The Nuwaubian Nation

Presenting fresh and important insights into racialist spirituality and the social control of unconventional religions in America, The Nuwaubian Nation follows the extraordinary career of Dwight York, who in his teens started out in a New York street gang, but converted to Islam in prison. Emerging as a Black messiah, York proceeded to break the Paleman's "spell of Kingu" and to guide his people through a series of racial/religious identities that demanded dramatic changes in costume, gender roles and lifestyle. Referring to theories in the sociology of deviance and media studies, the author tracks the escalating hostilities against the group that climaxed in a Waco-style FBI raid on the Nuwaubian "compound" in 2002.