Abstract

The Minister of Minstrelsy

The article claims that the political right in the United States uses African American minister Jesse Lee Peterson to espouse its ideology. Throughout his fifteen-year career as a right-wing evangelical minister, Jesse Lee Peterson has never shied from bombastic assaults on targets ranging from civil rights leaders to liberal Democrats to undocumented immigrants. A former welfare recipient, Peterson says he experienced a political awakening when he simultaneously discovered Jesus and former President Ronald Reagan. It was then that Peterson formed BOND, or Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny, a faith-based nonprofit. BOND's primary function seems to be to serve as a platform for Peterson's various publicity stunts. Peterson demonstrates loyalty to the most rigid elements of the white establishment in ways that seem calculated to advance his personal ventures and increase his public stature.