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Historian of religions Charles Long uses the term "American cultural language" to identify discursive challenges to democracy and social justice in the Unites States. The American cultural language, Long says, is the "misinterpretation" of humanness and freedom conveyed when the term "American"--used to signify citizens of the United States--is constructed as applying only to persons of European descent. In a related observation, British cultural studies scholar Paul Gilroy (1993) says modern Western philosophy discourages uniting "the good" and "the right" in constructions of justice. Long and Gilroy's discussions of misinterpretation and irrationality explain some origins of exclusionary conceptions of freedom and civil/human rights. In exclusionary conceptions, freedom is limited because civil rights apply only to persons constructed as members of the human community. As assertions about how life together in society is conceived, Long and Gilroy's discussions help define the context of black women's "religious" activism. Exclusionary conceptions are incongruous with assertions that equality and social solidarity are required elements of a good society. In this article, the author talks about black women's activism, her research, and her work. Her work as a teacher and scholar has been most empowered and shaped by recognition of the clarity of vision and presence of mind necessary for black women to maintain long-term identities as civil/human rights activists. (Contains 1 footnote.)

Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism and Women's Lives Matter by Traci C. West Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2006. 216 pp. $24.95. ISBN 978-0-664-22959-7. TRACI C. WEST EMPLOYS a 'dialogical method' [...]