The Charla de Merienda Podcast Ep. 3 - Y Tú Abuela

Charla de Merienda Podcast Ep. 3 - Y Tu Abuela

Episode Summary:

This episode of Charla de Merienda:The Podcast addresses how deep-rooted Anti-Black rhetoric has affected American and other societies around globe. Anti-blackness is not just racism, colorism or prejudice against Black people–it is the denial of Black humanity. African-American Studies professor Frank B. Wilderson, who has coined the term “Afro-pessimism” states,“Anti-Blackness is the [rationale of classifying] Black people as sub-human” (@darkest.hue). 

Critical race theorists argue that western society was founded (stronger claim) or at least heavily dependent upon Anti-Blackness since the advent of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Despite the abolishment of slavery and much progress toward equality, Anti-blackness still remains in the minds, logics, and structures of many societies that have shaped the way the world views Black people globally. We see this with the countless deaths of Black people in the United States due to systemic and institutionalized  structures of racism. Also in the Caribbean when a Haitian man was lynched in the Dominican Republic (February 2015)  in the midst of the changing of Dominican citizenship laws, denying citizenship to Haitians retroactively up to 1929. These instances are ways that we can see how the negation of Black humanity occurs around the globe, how it perpetuates anti-blackness in media representations, cultural productions, historical narratives, and more.

Episode Notes:

In this Charla podcast, we ask, how can we detect and become cognizant of the ways that Anti-Blackness affects our work, social, personal  and academic communities? How can we dismantle the pillars that hold up Anti-Black logics? 

Conversation 1: What is Anti-blackness? What is  its conceptual and explanatory power, compared to other terms? How does it connect with the experience and phenomenon of Afro-pessimism? 

Conversation 2:  How has anti-blackness manifested itself in Latin American and Caribbean countries? What are some of the distinguishing characteristics between Northern hemisphere and Southern hemisphere anti-blackness?

Conversation 3: Solutions? What should we be doing beyond recognizing the various realities of anti-blackness and Afro-pessimism? Is there a message of hope?