When and Where I Enter, Then the Whole Race Enters with Me: Que(e)rying Exodus

Abstract

Of the many liberation motifs used in the African American biblical canon, none is so central as the Exodus narrative. In analyzing the Exodus narrative in light of the struggle for Black freedom, the trials and tribulations of the Israelites under Egyptian domination parallel those of African Americans under the reign of white supremacy in the United States. From the hermeneutical perspective that God’s liberating actions for the oppressed take place in history and as history, African Americans’ appropriation of the Exodus motif functions as a historical account of God’s omnipresence in Black life. As permanent outsiders to American mainstream society, the Exodus narrative affords African Americans the social location of privileged insiders in the scriptural drama for liberation.

African American males from various Christian denominations and the Nation of Islam have interpreted Exodus from the “endangered Black male” perspective. Irene Monroe challenges that reading since it excludes African American women and translesbigays, thus legitimizing misogyny and phobias of sexual minorities. She propose a more inclusive and liberative reading of Exodus from an embodied and sexual praxis.