Black Resistance Research Articles

Racial Profiling, Anti-Black Racism, Black Resistance and the Policing of Young Londoners

Abstract In this article, drawing on findings from an ethnographic study (2018–21) and a Participatory Action Research project in a London Borough, we explore the nature, impact, and forms of resistance to, police racial profiling. Centring accounts of ‘policed’ Black young Londoners we develop a reconceptualization of racial profiling in sociological terms as a dynamic process, understood as both didactic and dialogic; ‘didactic’ given the ways that policed individuals are compelled, uncomfortably, to ‘learn’ about their place in the social formation through profiling interactions; and ‘dialogic’ given the way that profiling instigates a series of claims and counterclaims whereby racist tropes and categorizations can be consolidated, contested and/or resisted as part of an ongoing process of cultural production.

DO NO HARM: HOW FREDERICKSBURG’S CIVIL RIGHTS TRAIL EMERGED THROUGH COLLABORATION and CARE

ABSTRACT Reworking how the public understands a place’s past requires changing how that history is written and how it is practiced in public spaces. Freedom, A Work in Progress, the new civil rights trail in Fredericksburg, Virginia, is an attempt to center Black history in the ways both residents and visitors remember the past in a small Southern city. Throughout the twentieth century, heritage-themed tours, historical markers, and Civil War battle reenactments ensured that a white-centric version of Fredericksburg’s past was both written and practiced on the landscape. When coauthors Chris Williams and Victoria Matthews began working on the trail in 2020, they understood that a century of marginalizing Black experiences in local public history practices had made many Black residents hesitant to share their memories and family histories with Fredericksburg City officials and public history practitioners. In this paper, we detail how our commitment to partnerships between members of the Black community, the local government, and the University of Mary Washington allowed us to collect oral histories, access archives, and map both painful and celebratory Black memories onto public streets, neighborhoods, and a university campus. The result is a physical and virtual trail that, when practiced, has the potential to engrave stories of segregation, racial violence, Black resistance, and Black achievement into Fredericksburg’s collective memory.

Law and Black Agency in Memories of Abolition: Human Rights and Slavery Films

ABSTRACT Abolitionism holds a privileged place in human rights historiography. In scholarship and the wider social world, the abolition of slavery has frequently been celebrated as a foundational human rights moment. This celebratory discourse has also impinged on the medium of cinema: slavery films frequently propagate the view that abolition was a “gift” codified in law. In this reductionist discourse, law is configured as the guarantor of freedom and Black resistance to slavery is marginalised. By this strategy, the history of slavery is transfigured into a platform for the celebration of white moral indignation via attention to a canonised set of white patriarchs conceived of as philanthropic, moral crusaders, who are recognisably the forerunners of today’s white saviour “human rights heroes”. However, as we know, Black agency was also a decisive force in bringing Atlantic slavery to an end – most spectacularly in Haiti. Gillo Pontecorvo’s undervalued 1969 film Burn! offers an ideological critique of abolitionism and holds untapped potential for the radicalisation of human rights discourse today. Refusing the debilitating narrative that abolition was a legally encoded humanitarian gift, Burn! insists upon Black agency as a central historical force in the story of an as yet incomplete struggle for liberation.

The health of the black population and policies in the 20th century: resistance, emancipation and deaths are found at the crossroads

The black movement uses the fight against racism to educate and reeducate Brazilian society, influencing health conditions with actions aimed at the well-being of the black population. This essay aims to identify the relationship between black population's health and death and emancipation policies from a historical perspective, considering racism in Brazil, the role of the state, and black resistance in guaranteeing health rights, from the twentieth century to the implementation of the Brazilian National Comprehensive Health Policy for the Black Population (PNSIPN, acronym in Portuguese) in 2006. This study adopts a theoretical essay methodology, enabling in-depth reflections on historical perspectives related to black people's health. The findings suggest a continuation of mechanisms based on the state's death policies that hinder black communities' access to health due to racism and its tools. At the same time, the black population has actively built emancipatory knowledge and policies over the years with intentional social, cultural and political interventions, such as the PNSIPN and the Brazilian Racial Equality Statute.

Possibilities of Care within Institutional Constraints: A Case Study in Black Creative Knowledge Production

Art school curriculums in institutional settings are often irrelevant to the lived experiences, pathways, and histories of Black students. In this context, in Summer 2021 and 2022, Artspace gallery manager Joshua Vettivelu stewarded a series of projects centring Black students, creating space for open exploration through residencies and research supported by peer mentorship. These projects mobilized a durational approach, pairing small groups of students with slightly more experienced peer mentors over an extended period, in an environment underscored with care and self-direction. In 2021, the it’s real because it happened residency and exhibit allowed participants to explore questions of self-portraiture and perception in collaboration. In 2022, The Black Creative Research Residency (BCRR) project paired a working artist, Shaya Ishaq, with three students to explore questions of optical allyship and Black resistance, culminating in the Knowable Archives, Unknowable Vessels exhibit. This exploration of optical allyship raised questions about allyship communicated through (sometimes shallow) visual signifiers, and in particular explored the works of David Drake – an enslaved potter working in the Antebellum South known for engraving his pots with poetry and his signature – and Josiah Wedgwood – a British potter who made abolitionist pendants for The Society for Effecting the Abolition of Slave Trade. This paper highlights the best practices that emerged from these residencies, such as providing both material resources and immaterial – that is to say, intellectual and relational – support through caring mentorship and relationship building. Furthermore, we explore the tension between both possibilities and limitations of radical care and Black creative practices within institutional constraints.

Untying the knot: Unraveling genetic mechanisms behind black knot disease resistance in Prunus salicina (Japanese plum).

Little is known regarding the genes, compounds and physiological alternations that take place upon infection of black knot disease. This research aimed to unravel the genetic mechanism responsible for the resistance of Japanese plum (Prunus salicina L.) trees against black knot (Apiosporina morbosa Schwein.) using a Genome-Wide Association Study. Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS) was combined with a phenotyping system to analyze 200 genotypes of mixed origin. Population stratification identified four subpopulations, and the Fixed and Random Model Circulating Probability Unification (FarmCPU) algorithm was used for this analysis. Nineteen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly associated with black knot disease resistance were discovered across five chromosomes. Linkage disequilibrium analysis identified 55 genes near these SNPs, with eight genes related to plant defense, immunity, and biotic stress response. One SNP mutation was found in the 5' untranslated region of a gene regulating the first enzyme in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. The results provide valuable insights into the genetic mechanisms behind BLACK KNOT disease resistance in Japanese plum and identifies potential markers for use in molecular breeding.

Policing the Uptown: A Historical Narrative Analyzing Black-Led Coalitions in Response to Police Brutality in Halifax in 1991

This article delves into the historical context of Black resistance to racial oppression in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It focuses on a critical juncture in the ongoing struggle against anti-Black racism in the city—the “Uptown Riots” of 1991. Through archival research and interviews with community members, the article explores how Black activists organized and responded to the municipality, province, and federal government’s complicity in racial oppression during and after the Uptown Riots. The concept of racial institutional orders is employed to analyze the complex relationships between Black communities advocating for self-determination and the governing institutions perpetuating racial concepts of Black inferiority and victimhood. By examining the continuity of resistance and the reconstitution of the dominant racial institutional order, this article sheds light on the enduring impacts of this incident on the affected communities.

Rebels in Arms: Black Resistance and the Fight for Freedom in the Anglo-Atlantic, by Justin Iverson

Rebels in Arms: Black Resistance and the Fight for Freedom in the Anglo-Atlantic, by Justin Iverson

Inhabiting the Uninhabitable: HIV Criminalization and Black Resistance

ABSTRACT: "Decriminalizing the Status Symbol," a two-sided letterpress poster by charles ryan long and Christopher Paul Jordan, calls for action against HIV nondisclosure laws. One side references the Fugitive Slave Laws of the 1850s, while the other features a bold × symbol. Emerging from their collaboration, Jordan's memorial andimgonnamisseverybody in Seattle consists of towering metal boxes arranged in the shape of a ×, honoring Black queer communities impacted by HIV/AIDS. Both works employ the × symbol, which subverts the concept of HIV positivity and draws on West African spiritual symbolism. This essay argues that long and Jordan confront the ways HIV criminalization, prevention, and the erasure of Blackness in the cultural record of AIDS are rooted in anti-Blackness. Their projects challenge traditional AIDS historiography, reinvigorating the timeline of the disease by emphasizing Black history and tradition. They expose HIV/AIDS as a political process that mirrors historical efforts to restrict the well-being of Black communities. The × project creates a platform for imagining a world where HIV is neither stigmatized nor criminalized, offering new perspectives on its history, prevention, and legislation.

“It Had Been Rather Good”: Recovering Joy through the Practice of Black Resistance inside the Kitchenette

Abstract: This article analyzes how Black authors pushed back on white definitions of home that excluded Black residents of kitchenette housing. By performing a close textual analysis of Gwendolyn Brooks’s Maud Martha (1953) and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (1959), the article examines how these works use the abject space and positionality of the kitchenette and its residents to challenge the signification of home and the stigmatization by those who would always see Black lives as wanting. Ultimately, Brooks and Hansberry depict characters who refuse to capitulate to discursive confinement and instead trouble sociopolitical norms and structures and propose new ways of knowing and being to find agency and joy.

The Black Consciousness Movement in Azania (South Africa): A triple heritage

Starting with the 2015 Rhodes Must Fall campaign, there has been renewed interest in the philosophy of black consciousness through popular expressions – on social media and mainstream media articles – and by scholars. This article seeks to revisit the origins of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) in Azania (South Africa). Through an examination of primary sources, that is, documents written by the activist writers of the movement and secondary sources by scholars who reflect on the movement and other expressions of black resistance against colonialism and the oppression of black people globally, this article relies mainly on literature review of documents that are in the public domain. The overall findings of the review show that the BCM drew inspiration from and was shaped by the ‘black radical tradition’ influences from North America (specifically the United States), the Caribbean and South American region, and from the African continent, including locally in South Africa. While shaped by these influences the BCM adapted them and responded to the peculiarities of the condition of black people in South Africa and thus formulated a unique brand of black consciousness. The conclusion reached herein is that movements and the ideas that they espouse, are often confluences of views and practices drawn from different sources.Transdisciplinary Contribution: This article contributes to the understanding of the evolution of political movements from a variety of disciplines – political studies, history, sociology of ideas, history of consciousness and political philosophy.

TikTok and Black political consumerism: Investigating how TikTok use is linked to Black Americans’ activism and identity

ABSTRACT Even though TikTok has become a popular yet highly politicized social media platform for social change and mobilization, there is little research providing insights into minoritized TikTok users. By conducting a survey sampling Black TikTok users (N = 311), this study examines how Black people’s TikTok use for information gathering influences their political consumerism (i.e., boycotting, buycotting), Black activism orientation, and racial identity reformation. The results revealed that TikTok use predicted Black people’s engagement in political consumerism, formal Black activism, Black centrality, and Black nationalist ideology. Also, Black TikTok users’ perceived TikTok network environment (i.e., TikTok network politicalness, diversity, and authenticity) was positively associated with various apsects of Black activism orientation and racial identity ideology. This study’s findings on the role of Tik Tok on Black resistance, activism, and identity have crucial implications for intercultural and intracultural communication.

Rebels in Arms: Black Resistance and the Fight for Freedom in the Anglo-Atlantic by Justin Iverson (review)

Rebels in Arms: Black Resistance and the Fight for Freedom in the Anglo-Atlantic by Justin Iverson (review)

“In the Name of the God of All Names: Yahweh, Obatalá, Olorum”: The 1981 Quilombos Mass as an Ecumenical Pilgrimage in Brazil

AbstractOn November 22, 1981, thousands of laypeople, along with bishops, priests, and theologians, gathered in Recife to celebrate the Eucharist. Offered during a military dictatorship in a period of popular insurgency, the Quilombos Mass mourned the death of millions in the African slave trade, sought pardon for the Church's past sins, and celebrated the resistance of Blacks in Brazil and beyond its borders. The acclaimed Black Brazilian pop star and activist Milton de Nascimento collaborated with an activist poet and three bishops to produce a multimedia performance; in the spirit of liberation theology, it was marked by striking visuals, dance, music, and the invocation of the sacred. This article draws on reportage, speeches and correspondence, military court and intelligence records, published interviews, and the author's interview with one of its composers. It offers a close textual analysis, with attention to Catholic theological debates, as well as an analysis of the performance itself, drawn from video recordings and bringing attention to aspects neglected by most commentators, who refer only to the album, as it was finally produced. Initially stifled by the Vatican, Milton's masterpiece, issued as an album on vinyl and performed in paid concerts, became a powerful cultural reference for activists, serving as a touchstone for a strategic alliance between Black activists and the liberationist Church.

Abolition Reviewed by Zózimo Bulbul in Cinema: Aspects of Black Resistance between Art and History

RESUMO Neste artigo, dirige-se uma crítica a determinados relatos constituintes do documentário Abolição (1988), de Zózimo Bulbul, que discorrem sobre as revoltas no período escravocrata, a abolição e o posicionamento do Estado após a emancipação, a fim de enfatizar suas dimensões históricas e políticas. Para tanto, tais depoimentos, majoritariamente de pesquisadores/as e militantes negros/as, foram cotejados com as perspectivas enunciadas no campo da História, da Antropologia e da Filosofia por Lélia Gonzalez, Beatriz Nascimento, Ynaê dos Santos, Kabengele Munanga e Molefi Kete Asante. Nessa obra, o/a negro/a apresenta-se como enunciador/a da própria história ao denunciar as injustiças acerca da barbárie escravocrata e racista, ao mesmo tempo em que reivindica equidade em sociedade. A narrativa áudio-imagética se alinha à certa historiografia erigida sobre a população negra do Brasil.

Gayl Jones's Afro-Brazil: Hemispheric Black Feminisms and (Mis)Readings of Marronage

Abstract: This article considers Gayl Jones's interventions as a counter-storyteller of Black Brazilian history, focusing on her narrative-poem Song for Anninho (1981) and novel Palmares (2021). Highlighting in each the history of the Palmares quilombo , or maroon community, through the eyes of Almeyda, a Black woman, Jones features marronage as an act of resistance to enslavement as well as a radical Black tradition through which she can critique the white historical and literary canon in the Americas. These questions surrounding Black women's fugitivity put Jones directly in hemispheric conversation with Lélia Gonzalez (1935–94) and Beatriz Nascimento (1942–95), pioneers in Black Brazilian feminist theory. Jones, Gonzalez, and Nascimento understand orality as critical to Black resistance through storytelling, language, and knowledge production. As each offer readings of Black Brazilian history, the mis-readings—misrepresentations of Black women by the archive and what Black women purposefully obscure—are potential risks taken to resist archival silences.

To Protest for Black Life during the Pandemic: Resistance and Freedom in a Settler State

AbstractThis article reflects on the global uprisings in support of Black life during the early pandemic. The focus is on what the protests reveal about Black resistance to the nation-building project of Canada. Protests during this period are understood here to have included taking to the streets, practicing care, and calling for abolition. Drawing on critical race theory and Black Studies, especially Black feminism, the author claims these forms of protest condemned Black dispossession under Canadian laws, while they simultaneously exceeded Canada’s jurisdiction. In other words, the protests can be understood ambivalently, as occurring under and responding to, but not being of, domination. They refashioned the self and the collective, expressing transient freedom from domination and partial redress, even as settler colonial laws would continue to suppress Black and other subaltern peoples. The article navigates such insights through works by Dionne Brand, Saidiya Hartman, and Katherine McKittrick, among others.

Saint Martin de Porres “The Black Saint of the Afro‐descendant community in Quito‐Ecuador”: Between segregation, racism, and black resistance

AbstractIn the neighbourhood Caminos a la Libertad, located in the north‐western part of Quito, every November, a group of Afro‐Ecuadorian women called the Community of Saint Martin & The Martinas pay tribute to Saint Martin de Porres “the Black saint of the Afro‐descendant community.” This celebration is relevant in a context in which the Afro‐Ecuadorian inhabitants of the neighbourhood suffer segregation, racism, and discrimination. What happens in the microcosm of Caminos a la Libertad is, in part, a reflection of the experience of the whole Afro‐descendant population in the capital: A city which has historically created an image of itself as white‐mestizo, and where the presence of Afro‐descendants has been systematically rejected. Based on ethnographic work, participant observation and semi‐structured interviews, in this article I analyse how this community uses the image of Saint Martin de Porres and his celebration to combat racism, promote social cohesion and ethnic and gender empowerment in the neighbourhood, by creating “places of enunciation” and “spiritual citizenship.”

Jump Nyabinghi: Black Radical Militancy, Rastafarianism, and Jamaican Cultural Influence on Black America

While African Americans were in the midst of the zenith of the Civil Rights Movement, Afro-Jamaicans endured civil unrest, Black militant activism, and political changes that eventually resulted in its independence in 1962. While the global impact and influence of African American activism, especially of leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Stokely Carmichael, among others, is well known, little has been written on the influence of Jamaican culture, ideology, and nationalism on the global freedom movement. This research article situates Jamaican activism and ideology as central to the transnational, Pan-African Black resistance movements, specifically in the United States, illustrating that African Americans were deeply influenced by and interested in Jamaican activism and culture.

Racist norms until interests converge: a long tradition of egregious educational policy patterns and global implications

ABSTRACT This article contextualises the crisis in Black education and the death of a 100-year-old Black educational system resulting from an unintended consequence of Brown: the excavation of thousands of highly educated and skilled Black educators. This theoretical article advances the literature on Brown using two critical race theory (CRT) tenets, the permanence of racism and interest convergence, to discursively trace the regression of Black education. This article illustrates the myriad ways interest convergence and the permanence of racism contribute to crises in Black educational systems and the death of a 100-year-old Black educational system. A limitation of CRT in education is the homogenous treatment of Black people despite their variations and conditions. Additionally, analysing connections between Brown, ESEA, and NCLB needs further examination. Finally, I advance that Black resistance to the permanence of racism in the US had global interest convergence implications and aligned with decolonial and independence movements.