Rethinking the “givenness of the united states”

“[S]ocial justice activists as well as U.S.-based liberation theologians often criticize U.S. policies, but they do not critically interrogate the contradictions between the United States articulating itself as a democratic country, on the one hand, while simultaneously founding itself on the past and current genocide of Native peoples, on the other hand. That is, even progressives tend to articulate racism as a policy to be addressed within the constraints of the U.S. nation-state rather than understanding racism and genocide as consitutive of the United States. However, since the United States could not exist without the genocide of Native peoples, Native feminist interventions call us to question why we should assume the givenness of the United States in our long-range vision of social justice. These interventions provide a starting point for theological reflection on what exactly is a just form of governance, not only for Native peoples but also for the rest of the world.”

Andrea Smith, “Dismantling the Master’s House with the Master’s Tools: Native Feminist Liberation Theologies,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 22.2 (2006), 85-121.