Biko Mandela Gray - Unexamined Goodness

Dissident Orthodoxy

Dr. Biko Mandela Gray, Assistant Professor of Religion, African American Religion and Women's and Gender Studies at Syracuse University joins the conversation to discuss his contribution on is essay discussing Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye in Goodness and the Literary Imagination. This one goes deep and moves quick. We talk about how taking our understanding of goodness for granted can result in unintended (but very real) harm.

Digressions include Kente cloth, both good and terrible recommendations on theodicy and why Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos' version of virtue signaling is morally bankrupt.

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Dr. Gray’s work operates at the nexus and interplay between continental philosophy of religion and theories and methods in African American religion. His research is primarily on the connection between race, subjectivity, religion, and embodiment, exploring how these four categories play on one another in the concrete space of human experience. He also is interested in the religious implications of social justice movements. He is currently working on a book project that explores how contemporary racial justice movements, like Blacklivesmatter, demonstrate new ways of theorizing the connection between embodiment, religion, and subjectivity.

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Music: Orbach

Art: Phil Nellis