King/Key Categories, 6. Signifying “Der Rassist” in Religious Studies

This essay argues that religion and race are categories of analysis that are more politically charged than liberal/progressive academic rhetorics let on. I argue that rather than sites to champion liberation or inclusion, these terms should be understood historically as axes of social difference. Furthermore, social theorists should map the way these and comparable terms operate in the politics of identification, the framing of culture, and the obscuring of our own critical theorizing.