AFR 306 Black Resistance-Black Futures

Is it possible for Black lives to matter "…within the colonial assemblage that is the United States" (Makalani, 2017)? In Black Lives Matter: Organizing from within a Civic Engagement Paradox (AFR 286), we complicate the meaning of civic engagement for Black Americans who live through the remnants of colonization and enslavement. While the Black Lives Matter movement has ushered in a variety of platforms to reach liberation, it requires that Black people ask for their humanity to be recognized due to white supremacist and capitalist structures that delegate anti-Black power and oppression. In the same breath, we must identify and utilize centuries-long civic engagement practices that have been employed for Black liberation within the realms of empowerment, education, eco-activism, and criminal (in)justice. In this class, students will engage her/historiographies, arguments, theorizations, and praxes from thinkers, activists, and scholars of the Black Lives Matter movement to analyze how organizing for Black life is oftentimes a paradox. We will ponder if "…the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house," (Lorde, 1984) emphasizing the role that civic engagement plays in the struggle for Black freedom. More specifically, students will engage democratic processes in the U.S. – such as voter participation, Black and Black-supported politicians, the electoral college, racialized citizenship, and white recognition of Black humanity – as it pertains to the Black Lives Matter movement. Through class readings, research, and activities, as well as communing with community partners, students will examine the possibility for us to create a future of Black liberation through organizing at the local level.

Credits

1 Course Credit