Back

The Human is a construct. To know the Human is to know, first and foremost, what it is not. Humans are sentient beings who are not Black. Blacks are sentient beings who are not Human. There is a structural (which is to say, necessary) antagonism between Blacks and Humans; and this antagonism hinges on violence. The paradigm of vio lence that positions and oppresses degraded forms of Humanity, such as colored immigrants, women (who are not Black), LGBT people, Indigenous people, and working-class folks (who are not Black), cannot be analogized with the paradigm of violence that positions and oppresses Blackness. Any analogy between the grammar of suffering of degraded Humans and the grammar of suffering of Blacks is hobbled by the ruse of analogy. Degraded forms of Humans are positioned and oppressed by a grammar of suffering known as exploitation and alienation. But Black people are positioned and oppressed by a grammar of suffering known as "fungibility and accumulation" (Hartman 1997). Blacks are objects and implements to be possessed (accumulated) and exchanged (made fungible) in the mate rial and psychic life of Human subjects. Black people are the things that belong to Humans. In this way, all Humans are Masters in their relation to Blacks; and all Blacks are Slaves in their relation to Humans-and this paradigmatic arrangement holds true, Afropessimists argue, whether we are speaking about exalted Human formations, such as heterosexual White males, or degraded Human formations, such as the LGBT community or Brown immigrants or the working class.

Antiblackness by ,