The Blackness of Black

This book explores the relations among blackness, antiblackness, and Black people within the discourse of the blackness of black. This critical discourse developed during the last two decades as scholars explored what Saidiya Hartman describes as the afterlife of slavery. Hartmans concept, which argues for a troubling continuity between the status of enslaved and emancipated Black people, is the pivot between discursive tributaries and trajectories. Tributaries of the discourse of the blackness of black comprise five foundational concepts: Frantz Fanons phobogenic blackness, Orlando Pattersons social death, Cedric Robinsons racial capitalism and the black radical tradition, and Hortense Spillers flesh. The book traces three trajectories within the afterlife of slavery: Frank Wildersons Afropessimism, Fred Motens generative blackness, and Calvin Warrens black nihilism. This ensemble of concepts enable us to understand what is at state in how we understand the relations among blackness, antiblackness, and Black people.