Rhetoric, Race, Religion, and the Charleston Shootings

Was Blind but Now I See

Edited by Sean Patrick O'Rourke and Melody Lehn - Contributions by Luke D. Christie; Patricia G. Davis; David A. Frank; Margaret Franz; Daniel A. Grano; Donna Hunter; Melody Lehn; Camille K. Lewis; Sean Patrick O'Rourke; Samuel P. Perry and Craig Rood

Rhetoric, Race, Religion, and the Charleston Shootings: Was Blind but Now I See is a collection focusing on the Charleston shootings written by leading scholars in the field who consider the rhetoric surrounding the shootings. This book offers an appraisal of the discourses – speeches, editorials, social media posts, visual images, prayers, songs, silence, demonstrations, and protests – that constituted, contested, and reconstituted the shootings in American civic life and cultural memory. It answers recent calls for local and regional studies and opens new fields of inquiry in the rhetoric, sociology, and history of mass killings, gun violence, and race relations—and it does so while forging new connections between and among on-going scholarly conversations about rhetoric, race, and religion. Contributors argue that Charleston was different from other mass shootings in America, and that this difference was made manifest through what was spoken and unspoken in its rhetorical aftermath. Scholars of race, religion, rhetoric, communication, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.

Lexington Books

Pages: 274 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅛

978-1-4985-5061-1 • Hardback • November 2019 • $123.00 • (£95.00)

978-1-4985-5063-5 • Paperback • October 2021 • $44.99 • (£35.00)

Series: Rhetoric, Race, and Religion

Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Rhetoric, Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies, Social Science / Sociology of Religion, Religion / Religious Intolerance, Persecution & Conflict , True Crime / Murder / Mass Murder

Rhetoric, Race, Religion, and the Charleston Shootings

Was Blind but Now I See

Hardback

Paperback

Summary

Rhetoric, Race, Religion, and the Charleston Shootings: Was Blind but Now I See is a collection focusing on the Charleston shootings written by leading scholars in the field who consider the rhetoric surrounding the shootings. This book offers an appraisal of the discourses – speeches, editorials, social media posts, visual images, prayers, songs, silence, demonstrations, and protests – that constituted, contested, and reconstituted the shootings in American civic life and cultural memory. It answers recent calls for local and regional studies and opens new fields of inquiry in the rhetoric, sociology, and history of mass killings, gun violence, and race relations—and it does so while forging new connections between and among on-going scholarly conversations about rhetoric, race, and religion. Contributors argue that Charleston was different from other mass shootings in America, and that this difference was made manifest through what was spoken and unspoken in its rhetorical aftermath. Scholars of race, religion, rhetoric, communication, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 274 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅛

978-1-4985-5061-1 • Hardback • November 2019 • $123.00 • (£95.00)

978-1-4985-5063-5 • Paperback • October 2021 • $44.99 • (£35.00)

Series: Rhetoric, Race, and Religion

Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Rhetoric, Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies, Social Science / Sociology of Religion, Religion / Religious Intolerance, Persecution & Conflict , True Crime / Murder / Mass Murder

Author

Melody Lehn is assistant professor of rhetoric and women’s and gender studies at Sewanee: The University of the South.

Sean Patrick O'Rourke is professor of rhetoric and American studies at Sewanee: The University of the South.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Was Blind but Now I See: Rhetoric, Race, and Religion in the Charleston Shootings

Sean Patrick O’Rourke

Melody Lehn

Part I: The Killer’s Manifesto: Rhetorics of the Lost Cause and Race Warfare

1“The South Shall Rise Again”: Setting the Lost Cause Myth in Future Tense in Dylann Roof’s Manifesto

Margaret Franz

2Charleston and the Postracial Logics of “Race War”

Daniel A. Grano

Part II: Gun Control: The Debates That Did Not Happen and the Language of Lynching

3The Racial Politics of Gun Violence: A Brief Rhetorical History

Craig Rood

4The Charleston Church Shooting and the Public Practice of Forgetting Lynching

Samuel P. Perry

Part III: Civic Eulogies and Exhortations: The Responses of Barack and Michelle Obama

5The Act of Forgiveness in Barack Obama’s Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend

Clementa Pinckney, Charleston, South Carolina, June 26, 2015

David A. Frank

6Challenging the Myth of Postracialism: Exhortation, Strategic Ambiguity, and Michelle Obama’s Response to the Charleston Killings

Melody Lehn

Part IV: Rebels and Flags: The Rhetorics of Heritage, Hate, Continuity, and Change

7In the Aftermath: The Rhetoric of Heritage and the Limits of the Mythical Past

Luke D. Christie

8The Rebel Flag and the Rhetoric of Protest: A Case Study in Public Will Building

Sean Patrick O’Rourke

Part V: Neo-Confederate Monuments: Rhetorics of Contested Public Memory

9“Remove Not the Ancient Landmark”: Making the Confederate Distortions of Religion Apparent

Camille K. Lewis

10In the Aftermath: Memorials of the Neo-Confederacy, Symbols of Oppression, and the Rhetoric of Removal

Patricia G. Davis

Conclusion: Zenith and Nadir

Donna Hunter

Reviews

Rhetoric, Race, Religion, and the Charleston Shootings: Was Blind But Now I See makes vital contributions to scholarly and public understanding of the Mother Emanuel tragedy. The essays within this volume are historically-grounded, theoretically-sophisticated, and extremely relevant to our contemporary context; they provide novel frames for rethinking and for thinking more deeply about white supremacist gun violence in America. Moreover, this collection's incisive and multi-faceted engagement with the politics of memory, forgetting, and forgiveness make it an illuminating text for classroom engagement and a go-to resource for scholars' bookshelves.
— Maegan Parker Brooks, Willamette University