We are currently experiencing a period of massive disinformation and misinformation, which metaphorically speaking has a tight noose around the American consciousness and conscience. In specific ways, distorted political and religious agendas thrust many of us into a perpetual state of confusion, manipulated compliance, and cognitive dissonance. Many of these issues present themselves through the realm of race, racialized politics, and conceptions of Blackness within African American culture. The ways we understand and protect knowledge and truth are attacked by some individuals through forms of concealment, such as intentional ambiguity, tribalism, and pseudo-religiosity.

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Introspection examines specific aspects of race, racialized politics, Black religiosity, and conceptions of an Ideal-Blackness that derive from questionable beliefs, which in turn contribute to the progressive bondage of the African American consciousness and conscience. Introspection also seeks to inform and elicit necessary self-examination within the individual and collective African American consciousness and conscience, by exploring the teachings of influential Black scholars and neglected aspects of our history.

Cory J. May is Assistant Professor of Historical and Theological Studies at Oral Roberts University. He is the author of An Introduction to Colonial African-American Evangelical Theology (2025).