#afropessimism

Kerry James Marshall

i mean, generally, it has a relationship with intersectional feminism, which originated with black feminists. there’s also a complex relationship between black transfeminist thought and more general, transfeminist thought dominated by nonblack transfeminine people. it isn’t uncommon to see the latter borrow ideas from the former and then extend their concepts beyond race lines to nonblack people. the biggest example of this being the TMA/TME framework—the original coiners of TMA/TME created the terms to with the context of discussing the unique positionality of black transfeminized people under the white supremacist patriarchy. then nonblack people got a hold of it and… well.

the idea that the hierarchy of gender is universally dependent on transmisogyny (as opposed to transmisogynior specifically, even. note that!) as a cudgel is blatantly derived from afro-pessimist philosophy—a field of thought that posits that black people are constructed as ontologically socially dead; that blackness is inherently in opposition to civil society. i wonder if this derivation came from the roots of intersectional black feminism that re-interpreted black radicalism through a feminist lens.

it’s ironic, because afro-pessimism, and the underlying framework thereof, explicitly cannot be extrapolated to the experiences and the oppressions of nonblack people:

“afro-pessimism is a lens of interpretation that accounts for civil society’s dependence on anti-black violence—a regime of violence […] [that] cannot be analogized with the regimes of violence that disciplines the marxist subaltern, the postcolonial subaltern, the colored but nonblack western immigrant, the nonblack queer, or the nonblack woman.” - afropessimism, douglass et al.

in fact, this extrapolation could be interpreted as a deconstruction of black politic, and, by extension, a further dehumanization of black people. a concept that afro-pessimists comment on directly:

“afro-pessimism argues that blacks do not function as political subjects; instead, our flesh and energies are instrumentalized for postcolonial, immigrant, feminist, LGBT, and workers’ [political] agendas.” - afropessimism and the end of redemption, frank b wilderson iii

or maybe this, again, is derivative of the black transfeminist framework of transmisogynoir-as-fulcrum, with the added addition of mistakenly applying this analysis to nonblacks… again.

they’ve simply recreated the idea of “woman is the n*gg*r of the world” without understanding the fundamental flaws within the political commentary that follows.

this is, i believe, why you have so many "pessimist transfeminists" (as i'll dub them) who neglect commentary on race, and deliberately avoid "the black problem" outside of utilizing the deaths of black trans women as a tool to centre themselves (all while being completely ignorant to the fact that using black death in this manner is a large part of "the black problem.")

I distro a lot.

I do think every zine I make is the best at the time, but this is a culmination of so research, condensed & a unification of many of my random interests it is emotionally & spiritually significant ✨ RETURN THE BODY; Afropessimism & the Zombie Soul✨ (A standalone zine but it interpolates others zines I’ve made such as my Basquiat, Whore Horrors, Female Leaders of the African Diaspora, Ignorance Breeds Evil, Women in Rouge zines).

46 pages 17 sections. Text heavy with supporting pictures.

I analyze Afro Pessimism as Black intellectual thought & connect it to African spirituality & belief in cannibalism, zombies, witchcraft & how it relates to white supremacy, colonialism, capitalism, individualism, cultural dispossession & the rejection of collectivism, socialism, spiritual & moral health as once practiced by indigenous peoples. Using Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the film Get Out (2017) & Juice (1992) I analyze Black experience in what some Black people strive to make & believe is a post racial world. I reference: The Lost Generation, German Expressionism, Andy Warhol, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein novel & film adaptations to provide & exemplify historical nuance & nonfiction influences along with many Black artists, musicians/rappers, writers, intellectuals works to support my theory & reclaim the zombie or zonbi from the Caribbean back to West & Central Africa.