Attempted Spirit Murder: Who Are Your Spirit Protectors and Your Spirit Restorers?

This essay examines Patricia William's concept of spirit murder (1991) as she details the ways that racism and other forms of discrimination have devastating spiritual and emotional long-term impacts on the individual and collective psyche of Black people and other marginalized people in the U.S. I connect William's concept of spirit murder to two other concepts I refer to as spirit protectors and spirit restorers. I argue that people who have been targeted by attempted spirit murder in the academy have either internalized the practice of spirit murder and become spirit murderers themselves, or they have resisted and survived attempted spirit murder in the academy by banding together, protecting each other, and creating spirit restorative teams. Peers, mentors, family, and/or community members have often transformed themselves into spirit protectors and spirit restorers. I pay respects particularly to women, queer people, muxeristas, jotería, and Black Indigenous People of Color, activists, and/or scholars who have been my spirit protectors and restorers.