: An Address

We are all always awash in each others lives, and for most of us that shared life, recorded as history, will be the only artifact we leave behind.

Danielle Allen, Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship sinceBrown v. Board of Education

What can we do?

This question, often asked in a tone of desperation if not despair, is one that audiences around the United States over more than a decade have repeatedly asked, following the many lectures on religion and politics Ive given at colleges and universities, religious and civic organizations, and other public gatherings. Needless to say, most people are not seeking easy answers so much as pleading aloud for ways to help improve the civic and political culture of the United States and end certain types of suffering or injustice. Whether our discussions have focused on religious intolerance, gender inequality, structural racism, regulations on sexuality, the countrys broken immigration system, the abuse of authority by political and religious elites, voter suppression, or court battles over abortion, American observers have shown themselves to be keenly concerned about the state of this nation, distraught over what they view as the horrors unleashed or exacerbated by Donald Trumps presidential administration both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and eager to do something constructive to mitigate them. They acutely want, in other words, to make the world better.I expect other public speakers from a range of fieldsacademia, journalism, the legal profession, and morehave experienced the same longing from audience members fighting a sense of helplessness, some wrestling with their own naivet or complicity. Knowing my own lecture hall answers have been halting and painfully insufficient, this book of essays offers what I hope is a more articulate and viable response.