Dr.Frank Wilderson: Afropessimism
- Thread starter Neuromancer
- Start date
His book made me realize that every aware black person is a subtle afro pessimist
Based on this I'm starting to see this.
MajesticLion
Veteran
Or maybe, just maybe...they're at the point where they know it's smarter not to tell you, because you're liable to tell a world of open enemies in a book for self-aggrandizement.
Or, just maybe...a bloody YouTube video.
Or, just maybe...a bloody YouTube video.
@MischievousMonkey this thread reminded of of your earlier thread.
Did you ever finish that book from the clip?
Did you ever finish that book from the clip?
always found it funny black leftists attacked him
MischievousMonkey
Gor bu dëgër
Right right!
Yep, I've finished it. I have mixed feelings about it. It does a great job of exposing the history of different strands of marxism and socialism on the continent, so it makes a solid starting point to dig into the topic. It referred me to a lot of stuff to check out.
But it was also a bit of a depressing read for me. I do think it's a positive thing that the book doesn't shy away from the failures of these movements - which built widespread momentum and participated significantly in chartering the trajectories of African countries. But it delivers way less than I expected when it comes to what to do with this heritage. Maybe it's on me, but I at least wanted to read about what the author had to say about the relevancy of marxism on the continent today, or how to revive it.
When it comes to the book's critique of afropessimism as an anti-politics, I think he makes some salient points (you could even take the whole book to be a counterpoint to the afropessimistic perspective by reclaiming radical Black political agency). One of them being that afropessimism reduces blackness to the specific experience of slavery in the USA, but erroneously widens its conclusions to blackness at large.
I still have to really engage with afropessimism directly (even if its designated authors don't claim the term), and even though some of the concepts appear to fall flat, I do think there is an intuition in there that is a valuable, interesting lens to observe Black people's situation through. Maybe it's me projecting my own perspective on it, but the fact is negrophobia is a global reality that somehow evades total reduction to class analysis and historical attempts at framing it. That's something to reckon with. And I don't think recognizing that fact is incompatible with a class analysis or solidarity with other groups. Both of these are still in our interest.
Nkrumah Was Right
Superstar
This was something I didn't understand in the conversation. Why does it feel like some academics act like two things can't be true at the same time?
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