What does it mean to be “socially dead?” How does this relate to our ongoing investigation of “invention?” Of “violence?” Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z—I mean, during this lecture. We’ll discuss Orlando Patterson’s concept and how it forms the foundation of a groundbreaking approach to thinking about Blackness. We’ll also work through part of Saidiya Hartman’s Scenes of Subjection to flesh out and deepen our understanding of the consequences of life lived while being “socially dead”—of social life in/with/against/subsumed by social death.
Readings: Orlando Patterson, Slavery and Social Death, excerpt; Saidiya Hartman, Scenes of Subjection, Chapter 3: Seduction and the Ruses of Power,” (80-94, up to “The Measure of Humanity”)What does it mean to be “socially dead?” How does this relate to our ongoing investigation of “invention?” Of “violence?” Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z—I mean, during this lecture. We’ll discuss Orlando Patterson’s concept and how it forms the foundation of a groundbreaking approach to thinking about Blackness. We’ll also work through part of Saidiya Hartman’s Scenes of Subjection to flesh out and deepen our understanding of the consequences of life lived while being “socially dead”—of social life in/with/against/subsumed by social death.
From the Middle Passage to chattel slavery to the Red Summer of 1919, Blackness-as-invention is a bloody construct, a bloodstained machination of a system of domination and terror. This portion of the course will move us through historical, political, and philosophical writings and events that offer us a glimpse of the stakes and consequences of such an “invention.” We will learn about the constitutive elements of slavery that form the state of being we know as “social death” and learn about its ramifications for Black life. We will learn about the Red Summer of 1919 and how the post WWI moment ushered in a newish era of explosive antiblack violence. And we will come to understand just how harmful “inventions” can be.
From the Middle Passage to chattel slavery to the Red Summer of 1919, Blackness-as-invention is a bloody construct, a bloodstained machination of a system of domination and terror. This portion of the course will move us through historical, political, and philosophical writings and events that offer us a glimpse of the stakes and consequences of such an “invention.” We will learn about the constitutive elements of slavery that form the state of being we know as “social death” and learn about its ramifications for Black life. We will learn about the Red Summer of 1919 and how the post WWI moment ushered in a newish era of explosive antiblack violence. And we will come to understand just how harmful “inventions” can be.
From the Middle Passage to chattel slavery to the Red Summer of 1919, Blackness-as-invention is a bloody construct, a bloodstained machination of a system of domination and terror. This portion of the course will move us through historical, political, and philosophical writings and events that offer us a glimpse of the stakes and consequences of such an “invention.” We will learn about the constitutive elements of slavery that form the state of being we know as “social death” and learn about its ramifications for Black life. We will learn about the Red Summer of 1919 and how the post WWI moment ushered in a newish era of explosive antiblack violence. And we will come to understand just how harmful “inventions” can be.
From the Middle Passage to chattel slavery to the Red Summer of 1919, Blackness-as-invention is a bloody construct, a bloodstained machination of a system of domination and terror. This portion of the course will move us through historical, political, and philosophical writings and events that offer us a glimpse of the stakes and consequences of such an “invention.” We will learn about the constitutive elements of slavery that form the state of being we know as “social death” and learn about its ramifications for Black life. We will learn about the Red Summer of 1919 and how the post WWI moment ushered in a newish era of explosive antiblack violence. And we will come to understand just how harmful “inventions” can be.
From the Middle Passage to chattel slavery to the Red Summer of 1919, Blackness-as-invention is a bloody construct, a bloodstained machination of a system of domination and terror. This portion of the course will move us through historical, political, and philosophical writings and events that offer us a glimpse of the stakes and consequences of such an “invention.” We will learn about the constitutive elements of slavery that form the state of being we know as “social death” and learn about its ramifications for Black life. We will learn about the Red Summer of 1919 and how the post WWI moment ushered in a newish era of explosive antiblack violence. And we will come to understand just how harmful “inventions” can be.
From the Middle Passage to chattel slavery to the Red Summer of 1919, Blackness-as-invention is a bloody construct, a bloodstained machination of a system of domination and terror. This portion of the course will move us through historical, political, and philosophical writings and events that offer us a glimpse of the stakes and consequences of such an “invention.” We will learn about the constitutive elements of slavery that form the state of being we know as “social death” and learn about its ramifications for Black life. We will learn about the Red Summer of 1919 and how the post WWI moment ushered in a newish era of explosive antiblack violence. And we will come to understand just how harmful “inventions” can be.
From the Middle Passage to chattel slavery to the Red Summer of 1919, Blackness-as-invention is a bloody construct, a bloodstained machination of a system of domination and terror. This portion of the course will move us through historical, political, and philosophical writings and events that offer us a glimpse of the stakes and consequences of such an “invention.”
