Scan barcode
A review by colin_cox
Afropessimism by Frank B. Wilderson III
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.