Skin Markings

Filtering Covid-19 Through Levitical and Black Lenses

Bibliographic Data

ID2312547
AuthorsMark C Grafenreed (0000-0001-8814-2035, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume55
Issue6
Pages447-470
Publication date2024-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Black Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9347 • E-ISSN: 1552-4566
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00219347241245151
OpenAlexW4394891598
LanguageEN
References cited19

Kemp proposes a "3Ds of Blackness" theory, arguing that White supremacists have racialized the Genesis 4:15 "mark of Cain" to label Black bodies as dangerous, deviant, and depraved. This article offers Levitical and Black perspectives, extending Kemp's scholarship and societal markings to include "diseased." Exploring ancient biblical binaries of pollution/cleanness, profaneness/sanctity, defilement/purity, and comparing COVID-19 and its treatment mechanisms to skin diseases in Mosaic law, this article claims that structural racist modalities in the United States today treat Black skin as leprous and use justificatory devices to further this end through mass incarceration, poverty, healthcare, and education to keep Blacks "outside the camp." Despite the quotidian of the relentless ferocity of these active forces, Blacks can historically and existentially claim the continuum of God's "deliverance" as a "D" marked upon the diverse melanin-kissed shades of their skin

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Outbreak · Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 · COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts · Medicine · Virology

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