#BlackLivesMatter: Anti-Black Racism, Police Violence, and Resistance

Photo by Stephen Melkisethian, licensed under CC BY NC ND.

Gathered under the umbrella of #BlackLivesMatter, a movement has erupted in the United States and multiple locations across the globe, including the Dominican Republic and Brazil. These chants, demands, and acts of resistance draw attention to the disproportionate amounts of state-sanctioned violence Black communities experience, frequently at the hands of police. Additionally, organizers, mobilizers, and participants emphasize the ways in which the exploitation of Black labor, the objectification of Black bodies, and the subsequent trauma and death of these human beings continue to be central to political and economic power throughout the world. Using #BlackLivesMatter as an anchor, the contributors to this Hot Spots series offer insight into the specific roles that anti-Black racism and white supremacy have played in centuries of oppressive discourse and practices. This Hot Spots feature is framed around three sets of questions: First, how do we understand #BlackLivesMatter as an intersectional political and theoretical intervention, and how does this intervention help us to better grasp the connections between race, racism, and state-sanctioned violence? Second, in what ways is the history of racism and violence in the United States connected to the transnational and diasporic experience of anti-Black racism and violence? Finally, what are some solutions to these critical issues of Black life and death, and how can activists, researchers, and scholars, particularly those in anthropology, contribute to actions focused on this problem-solving? The editor is thankful to Joy James, Aimee Meredith Cox, Matt Richardson, Christen Smith, Dylan Kerrigan, Joao Vargas, Orisanmi Burton, Michelle Stewart, and Alisse Waterston for their thoughtful contributions to this series.

Posts in This Series

Introduction: #BlackLivesMatter

Introduction: #BlackLivesMatter

Charleston. Baltimore. Ferguson. Dayton. Chicago. Sanford. Atlanta. Brooklyn. Oakland. Nizah Morris. Aiyanna Jones. Eric Garner. Yvette Smith. Dontre Hamilton. ... More

Moving Targets

Moving Targets

“We can restore both trust and faith, not only in our laws but also in those who enforce them.”—Loretta Lynch“The racial reputation of blacks has been uniquely ... More

The Choreography of Survival

The Choreography of Survival

Starting in the late summer of 2014, we have witnessed what some are calling a new form of protest, staged by an intergenerational and interracial populace inte... More

Killed Outright or Left to Die: Black (Trans)Women and the Police State

Killed Outright or Left to Die: Black (Trans)Women and the Police State

Recently, Black trans activist CeCe McDonald called the continuous murder of Black transwomen a state of emergency. In fact, it is only recently that people beg... More

Performance, Affect, and Anti-Black Violence: A Transnational Perspective on #BlackLivesMatter

Performance, Affect, and Anti-Black Violence: A Transnational Perspective on #BlackLivesMatter

Every police car has a bit of slave ship in it. —O Rappa On March 16, 2014, a thirty-eight-year-old black mother of eight named Cláudia Silva Ferreira was caugh... More

Transnational Anti-Black Racism and State Violence in Trinidad

Transnational Anti-Black Racism and State Violence in Trinidad

The recent explosion in protests against anti-black racism and state violence in many U.S. urban centers has parallels with realities in the historically black,... More

Black Lives Don’t Matter

Black Lives Don’t Matter

For a moment, let us suspend the assumption that formations of state and sociality in the United States are exceptional, unique in nature and process, which bea... More

Black Lives Matter: A Critique of Anthropology

Black Lives Matter: A Critique of Anthropology

“Operation Ghetto Storm,” a 2013 report published by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM), presents evidence of 313 killings of Black people by state-sancti... More

Rethinking the Call: The Limits of Cameras and Training

Rethinking the Call: The Limits of Cameras and Training

In a January 2015 Washington Post article, Sandhya Somashekhar aggregated demands from the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Although the list is debatable, she put i... More

Policing Poverty: An Analysis Revisited

Policing Poverty: An Analysis Revisited

It is simply because the communal interest is not recognized for what it is that one class is able to disguise its interest as the “general good” and to promote... More