More Than Our Pain: Affect and Emotion in the Era of Black Lives Matter (SUNY series in African American Studies)

Covering rage and grief, as well as joy and fatigue, examines how Black Lives Matter activists, and the artists inspired by them, have mobilized for social justice. Confronted by a crisis in black American leadership, state-sanctioned violence against black communities, and colorblind laws that trap black Americans in a racial caste system, Black Lives Matter activists and the artists inspired by them have devised new forms of political and cultural resistance. More Than Our Pain explores how affect and emotion can drive collective political and cultural action in the face of a new nadir in race relations in the United States. This foregrounding of affect and emotion marks a clear break from Civil Rights Era activists, who were often trained to counter false narratives about protesters as thugs and criminals by presenting themselves as impeccably groomed and disciplined young black Americans. In contrast, the Black Lives Matter movement in the early twenty-first century makes no qualms about rejecting the politics of respectability. Affect and emotion has moved from the margin to the center of this new human rights movement, and by examining righteous rage, black joy, as well as grief and fatigue among other emotions, the contributors celebrate the vitality of black life while documenting those who have harmed it. They also criticize the ways in which journalism has commercialized and sold black affect during coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement and point to strategies and modes-of-being needed to overcome the fatigue surrounding conversations of race and racism in the United States. Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: More Than Our Pain: Affect and Emotion in the Era of Black Lives Matter Affect and Emotion in Social Justice Activism Shaping Collective Protest and Speech through Affect and Emotion in this Book and Beyond Part I Affect and Emotion in the Era of Black Lives Matter Chapter 1 Emotional Work and Care Labor in the Art and Politics of Black Lives Matter Chapter 2 The New Nadir: Decline and Despair in U.S. Race Relations Cycles of Despair Shifting Interpretations of Black History Factors of Decline The New Nadir State Sanctioned Violence Colorblind Laws Crisis in Black Leadership Cycles of Ascension Chapter 3 Emotion, Race, and Cultural Trauma in #BlackLivesMatter Emotion as a Resource Cultivating Emotional Resources for Movement Work #NotYourMule: Protecting Black Emotional Labor Emotional Repair Conclusion Chapter 4 Hoodrat Praxis in a Time of Love and Fury Vanessa Witness This Bridge Wench Witness Delete Joyce Witness Femme Witchcraft Part II Shaping Collective Protest and Speech through Affect and Emotion Chapter 5 The Hoodie Stands Witness: & Other Poems The Hoodie Stands Witness Poetry Workshop after the Verdict Elegy Post-Verdict Renga Heaven? Chapter 6 “I can’t breathe”: Visual Economies of Resistance Wall Street Delia Visual Interruptions Chapter 7 “Stranger Fruit”: Jon Henry in conversation with Beth Hinderliter Chapter 8 The Uses of Anger: Wanda Coleman’s Poetry of Black Rage and #blacklivesmatter The Ratchet, the Respectable, and the Price of Black Rage Flipping the Bird to American Exclusivity Unrequited Love × Alienation = the Rage Equation The Poetics of Righteous Discontent Chapter 9 Bodies That Matter: Blackness, Social Symbolism, and the Affective Image Part III Moving Forward: Overcoming Fatigue with Rage and Joy Chapter 10 A Eulogy in Two Parts and In response to the Question: If 2017 was a poem, what would it be called? Ashton Sterling Philando Castile In response to the Question: If 2017 was a poem, what would it be called? Chapter 11 Puzzle Pieces on the Floor: Curriculum Gaps, White Fatigue, and Misunderstanding #BlackLivesMatter The Black Hole of Textbooks An Ugly Pastime: The Trend of Mob Violence and Lynching White Fatigue and the Trouble with Racial Violence Concluding Thoughts Chapter 12 “We’re Going to Have to Do It Ourselves”: Banking Black in the United States Introduction There’s “No Money” Divestment as a Tactic Divesting from Policing Investment: Banking Black Freedman’s Bank Are Black Banks More Accountable? Different Visions: A Credit Union in Minnesota “We’re Gonna Have to Do It Ourselves” Chapter 13 Black Joy in the Time of Ferguson Notes About the Authors Editors Contributors Index __Covering rage and grief, as well as joy and fatigue, examines how Black Lives Matter activists, and the artists inspired by them, have mobilized for social justice.____More Than Our Pain__