Black Feelings: Race and Affect in the Long Sixties (Race, Rhetoric, and Media Series)

Honorable Mention Recipient of the 2021 Marie Hochmuth Nichols Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Public Address by the National Communication Association In the 1969 issue of Negro Digest , a young Black Arts Movement poet then-named Ameer (Amiri) Baraka published “We Are Our Feeling: The Black Aesthetic.” Baraka’s emphasis on the importance of feelings in Black selfhood expressed a touchstone for how the Black liberation movement grappled with emotions in response to the politics and racial violence of the era. In her latest book, award-winning author Lisa M. Corrigan suggests that Black Power provided a significant repository for negative feelings, largely Black pessimism, to resist the constant physical violence against Black activists and the psychological strain of political disappointment. Corrigan asserts the emergence of Black Power as a discourse of Black emotional invention in opposition to Kennedy-era white hope. As integration became the prevailing discourse of racial liberalism shaping midcentury discursive structures, so too, did racial feelings mold the biopolitical order of postmodern life in America. By examining the discourses produced by Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and other Black Power icons who were marshaling Black feelings in the service of Black political action, Corrigan traces how Black liberation activists mobilized new emotional repertoires In The 1969 Issue Of Negro Digest, A Young Black Arts Movement Poet Then-named Ameer (amiri) Baraka Published We Are Our Feeling: The Black Aesthetic. Baraka's Emphasis On The Importance Of Feelings In Black Selfhood Expressed A Touchstone For How The Black Liberation Movement Grappled With Emotions In Response To The Politics And Racial Violence Of The Era. In Her Latest Book, Award-winning Author Lisa M. Corrigan Suggests That Black Power Provided A Significant Repository For Negative Feelings, Largely Black Pessimism, To Resist The Constant Physical Violence Against Black Activists And The Psychological Strain Of Political Disappointment. Corrigan Asserts The Emergence Of Black Power As A Discourse Of Black Emotional Invention In Opposition To Kennedy-era White Hope. As Integration Became The Prevailing Discourse Of Racial Liberalism Shaping Mid-century Discursive Structures, So Too, Did Racial Feelings Mold The Biopolitical Order Of Postmodern Life In America. By Examining The Discourses Produced By Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, And Other Black Power Icons Who Were Marshaling Black Feelings In The Service Of Black Political Action, Corrigan Traces How Black Liberation Activists Mobilized New Emotional Repertoires--,How The Black Liberation Movement Confronted Ideologies Of Progress And Equality Through Emotional Discourse-- In Black Feelings, Corrigan traces the surging optimism of the Kennedy administration through the Black Power era’s dynamic and powerful circulation of black pessimism to understand how black feelings were a terrain of political struggle for black meaning, representation, and agency as black activists navigated the physical violence and psychological strain of movement disappointment, particularly with liberals (both black and white). Black Feelings demonstrates how racial feelings emerged, ebbed, flowed, disappeared, and re-emerged as the Long Sixties unfolded and finally ended. Black Feelings investigates how politicians, activists, and artists articulated the relationship between feeling black and black feelings to chart the affective energies that animated and troubled liberalism’s tropes of progress, equality, exceptionalism, perfection, and colorblindness. Black Feelings pays special attention to hope, hopelessness, impatience, brotherhood, rage, shame, resentment, disgust, contempt, betrayal, and melancholy and metaphors like the “powederkeg” that helped propel the affective racial landscape in the Long Sixties. Consequently, Black Feelings maps how black intellectuals described, animated, located, solicited, and projected feelings that shaped their political affiliations and their rhetorical strategies in opposition to dominant constructions of white feelings. "In the 1969 issue of Negro Digest, a young Black Arts Movement poet then-named Ameer (Amiri) Baraka published "We Are Our Feeling: The Black Aesthetic." Baraka's emphasis on the importance of feelings in black selfhood expressed a touchstone for how the black liberation movement grappled with emotions in response to the politics and racial violence of the era. In her latest book, award-winning author Lisa M. Corrigan suggests that Black Power provided a significant repository for negative feelings, largely black pessimism, to resist the constant physical violence against black activists and the psychological strain of political disappointment. Corrigan asserts the emergence of Black Power as a discourse of black emotional invention in opposition to Kennedy-era white hope. As integration became the prevailing discourse of racial liberalism shaping mid-century discursive structures, so too, did racial feelings mold the biopolitical order of postmodern life in America. By examining the discourses produced by Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and other Black Power icons who were marshaling black feelings in the service of black political action, Corrigan traces how black liberation activists mobilized new emotional repertoires."-- Provided by publisher