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shoshin's review against another edition
I spent a while being confused about the timeline and strange repetitions. I thought my audiobook copy may have had some of its tracks out of order. But then I started paying attention to the section numbers and discovered that, no, it really was that disjointed.
I was seeing so many problems that I decided to see if I was missing something by reading some reviews of the book. I found two very good reviews:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-argument-of-afropessimism
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/on-afropessimism/
These reviewers go into a great deal of depth about the conversation among academics that this book is part of and how strangely the philosophy of Afropessimism fits (or fails to fit) into it. But to me, the flaws in the philosophy are at its base, well outside the academic discussion.
It has been well established by scholars and historians like Hortense Spillers and Saidiya Hartman and Jennifer L. Morgan that the racist ideas that served the institution of enslavement in the United States were developed over the course of roughly the 1500s and 1600s. The story that turned Black people into slaves was a human-made story. It asserted that God had built Black people inferior, to serve white people.
In order to buy into Afropessimism, you have to accept that it is impossible for humans to break down a story and an institution that were built by humans. This seems incredible. We've moved on from a lot of stories that we've told, and we've broken a lot of institutions that we built. It seems implausible that this one story and this one institution would be immune, and this book didn't really make a convincing case that they are.
As Octavia Butler said, "The only lasting truth is change."
I was seeing so many problems that I decided to see if I was missing something by reading some reviews of the book. I found two very good reviews:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-argument-of-afropessimism
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/on-afropessimism/
These reviewers go into a great deal of depth about the conversation among academics that this book is part of and how strangely the philosophy of Afropessimism fits (or fails to fit) into it. But to me, the flaws in the philosophy are at its base, well outside the academic discussion.
It has been well established by scholars and historians like Hortense Spillers and Saidiya Hartman and Jennifer L. Morgan that the racist ideas that served the institution of enslavement in the United States were developed over the course of roughly the 1500s and 1600s. The story that turned Black people into slaves was a human-made story. It asserted that God had built Black people inferior, to serve white people.
In order to buy into Afropessimism, you have to accept that it is impossible for humans to break down a story and an institution that were built by humans. This seems incredible. We've moved on from a lot of stories that we've told, and we've broken a lot of institutions that we built. It seems implausible that this one story and this one institution would be immune, and this book didn't really make a convincing case that they are.
As Octavia Butler said, "The only lasting truth is change."
lizardluvr's review
5.0
i don’t agree with (or understand) all the author’s arguments, but this book made me think like no other. a rigorous and necessary intellectual and emotional challenge.
lilcalamansi's review
slow-paced
5.0
This is one of the most necessary books I have ever read in my life. It took a very long time for me to sit with Afropessimism and listen. Wilderson is an excellent storyteller which lends to excellent pedagogy. His words cut like a knife and at last soften in the epilogue, which left me weeping
fromatreebranch's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
5.0
This is exactly what I needed to read right now to begin to understand what’s happened.
I’m very glad and changed by this work.
I’m very glad and changed by this work.
colin_cox's review
4.0
As a critical theory, afro-pessimism makes three important claims: first, blackness was and remains synonymous with slavery, second, the social category "human" (that which is not black) is reinforced and replenished by persistent anti-black violence, and third, humanist theories of progress and liberation are false, misleading, and serve to perpetuate anti-black violence. Put simply in Frank B. Wilderson's stunning new book on the theory, Afropessimism, afro-pessimism understands, "Blackness is social death." Wilderson continues, "there was never a prior metamoment of plenitude, never equilibrium: never a moment of social life. Blackness, as a paradigmatic position...is elaborated through slavery. The narrative arc of the slave who is Black...is not an arc at all, but a flat line" (102).
To be sure, afro-pessimism makes some bold and unflinching claims (many of its critics, for example, take umbrage with its totalizing and uncompromising positions). But what I find appealing about the theory is the structural position blackness occupies (constitutive yet excluded). Furthermore, afro-pessimism challenges the seductive narrative of social progress. Afro-pessimism refuses to think the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. Instead, it encourages its readers to think that before justice (i.e., black subjectivity) is even possible, we must exist in a universe free from white hegemony.
Unlike many texts that are "critical" and "theoretical," Wilderson's Afropessimism blends critical theory with narrative and memoir. Afropessimism is the second of such books I have read this year, and while I like the approach (it certainly renders theoretical ideas easier to understand), there are times when Afropessimism is bloated and repetitive. Wilderson is a great storyteller, I enjoyed the experience, but this is not a book that needs to be 350 pages. I often refrain from these sorts of petty criticisms. Still, I make it here because I want afro-pessimism, flawed as it is, to have a seat at the table (I think Wilderson does too), and I fear the length and repetitiveness of Afropessimism limits its overall effectiveness.
To be sure, afro-pessimism makes some bold and unflinching claims (many of its critics, for example, take umbrage with its totalizing and uncompromising positions). But what I find appealing about the theory is the structural position blackness occupies (constitutive yet excluded). Furthermore, afro-pessimism challenges the seductive narrative of social progress. Afro-pessimism refuses to think the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. Instead, it encourages its readers to think that before justice (i.e., black subjectivity) is even possible, we must exist in a universe free from white hegemony.
Unlike many texts that are "critical" and "theoretical," Wilderson's Afropessimism blends critical theory with narrative and memoir. Afropessimism is the second of such books I have read this year, and while I like the approach (it certainly renders theoretical ideas easier to understand), there are times when Afropessimism is bloated and repetitive. Wilderson is a great storyteller, I enjoyed the experience, but this is not a book that needs to be 350 pages. I often refrain from these sorts of petty criticisms. Still, I make it here because I want afro-pessimism, flawed as it is, to have a seat at the table (I think Wilderson does too), and I fear the length and repetitiveness of Afropessimism limits its overall effectiveness.
princeton_c's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
5.0
I’ve listened to this book twice. It’s was a wild ride both times. The combination of memoir, theory, and film analysis make it very engaging. The theory might be hard to swallow, but it seems to me the only theory I’ve encountered that fully explains the structural position of black people in the world.
arat's review
4.0
"It's common for most people to feel like they've been 'mugged' by Afropessimism."
I don't have much to say that would be meaningful to add. I'm glad this book was assigned for a class; it's the kind of book that's going to wake me up in a cold sweat a year or two from now as I keep delving into the layers and implications.
I don't have much to say that would be meaningful to add. I'm glad this book was assigned for a class; it's the kind of book that's going to wake me up in a cold sweat a year or two from now as I keep delving into the layers and implications.