Awards

• Winner of Englewood Review of Books Best Theology Book of 2022.
• Winner of ^IEnglewood Review of Books^R Best Theology Book of 2022.

Overview

Any serious consideration of Asian American life forces us to reframe the way we talk about racism and antiracism. There are two contemporary approaches to antiracist theory and practice. The first emphasizes racial identity to the exclusion of political economy, making racialized life in America illegible. This approach's prevalence, in the academy and beyond, now rises to the level of established doctrine. The second approach views racial identity as the function of a particular political economy--what is called

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9780197587904

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Reviews

"""This well-researched book demonstrates that discourse on race and racism that fails to attend to class and political economy is only skin deep. Combining rich ethnographic data and vigorous theoretic discussion, Dr. Tran advances a theory of racial capitalist economy to interpret Asian American experience and their Christian practices that is innovative and compelling. It deserves to be widely read and debated!"" -- Kwok Pui-lan, Candler School of Theology, Emory University ""Jonathan Tran's remarkable book breaks new conceptual ground in the analysis of 'race', racism and religion in the United States by providing a fearless critique of how standard scripts about racial 'identity', even when enunciated by those who claim to be fighting injustice most emphatically, simply reinstantiate what they are claiming to overcome. The problem is that these well-meaning discourses obscure what most needs exposure: the economic substructure which keeps the problematic core racial binary in place, and at the same time relegates those who do not conform to that binary (specifically, 'Asian Americans') into a strange place of collusion or further marginalization. But Tran is no standard neo-Marxist, either: through a rich use of comparative ethnographic studies he is able to show how Christianity's core meanings, when truly activated politically, can still change these narratives and also their outcomes."" -- Sarah Coakley, Australian Catholic University ""Tran's theoretical analysis of Asian American life through the lens of racial capitalism gains real empirical density by foregrounding the oral histories of the Delta Chinese of Mississippi and of Asian American coalitions working in black communities of San Francisco. An essential read for Asian American studies in religion and theology, and for race theory approaches open to reflections on 'racial capitalism.'"" -- Mark Lewis Taylor, Author of The Theological and the Political: On the Weight of the World"

This well-researched book demonstrates that discourse on race and racism that fails to attend to class and political economy is only skin deep. Combining rich ethnographic data and vigorous theoretic discussion, Dr. Tran advances a theory of racial capitalist economy to interpret Asian American experience and their Christian practices that is innovative and compelling. It deserves to be widely read and debated! * Kwok Pui-lan, Candler School of Theology, Emory University * Jonathan Tran's remarkable book breaks new conceptual ground in the analysis of 'race', racism and religion in the United States by providing a fearless critique of how standard scripts about racial 'identity', even when enunciated by those who claim to be fighting injustice most emphatically, simply reinstantiate what they are claiming to overcome. The problem is that these well-meaning discourses obscure what most needs exposure: the economic substructure which keeps the problematic core racial binary in place, and at the same time relegates those who do not conform to that binary (specifically, 'Asian Americans') into a strange place of collusion or further marginalization. But Tran is no standard neo-Marxist, either: through a rich use of comparative ethnographic studies he is able to show how Christianity's core meanings, when truly activated politically, can still change these narratives and also their outcomes. * Sarah Coakley, Australian Catholic University * Tran's theoretical analysis of Asian American life through the lens of racial capitalism gains real empirical density by foregrounding the oral histories of the Delta Chinese of Mississippi and of Asian American coalitions working in black communities of San Francisco. An essential read for Asian American studies in religion and theology, and for race theory approaches open to reflections on 'racial capitalism.' * Mark Lewis Taylor, Author of The Theological and the Political: On the Weight of the World *

Author Information

Jonathan Tran is Professor of Theology and Ethics at Baylor University where he holds the George W. Baines Chair of Religion.

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