On (Not) Losing My Religion: Interrogating Gendered Forms of White Virtue in Pre-possessed Countries

Abstract

This chapter explores how white virtue can function as a gendered form of social capital camouflaged as secular expertise. I argue that this not only desensitises non-Indigenous people to our implication in broader sovereignty struggles in countries pre-possessed by Indigenous people; it perpetuates politically active forms of white ignorance. Drawing on critical studies of race and religion I illuminate the entanglement of virtue and ignorance with reference to the impact on the academy of Donald Trump’s election in 2016. I conclude with some suggestions about how to counter the individualising force of virtue as a raced and gendered value within the neoliberal university.