First I'll say that I've been waiting to share this piece for a while. I had this article bookmarked and read it multiple time in the week I discovered it. A couple months ago, when I was preparing to share my thoughts on afro-pessimism, I noticed that the link led to nowhere. The author, Keesha, had removed it. Floored. I scoured the internet for it. For her. I came across her active twitter account and immediately asked her about it. Luckily she only took it down temporarily so she could focus on school work. Now, I am able to share it with you. Thank you Keesha.
I really want you to read all of Keesha's words in her review. (8min read for those of average reading pace) So, instead of doing my regular selections, I'm doing fragments. Consider this a table of contents to stimulate your appetite.
- ....the core of Afro-Pessimisms’ theory is anti-blackness...
- ...impossible to dissect and divide blackness from slave-ness.
- ...people are not that radical and don’t want to go against the system...
- ...slavery shaped the position of black existence to that of something outside of human.
- social death
- The slave, as an object, is socially dead...
- ...blackness denies one the full recognition...
- ... blackness is inextricably tied to violence...
- ...no possible way to affirm blackness...
- ...decreased suffering will surely make life momentarily easier — but rather to take to task any movement invested in the preservation of society.