rapid-fire hypotheses on afropessimism
2 min readDec 25, 2020
- Frank Wilderson revived the term Afropessimism to describe a shared theoretical concern with the unique oppression of Black people, not a shared set of politics. check out page 58 (chapter 2, beginning of section “The Dilemmas of Black Film Studies”) of Red, White, & Black: Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms to learn where this idea is being taken from.
- most of the “big names” of Afropessimism are institutionally-legitimized, cisgender academics and upper class Black people who face less overt political repression than many Black people have in the past and do in the present, and that has a lot more to do with their “personal” politics than the details of their intellectual work.
- where the political commitments of Afropessimists who don’t have clout like that will lie remains to be seen.
- non-Black people should shut the fuck up regarding debates around AP, but they won’t and this shouldn’t be surprising.
- AP has a strong 🇺🇸-centric tendency NOT because it highlights antiblackness (which is a GLOBAL system of oppression) but because its “big names” have that bias & haven’t effectively countered it. “Wilderson went to South Africa!!” and “Hartman went to Ghana!!” don’t change that. in fact, their destinations of choice are themselves shaped by 🇺🇸 imperial concerns in Africa. as MerriCatherine has made clear, the Caribbean & Black latin amerika are unjustifiably marginalized in AP, as is Black Asia.
- AP has played an important role in sharpening the political theory/analysis of many Black people, including the authors of these hypotheses / this medium post. it is not the first Black intellectual project to play this role, it is not the only one doing so at the moment, and it will not be the last.
- Black people’s agency in choosing to identify ourselves as Afropessimists or to not do so should be respected. we (authors) do not identify as Afropessimists for several reasons. in general, when you can, ask people instead of assuming.
