Violence Against Black Bodies: An Intersectional Analysis of How Black Lives Continue to Matter

307 Pages·2017·1.91 MB·English

by  Sandra E. Weissinger

Violence Against Black Bodies is the book I have been waiting for. While
a national movement has emerged to stop police violence, we need an
equally courageous and audacious movement to stop all forms of violence
against black bodies. This multidisciplinary slate of scholars uncovers
many unknown forms of violence against black bodies. This book could
not be more timely.
Ibram X. Kendi, University of Florida, author of Stamped from the
Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
About half a century ago, Frantz Fanon bemoaned, “I shouted a greeting
to the world and the world slashed away my joy.” Violence Against Black
Bodies is an unprecedented book that frames black pain and suffering
within the context of anti-black racism, where black bodies are marked
for death, treated as sub-persons, and deemed disposable, where black joy
continues to be slashed away despite the reality that we are living in the
twenty-first century. This important text unflinchingly names as systemic
the various subtle and blatant forms of anti-black racism, the violence
experienced by people of color, and the intersectional terror encountered
by LGBTQ persons. In short, racialized violence is not an anomaly,
but constitutive of the identity of North American social and political
life. Violence Against Black Bodies is not limited to theory, but demands
ethical consciousness, political will, and courage, and a praxis of liberation.
A must-read.
George Yancy, Emory University, author of
Black Bodies, White Gazes

Violence Against Black Bodies
Violence Against Black Bodies argues that black deaths at the hands of
police are just one form of violence that black and brown people face
daily in the western world. Through the voices of scholars from different
academic disciplines, this book gives readers an opportunity to put the
cases together and see that violent deaths in police custody are just one
tentacle of the racial order—a hierarchy which is designed to produce
trauma and discrimination according to one’s perceived race-ethnicity.
Sandra E. Weissinger is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Southern
Illinois University Edwardsville.
Dwayne A. Mack is Associate Professor of History at Berea College.
Elwood Watson is Professor of History, African American Studies, and
Gender Studies at East Tennessee State University.
New Critical Viewpoints on Society Series
Edited by Joe R. Feagin
Violence Against Black Bodies: An Intersectional Analysis
of How Black Lives Continue to Matter
Edited by Sandra E. Weissinger, Dwayne A. Mack, and
Elwood Watson (2017)
Exploring White Privilege
Robert P. Amico (2016)
Redskins?: Sport Mascots, Indian Nations and White Racism
James V. Fenelon (2016)
Racial Theories in Social Science: A Systemic Racism Critique
Sean Elias and Joe R. Feagin (2016)
Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children in a
Post-Racial World
Sharon H. Chang (2015)
Antiracist Teaching
Robert P. Amico (2014)
What Don’t Kill Us Makes Us Stronger: African American
Women and Suicide
Kamesha Spates (2014)
Latinos Facing Racism: Discrimination, Resistance, and
Endurance
Joe R. Feagin and José A. Cobas (2014)
Mythologizing Black Women: Unveiling White Men’s Racist
and Sexist Deep Frame
Brittany C. Slatton (2014)
Violence Against Black Bodies
An Intersectional Analysis
of How Black Lives
Continue to Matter
Edited by
Sandra E. Weissinger,
Dwayne A. Mack, and
Elwood Watson
First published 2017
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Taylor & Francis
The right of Sandra E. Weissinger, Dwayne A. Mack, and Elwood
Watson to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of
the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Weissinger, Sandra Ellen, editor of compilation. | Mack,
Dwayne, 1968– editor of compilation. | Watson, Elwood, editor of
compilation.
Title: Violence against black bodies : an intersectional analysis of how
black lives continue to matter / edited by Sandra E. Weissinger,
Dwayne A. Mack, and Elwood Watson.
Other titles: Intersectional analysis of how black lives continue to matter
Description: 1st edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, [2017]
Identifiers: LCCN 2016047504 | ISBN 9781138222090 (hardcover :
alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138222106 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN
9781315408705 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: African Americans—Violence against. | Racism—
United States. | African Americans in popular culture. | African
Americans—United States—Social conditions. | Civil rights
movements—United States. | United States—Race relations.
Classification: LCC E185.615 .V56 2017 | DDC 305.896/073—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016047504
ISBN: 978-1-138-22209-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-22210-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-40870-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Adobe Caslon Pro and Copperplate Gothic
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Acknowledgments x
Introduction 1
SANDRA E. WEISSINGER, DWAYNE A. MACK, AND ELWOOD WATSON
PART I
There is No Time for Despair:
(Re)Working the Racial Order 11
1 The Fires of Racial Discontent Are
Still Burning! Intensely! 17
ELWOOD WATSON
2 Rage and Activism: The Promise of
Black Lives Matter 38
DEBORAH J. COHAN
3 Understanding Racialized Homophobic
and Transphobic Violence 53
KATHLEEN J. FITZGERALD
VII
viii CONTENTS
PART II
The Space of Trauma: Violence to the
Psyche, Body, and Home 71
4 When No Place Is Safe: Violence Against
Black Youth 75
SANDRA E. WEISSINGER AND VENESSA A. BROWN
5 Death by Residential Segregation and the
Post-Racial Myth 90
LORI LATRICE MARTIN, KENNETH FASCHING-VARNER,
AND TIFANIE W. PULLEY
6 Vigilant Vagrants: The Turbulent Tale of
the Queer Black Man 108
MAURICE DAVIS
PART III
Media Fallacies: Stereotypes and
Other Obliterations of Black
Realities 123
7 The Revelatory Racial Politics of The
Sopranos: Black and Brown Bodies and
Storylines as Props and Backdrop in the
Normalization of Whiteness 127
JESSICA MAUCIONE
8 From Mammy to black-ish: The Perceived
Evolution of the Black American Typecast 145
KELLE NEAL
9 For the World to See: Bestiality Against Black
Bodies and the Deleterious Effects of
Predisposed Media Disclosure 159
CEDRIC D. HACKETT
10 It’s “Young Black Kids Doing It”: Biased Media
Portrayals of the Deviant in Britain? 178
MONIA O’BRIEN CASTRO
CONTENTS ix
PART IV
Stone Walls: The Invisible Hand
of Institutional Racism 197
11 “The Multicultural Dilemma”: Ignoring Racism
in the Works of James Howard Kunstler 201
MICHAEL POTTS
12 The School-to-Prison Pipeline: Institutionalized
Racial Violence 220
ELYSHIA D. ASELTINE
13 Blood at the Root: The False Equivalency of
External and Internal Violence Against Blacks
in Obama’s America 240
KAREEM R. MUHAMMAD
14 Trigger-Happy Policing: Racialized Violence
Against Black Bodies in Academic Spaces 259
DWAYNE A. MACK AND FELICIA W. MACK
Contributor Biographies 276
Index 284