Danielle N. Boaz, "Voodoo: The History of a Racial Slur" (Oxford UP, 2023)

Feb 1, 2026

Danielle N. Boaz, a lawyer-historian who studies persecution of Africana religions, examines how the anglicized term "voodoo" became a racial slur. She traces its 1860s U.S. origins, links to empire and migration policy, and how media used it to denigrate Black religion and politics. She urges care with the word and centers devotees' own identities.

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INSIGHT

The Anglicized Term Is Distinct

The English term "voodoo" is an anglicized, evolving label distinct from many African-origin words and pronunciations.
Danielle N. Boaz emphasizes focusing on the English spelling/pronunciation V-O-O-D-O-O when tracing its racist usage.

INSIGHT

Recurring Stereotypes Attached To 'Voodoo'

Core stereotypes linked to "voodoo" include superstition, human sacrifice, cannibalism, and sexual corruption.
These elements recur across media, law, and entertainment, perpetuating dehumanizing images of African-descended religions.

INSIGHT

Birth Of The Slur In Civil War Media

"Voodoo" entered popular English usage in the 1860s, spiking after Union forces captured New Orleans during the U.S. Civil War.
Pro-Confederate press used the term to argue Black people were unfit for freedom and required continued white control.

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Coined in the middle of the nineteenth century, the term "voodoo" has been deployed largely by people in the U.S. to refer to spiritual practices--real or imagined--among people of African descent. "Voodoo" is one way that white people have invoked their anxieties and stereotypes about Black people--to call them uncivilised, superstitious, hypersexual, violent, and cannibalistic.

In Voodoo: The History of a Racial Slur (Oxford University Press, 2023), Dr. Danielle N. Boaz explores public perceptions of "voodoo" as they have varied over time, with an emphasis on the intricate connection between stereotypes of "voodoo" and debates about race and human rights. The term has its roots in the U.S. Civil War in the 1860s, especially following the Union takeover of New Orleans, when it was used to propagate the idea that Black Americans held certain "superstitions" that allegedly proved that they were unprepared for freedom, the right to vote, and the ability to hold public office. Similar stereotypes were later extended to Cuba and Haiti in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the 1930s, Black religious movements like the Moorish Science Temple and the Nation of Islam were derided as "voodoo cults." More recently, ideas about "voodoo" have shaped U.S. policies toward Haitian immigrants in the 1980s, and international responses to rituals to bind Nigerian women to human traffickers in the twenty-first century. Drawing on newspapers, travelogues, magazines, legal documents, and books, Dr. Boaz shows that the term "voodoo" has often been a tool of racism, colonialism, and oppression.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose doctoral work focused on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.

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