Comment - carefully accurate almost comprehensive scope. Written for the academy.
The Nancy Boyd-Franklin book exposed numerous life-changing perspectives for me, on this guided discursive walk through lived womanist theology in text and classroom. The following topics are a few that were salient for me:
FAMILY. In the face of pathologizing and tiresome labeling as "dysfunctional" the lived experience of almost everyone born of women into generational relationships, NBF describes the family structure in powerful positives. The families are "extended" (52ff), even including "kinship care" and "informal adoption". The "role flexibility" (73) is a strength, not a disease. While marital separation, divorce, and remarriage created step-parenting opportunities, the structure in the Black Family is engaging and relationships are functional and esteemed. The insight, with factual data supporting more than mere shout-out, about grandmothers (79 ff) and older siblings (84ff), is a valuable addition to therapeutics, and in our case, to pastoral care.
MALES. "The engagement of men in all cultures has long been an issue in the family therapy field." (229) I have yet to see anyone explain why this is so. I suspect it is related to an unwillingness to understand conflicted testosterone. Societies which provide challenge and worthwhile learning opportunities will have great men. Spaces stripped of these spaces and facilities -- such as with ghettos, suppression, environmental and social toxicities -- will produce hopeless delinquents, and fatherlessness. The "shortage of males" (96) and even the "invisibility syndrome" (87) are survival strategies -- the last resort of the afflicted. The Amadou Diallo case and widespread fear for safety and ability to thrive, particularly the sons. (171 ff)
NARRATIVE POSTMODERN APPROACHES. I learned that White, Akinyela, Nicols and others have applied the demonstrations of Michel Foucault, who has since 1965 exposed the ways in which institutions oppress, marginalize and dehumanize vulnerable social groups. (221) I see opportunity for "construction theology" -- based on the integration of therapies and theologies which are freed from their service to oppressive institutions and subordinating language.
MISSIONARY RACISM. How interesting and helpful to see the "missionary racism" described as a "Vibe" to which some African Americans are "particularly sensitive". (179) NBF cautions those of us who may be well-meaning, but unwittingly convey "a patronizing stance" without intending to. Our womanist theologians have brought this Vibe-alert to surface, and it makes sense as part of the legatic mechanisms needed to survive oppressive conditions: "African Americans, because of the often extremely subtle ways in which racism manifests itself socially, are particularly attuned to very fine distinctions among such variables in all interactions...". (178) ( )