Table Of ContentCONTAINING (UN)AMERICAN
BODIES
VIBS
Volume 219
Robert Ginsberg
Founding Editor
Leonidas Donskis
Executive Editor
Associate Editors
G. John M. Abbarno Steven V. Hicks
George Allan Richard T. Hull
Gerhold K. Becker Michael Krausz
Raymond Angelo Belliotti Olli Loukola
Kenneth A. Bryson Mark Letteri
C. Stephen Byrum Vincent L. Luizzi
Robert A. Delfino Adrianne McEvoy
Rem B. Edwards J.D. Mininger
Malcolm D. Evans Peter A. Redpath
Daniel B. Gallagher Arleen L. F. Salles
Roland Faber John R. Shook
Andrew Fitz-Gibbon Eddy Souffrant
Francesc Forn i Argimon Tuija Takala
William C. Gay Emil Višňovský
Dane R. Gordon Anne Waters
J. Everet Green James R. Watson
Heta Aleksandra Gylling John R. Welch
Matti Häyry Thomas Woods
Brian G. Henning
a volume in
Studies in Philosophy of Peace
POP
William C. Gay, Editor
CONTAINING (UN)AMERICAN
BODIES
Race, Sexuality, and Post-9/11
Constructions of Citizenship
Mary K. Bloodsworth-Lugo
and
Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo
Amsterdam - New York, NY 2010
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Printed in the Netherlands
Philosophy of Peace (POP)
William C. Gay
Editor
Other Titles in POP
Laurence F. Bove and Laura Duhan Kaplan, eds. From the Eye of the Storm:
Regional Conflicts and the Philosophy of Peace. 1995. VIBS 29
Laura Duhan Kaplan and Laurence F. Bove, eds. Philosophical Perspectives
on Power and Domination: Theories and Practices. 1997. VIBS 49
HPP (Hennie) Lötter. Injustice, Violence, and Peace: The Case of South Afri-
ca. 1997. VIBS 56
Deane Curtin and Robert Litke, eds. Institutional Violence. 1999. VIBS 88
Judith Presler and Sally J. Scholz, eds. Peacemaking: Lessons from the Past,
Visions for the Future. 2000. VIBS 105
Alison Bailey and Paula J. Smithka, eds. Community, Diversity, and Differ-
ence: Implications for Peace. 2002. VIBS 127
Nancy Nyquist Potter, ed. Putting Peace into Practice: Evaluating Policy on
Local and Global Levels. 2004. VIBS 164
John Kultgen and Mary Lenzi, eds. Problems for Democracy. 2006. VIBS 181
David Boersema and Katy Gray Brown, eds. Spiritual and Political Dimen-
sions of Nonviolence and Peace. 2006. VIBS 182
Gail Presbey, ed., Philosophical Perspectives on the “War on Terrorism.
2007. VIBS 188
Danielle Poe and Eddy Souffrant, eds., Parceling the Globe: Explorations in
Globalization, Global Behavior, and Peace. 2008. VIBS 194
Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo and Mary K. Bloodsworth-Lugo, eds. A New Kind of
Containment: “The War on Terror,” Race, and Sexuality. 2009. VIBS 201
Andrew Fitz-Gibbon, ed. Positive Peace: Reflections on Peace Education,
Nonviolence, and Social Change. 2009. VIBS 217
Assistant Editor of POP
Danielle Poe
This isn’t for the ones who would gladly swallow
Everything their leader would have them know
Bowing and kissin’ while the truth goes missin’
“Bring it on,” he crows, puttin’ on his big show.
Mary Chapin Carpenter
On with the Song
CONTENTS
Editorial Foreword xi
WILLIAM C. GAY
Preface xiii
MARY K. BLOODSWORTH-LUGO AND CARMEN R. LUGO-LUGO
I ntroduction 1
ONE G. W. Bush Administration Narratives of
Threat and Containment 7
T WO Same-Sex Marriage as “Domestic Terrorism” 23
THREE Bodies that Resisted Containment 41
FOUR The Merger of Immigration, Citizenship,
and Same-Sex Marriage 59
FIVE Constructions of Threat and the Barack Obama
Presidential Campaign 69
SIX Threatening Bodies in the Age of Obama 81
Conclusion 91
Works Cited 99
About the Authors 111
Index 113
EDITORIAL FOREWORD
This Special Series in Philosophy of Peace is focused on issues of peace and
issues of social justice. A recent volume in the series, A New Kind of Con-
tainment: “The War on Terror,” Race, and Sexuality, edited by Carmen R.
Lugo-Lugo and Mary K. Bloodsworth-Lugo addressed issues concerning
social justice connected with the new doctrine of containment, which, they
hold, has been a response to the “War on Terror.”
The first era of containment—the term coined in 1947 by George F.
Kennan—sought to contain the Soviet Union at the beginning of the Cold
War. Since 2001, the United States government has looked to similarly con-
tain the threat of terrorism. As in both of these cases, contributors to that vo-
lume argued that the United States also seeks to contain Lesbian, Gay, Bisex-
ual, Transgendered, Queer (LGBTQ) bodies, as well as other bodies deemed
threatening.
In this timely monograph, Containing (Un)American Bodies: Race, Sex-
uality, and Post-9/11 Constructions of Citizenship, authors Bloodsworth-
Lugo and Lugo-Lugo address aspects of a new containment associated with
the “browning of terror.”
The now familiar phrase “the browning of America” became popular at
the end of the twentieth century when Americans did show signs, in response
to new demographics that projected Whites to be in the minority by mid-
twenty-first century, of affirming multiculturalism. Then, the browning of
America had a positive connotation. However, since 9/11 and the start of the
War on Terror, the earlier positive response to the browning of America has
transformed into a strong rejection of those perceived to be un-American.
This rejection has been revealed through a strong wave of anti-immigrant
activism. Moreover, the War on Terror is becoming increasingly associated
with suspicion about persons of color in general. Bloodsworth-Lugo and Lu-
go-Lugo relate this new phenomenon—that has some characteristics similar
to McCarthyism—with what they term the “browning of terror.”
In this monograph, Bloodsworth-Lugo and Lugo-Lugo provide six chap-
ters in which they trace the browning of terror and constructions of citizen-
ship from soon after 9/11 through the first year of the Presidency of Barack
Obama. In this regard, their work is especially timely. They trace not only the
rise of the browning of terror but also its affect on the Presidential campaign
of Obama and on his first year in office as the first African-American or
mixed race President of the United States of America.
The initial chapter traces the shift to the browning of terror that occurred
under George W. Bush. They also bring out some of the connections made by
politicians on the right between same-sex marriage and domestic terrorism.
The initial chapters in this monograph transition into consideration of how
xii CONTAINING (UN)AMERICAN BODIES
issues of immigration and citizenship have gotten connected to issues about
same-sex marriage.
The final two chapters concern the Presidential campaign and the Presi-
dency of Barack Obama. During the Presidential campaign of 2008, a new
phenomenon emerged in relation to critics of the Democratic candidates dif-
ferent from any that had transpired in earlier campaigns. Earlier Democratic
candidates were typically challenged in relation to their patriotism, but not
their citizenship and Americannness. With Obama, his citizenship was chal-
lenged in ways that connect directly to the browning of terror. Critics ques-
tioned his race, his name, his religion, and—especially—his Americanness.
Given the power of these factors, his election is all the more surprising.
Since Obama’s election as President, these issues have not gone away.
Criticism is lodged at Obama that would be unlikely to ever be aimed at a
White President. Bloodsworth-Lugo and Lugo-Lugo draw attention to this
and related issues in the last chapter, “Threatening Bodies in the Age of Ob-
ama,” on the first-year of the Obama Presidency.
This volume cogently advances the concerns with social justice of this
Special Series on Philosophy of Peace. It also advances critical analyses of
the browning of terror and of the Obama Presidency. For these reasons, this
volume is a very relevant one to the debate on the status of social justice in
America today.
William C. Gay, Professor of Philosophy
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Philosophy of Peace Special Series Editor
