Rhetoric, Race, Religion, and the Charleston Shootings

Rhetoric, Race, Religion, and the Charleston Shootings: Was Blind but Now I See is a collection focusing on the Charleston shootings written by leading scholars in the field who consider the rhetoric surrounding the shootings. This book offers an appraisal of the discourses – speeches, editorials, social media posts, visual images, prayers, songs, silence, demonstrations, and protests – that constituted, contested, and reconstituted the shootings in American civic life and cultural memory. It answers recent calls for local and regional studies and opens new fields of inquiry in the rhetoric, sociology, and history of mass killings, gun violence, and race relations—and it does so while forging new connections between and among on-going scholarly conversations about rhetoric, race, and religion. Contributors argue that Charleston was different from other mass shootings in America, and that this difference was made manifest through what was spoken and unspoken in its rhetorical aftermath. Scholars of race, religion, rhetoric, communication, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.

Rhetoric, Race, Religion, and the Charleston Shootings: Was Blind But Now I See makes vital contributions to scholarly and public understanding of the Mother Emanuel tragedy. The essays within this volume are historically-grounded, theoretically-sophisticated, and extremely relevant to our contemporary context; they provide novel frames for rethinking and for thinking more deeply about white supremacist gun violence in America. Moreover, this collection's incisive and multi-faceted engagement with the politics of memory, forgetting, and forgiveness make it an illuminating text for classroom engagement and a go-to resource for scholars' bookshelves.

Melody Lehn is assistant professor of rhetoric and women’s and gender studies at Sewanee: The University of the South. Sean Patrick O'Rourke is professor of rhetoric and American studies at Sewanee: The University of the South.