The Liberation Imperative of Black Genocide: Blueprints from the African Diaspora in the Americas

Abstract

In this article I analyze the theoretical and practical outcomes of the alliances between Black activists in South Central Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, organizing against the effects of white supremacy—police abuse and housing segregation among them. I develop an argument that locates state- and society-sanctioned manifestations of anti-Black genocide and posits the imperative of radical analysis, action, and liberation. To do so, I first describe the conditions under which the encounter between Black Brazilian and U.S. activists took place in 1993. Second, I draw on concepts of genocide developed by the Civil Rights Congress in the early 1950s, and by contemporary activist-intellectuals in the U.S. and Brazil. Third, I explore the applicability and the theoretical and practical importance of the concept of genocide for ongoing Black struggles. Finally, I reflect on the possibilities for liberation, and explain why, given the ubiquity and persistence of anti-Black genocide, liberation is a necessity we cannot afford not to fight for. Genocide creates the imperative of radical transformation and leaves us with no choice but to destroy the social conditions that generate it.