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jolles's review
5.0
Not gonna lie, cried (just a little) at the end of this one. Obviously a masterful union of critical theory, lived experience, and the deep perspective/insight of someone who has lived a lot of life. The way in which Wilderson answers the question of "What is afropessimism" through so many turns/scenes of negation is done so well that I wasn't even frustrated when his thesis appeared on page 267 out of a 339 page book. Most compelling of all, I think, is his assertion towards the end that afropessimism poses a structural problem without a structural solution. This is what it means to do good theoretical work, I think. Indeed we are all often consumed with praxis! praxis! praxis! But, on occasion, there are inevitably/unavoidably problems that simply resist solutions/resolution/or, perhaps, in Wilderson's own parlance: redemption.
dillarhonda's review
If someone came up to you and insisted that Black people were not human, you’d have a visceral negative reaction (at least I dearly hope you would). And that’s exactly what makes Frank Wilderson III’s Afropessimism such a painfully necessary read. The theory of Afropessimism posits that Black people are sentient but non-Human beings continually othered by Human (non-Black) peoples and that this subjugation and suffering is necessary for the continuation of humanity itself. Go read that last sentence again. If you’re a white person and you’ve recently been spending some time examining things like privilege/bias/structural racism, Wilderson’s book will shake those principles to their core. Interweaving episodes from his life with more theoretical passages, he gathers evidence to support his allegation that all Blacks are always already enslaved and that all Whites are their masters – yes even your neighbor, yes even your friend, yes even your partner. We are, all of us, implicated and we are, all of us, responsible.
poenaestante's review
5.0
Done! And I woulda finished it sooner if I'd not kept taking it all over the house with me and then losing it under piles of clothes or on the sides of the couch and such.
Bravo, Frank, you've broken my heart again. You've lived such an outrageously incredible life that I'd question it if I didn't already have so much evidence of it being true. And the life is what really got me here. The mishmash of theory -- Hartman and Lacan and Jared's stuff (oh your love for Jared deserves its own book, but I digress) --- have all been well-trod and frankly done better (and with more rigor and care) by those masters. Where you shine is in the living, Frank, the fearful, shameless, courageous, damnfool, bold ass, "that Negro is crazy!" living. These untold stories touched me so. I gasped, I teared up, I laughed, I welled up. Ms. Ida said you had two more books in you, but I so hope you have even more. Be well. Love, C
Bravo, Frank, you've broken my heart again. You've lived such an outrageously incredible life that I'd question it if I didn't already have so much evidence of it being true. And the life is what really got me here. The mishmash of theory -- Hartman and Lacan and Jared's stuff (oh your love for Jared deserves its own book, but I digress) --- have all been well-trod and frankly done better (and with more rigor and care) by those masters. Where you shine is in the living, Frank, the fearful, shameless, courageous, damnfool, bold ass, "that Negro is crazy!" living. These untold stories touched me so. I gasped, I teared up, I laughed, I welled up. Ms. Ida said you had two more books in you, but I so hope you have even more. Be well. Love, C
dani_nzd's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
theresa95's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0