We Can't Breathe!

Starting with Trump's failure to definitively repudiate the Proud Boys, I make the case Trump merely has a strategic, mutually beneficial, and politically expeditious relationship with White Nationalists. This fine distinction matters because it allows us to remember that Trump's eventual departure from the Executive Office will not mean the eradication of White nationalism; makes urgent the needs to develop a sustained challenge to White Nationalism long after Trump's departure; and reminds us that Trump has not offered a brighter future for poor Whites. The need for an anti-capitalist anti-racism remains urgent and we cannot be deluded into believing we have vanquished White nationalism by simply ridding ourselves of Trump.   

Spoiler alert! Here I offer a few bits on why I hated Antebellum. Go check it out and make your own call! Additionally, I share seven maxims I've used in teaching my student how to think through our own @BlackAt Instagram page. 

Here I tackle 9/11 posts that depicted first responders at Ground Zero and contrasted them with images of BLM protesters this summer. They were captioned with "You said you'd never forget...but I guess you did". Additionally, I dissect the recent Medium article written by now former George Washington University professor, Jessica Krug, who confessed having built her entire career on faux Blackness. 

Here I offer some more personal takes on the deaths of Jacob Blake and Chadwick Boseman from the vantage point of bell hooks' (she only writes it in lowercase) "Killing Rage: Ending Racism".

The first episode of season 2! Here I offer a brief catch up on what has happened since season 1 and where season 2 is headed. Next, I look at a picture posted by activist and cultural critic Shaun King and comment on the insecurity that underlies White supremacy. Finally, I look at a video from the subreddit "Fuck You Karen" that depicts a young Black woman "calling out" a White man with locked hair, and offer some thoughts on what does and doesn't advance the cause of ending racism.  

Season Finale! Here I offer some thoughts on "hot topics" surrounding antiracism including the Oppression Olympics, Cancel Culture, and the place of education. Additionally, I walk through some of George Yancy's theorization of un-suturing and tarrying, making connections between Yancy's ideas and Quakerism. I close with a few provisional maxims for the pursuit of antiracism.

Here I return to Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor's From #BLACKLIVESMATTER to Black Liberation in order to lay some historical ground work for understanding the present quest for Black freedom. Here we think through Obama's cautious and ambiguous approach to race and Blackness  and the emergence of BLM at the height of the post-racial mirage.

This is a cut from the synchronous class (7.15.20) where I walk through the a piece I wrote with Mary Cannito-Coville and Dalia Rodriguez on fear and the death of Trayvon Martin. 

Here I think through some of the pitfalls of our common uses of both bias and privilege. Two discourses that sit at the forefront of how we talk about racism. Here I turn to the work of Jennifer Eberhardt to pivot our conversation of bias away from a narrow consideration of cognitive function and thinking about the relationship between cognition, culture, and society. Ultimately, this episode serves as a preamble towards unpacking how we make the claim for the racial injustice of the death of George Floyd and so many others like her.  

This episode builds on episode 2 and includes a cut from our last class (7.1.20). Here I dive into the work of both Taylor and Wang, looking at the genealogy of policing from the slave patrol through the War on Terror. We focus on the cyclical racialization of crime and criminalization of race; the spatiality of race and policing; the limits of diversification; and the growth of mass incarceration from Reagan to Trump.  

In this episode we move through Paul Butler's theorization of the chokehold and give a fast and dirty summation of the War on Drugs, the militarization of the police, and the consequences of contemporary policing. This draws from my time as a student of Dawn Dow and Gretchen Purser and my study of Michelle Alexander, Radley Balko, Michelle Brown, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Loic Wacquant, and Bruce Western among others. What's shared here isn't exhaustive but lays a foundation for better understanding emerging critiques of policing.  

A lengthy (but hopefully thorough) walkthrough of the syllabus.