I recently discovered a review by scholar Omari Weekes of the new book by writer, dramatist, filmmaker and critic Frank Wilderson III, Afropessimism. I was intrigued by the title. As Wilderson positions it, Afropessimism is a view that “every marginalized, oppressed, or persecuted group must hold anti-Blackness as a central tenet, because not being Black enables them to strive to be human.” Weekes defines Wilderson’s conception of Afropessimism here:
Afropessimist thinkers have developed and elaborated upon what many would consider a striking premise: Black people’s nonhumanity is the foil against which humanity itself is constructed as a category. In essence, if humans run the world, anti-Blackness emerges as the fuel they need to get things done. First developed by Frank B. Wilderson III and Jared Sexton, Afropessimism takes up the work of Patterson and Hartman along with that of Frantz Fanon, David Marriott, and Hortense Spillers to more fully describe how the social, legal, and economic logics of slavery continue to determine the place (or nonplace) of Black people in civil society, especially in the United States.
Weekes goes further, noting that Wilderson:
claim[s] both in Afropessimism and in much of his writing that other non-Black groups profit from anti-Blackness as well. This structural collaboration between straight white men and everyone else who is non-Black shores up social, economic, and political capital such that other groups are defined as human against Black people’s lack of humanity. For Wilderson, all claims to humanity involve a propulsion away from Blackness. This may seem like a bombastic claim, but it is not totally unprecedented. Studies like Noel Ignatiev’s How the Irish Became White, David Roediger’s Working Towards Whiteness, and Karen Brodkin’s How Jews Became White Folks & What That Says About Race in America work through similar theses, arguing that European immigrant groups now considered to be white achieved that status by accepting whiteness’s most base conclusions about the inferiority of Black people.
The thing is, Afropessimism is a framework that only defines the all-encompassing nature of anti-blackness. When viewed through this lens, the ongoing 400-year struggle to affirm Black peoples’ basic humanity makes a kind of demoralizing sense. It’s also important to note that even Wilderson has said it’s not a “critique”, but an assessment. Given all that’s been laid out here, you might be wondering, “So what do I do with this? Where do we go from here?” Unfortunately, the only answer Wilderson provides is a dispiriting one. Take your choice: Either the world has to end or you can go mad.
If you are looking for a path forward, I suggest counterbalancing Wilderson’s framework with the ideas Robin D.G. Kelley articulates in his book Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. While we should be clear-eyed about the nature of the essential problem Black people face, the optimist in me continues to believe in, as Kelley highlights, the power of imagination to transform society.
For further exploration:
- Check out this video lecture that Wilderson gave at Duke
- The New Yorker’s Vinson Cunningham gives his perspective on the book
- Raise your spirits by listening to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Bryan Stevenson in conversation with Krista Tippett of the On Being podcast
