Professor J. Kameron Carter gave a talk at the University of Pennsylvania’s Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. His talk — “Jews and the Religion of Whiteness” — draws from “Whiteness World-Wide,” one of the chapters in his book mss, The Religion of Whiteness: An Apocalyptic Lyric.
What is the relationship between Jewishness and Whiteness? What is the nature of their entanglement? Carter’s talk addressed the figural meaning of the Jews within the Whiteness of the West, elaborating on Whiteness as a geopolitical practice of religion, indeed as a practice of myth, that institutes the global idea of race or that organizes the planet through racial capitalism.
The Jews, Race, and Religion series uses the prism of Jewish experience to examine intersections of race and religion, drawing lessons from the history of antisemitism, examining the role of Jews in the racialized culture of the United States, and exploring the role of race in Jewish identity. Leading scholars in Jewish Studies, Critical Race Studies, and Religious Studies will share insights and research that deepens the conversation about race, racism and anti-racism in contemporary society, both American and Jewish.
The College of Arts