Searching for Hope Amid Hopelessness: the Modern Evolution of Afro-Pessimism and Social Death by Cyrus C. Webb, B.A. a Thesis In
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Searching for Hope Amid Hopelessness: The Modern Evolution of Afro-pessimism and Social Death by Cyrus C. Webb, B.A. A Thesis In English Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Approved Dr. Cordelia Barrera Chair of Committee Dr. Matthew Hunter Mark Sheridan Dean of the Graduate School December, 2020 Copyright 2020, Cyrus Webb Texas Tech University, Cyrus Webb, December 2020 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Cordelia Barrera, without whom this project never would have happened. Over the course of the past year, your guidance has been incredible and your insight has been unmatched. In addition to Dr. Barrera, I would also like to thank Dr. Matthew Hunter for his invaluable assistance over the course of the final writing and editing stages. I also could not have completed this project without the wonderful support of my family and friends, all of whom have sacrificed weekends and valuable hours from their busy schedules to lend an ear to my musings or provide a crucial piece of advice when needed. Lastly, I would also like to thank the entire English department at Texas Tech for expanding my horizons and laying the groundwork for my graduate studies. I would not be where I am today without the broad array of conversations stimulated by the incredible faculty members at Texas Tech. Each and every one of you made me feel part of a community greater than myself. ii Texas Tech University, Cyrus Webb, December 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................................. ii ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................... iv I. INTRODUCTION: AFRO-PESSIMISM AND THE ELASTICITY OF SOCIAL DEATH ............. 1 The Evolutionary Nature of Social Death ................................................................................................... 5 II. THE SOCIAL DEATH OF COLIN KAEPERNICK: THE HYPOCRISY OF “STICK TO SPORTS” ...................................................................................................................................................... 10 The Dishonorable Alienation and Victimization of Colin Kaepernick .................................................... 12 Kaepernick, Black Lives Matter, and the Delegitimization of Black Protest ........................................... 25 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 30 III. PESSIMISTIC FUTURISM: IMAGINING A MEANS OF ESCAPE FROM THE CONFINING POSITIONALITY OF BLACK SOCIAL DEATH ......................................................... 32 What is Afrofuturism and Where did it Come From? .............................................................................. 33 Navigating Between Afro-pessimism and Afrofuturism .......................................................................... 37 IV. FROM DEVESTATION TO REHABILITATION: PESSIMISTIC FUTURISM IN THE SPECULATIVE FICTION OF OCTAVIA BUTLER ............................................................................. 39 Social Death and Forward Progression in Parable of the Sower .............................................................. 41 The Hopeful Nature of Societal Reconstruction and the Posthuman in Dawn ......................................... 47 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 59 V. SHIFTING TIDES: THE GRADUAL TRANSITION FROM BLACK SOCIAL DEATH TO ECONOMIC SOCIAL DEATH ................................................................................................................. 61 Machinic Enslavement and the Natal Alienation of the Producer Class .................................................. 63 The Post-Pessimistic Inescapability of Capitalist Realism ....................................................................... 66 VI. POST-PESSIMISTIC INESCAPABILITY: THE INTERSECTIONALITY OF BLACK SOCIAL DEATH AND ECONOMIC SOCIAL DEATH IN THE NICKEL BOYS AND NEVER LET ME GO .................................................................................................................................................. 70 Economic Social Death and Black Social Death in The Nickel Boys ....................................................... 71 Institutional Socialization, Natal Alienation, and Post-Pessimism in Never Let Me Go .......................... 82 The Contrasting Role of Race in Never Let Me Go and The Nickel Boys .............................................. 95 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 99 VII. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?: CONCLUSION ............................................................... 101 Restructuring the Cynicism of Unknown Futures .................................................................................. 104 WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................................................ 106 iii Texas Tech University, Cyrus Webb, December 2020 ABSTRACT Following the rise of social unrest across the modern, 2020 American landscape, a greater emphasis has been placed on America’s complex history of racial inequality. Specifically, the renewed focus on Black disenfranchisement and racial inequality has brought the field of Afro-pessimism into the foreground of academic and cultural discussions, sparking conversations surrounding the validity of the Afro-pessimist concept of social death. The notion of social death—which is based around the core idea that non-Black subjectivity is dependent upon Black desubjectivation—is defined by an inherent sense of permanent inescapability. However, the groundswell of social change taking place in 2020 has raised the question: Is Black social death inherently inescapable regardless of social change or progress? By examining the malicious treatment of Colin Kaepernick, as well as the literary depictions of race and social death in the works of Octavia Butler, Colson Whitehead, and Kazuo Ishiguro, it is made evident that social death is not a static social construct. While Kaepernick’s contemporary treatment reflects the present conceptualization of social death, the literary landscapes created by Butler, Whitehead, and Ishiguro reveal the evolutionary nature of social death and challenge the rigidity of both Afro-pessimism and Black social death. Rather than accepting the current structure of social death, the three authors posit social realities in transition, neither tethered to the traditionally rigid notion of Black social death nor free of social and racial inequalities. iv Texas Tech University, Cyrus Webb, December 2020 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: AFRO-PESSIMISM AND THE ELASTICITY OF SOCIAL DEATH For centuries America has wrestled with the immense weight of its past, frequently trying to conceal its more sinful inclinations while sporadically wrestling with its more painful memories. While the sins of the slave trade and the evils of Jim Crow have gradually drifted deeper into the past, the scars remain as rigid and coarse as ever. It is undeniable that progress has been made since the early days of slavery, yet it remains impossible to argue that America is now the embodiment of a post-racial landscape of equality and fair play. The present reality of continued Black disenfranchisement raises the question: Is it possible for America to construct a post-racial future wherein Blackness does not equate to disenfranchisement, economic demobilization, and social death? While many individuals choose to imagine a future landscape where racial prejudice has all but evaporated, a growing proportion of scholars have increasingly argued that a post-racial future is impossible. This belief in the inevitability of Black subjugation and racial inequality is at the heart of Afro-pessimism—a relatively new field of academic thought which argues that the world is structured around a Black/non-Black binary wherein non-Black subjectivity is dependent upon Black social death and desubjectivation. The field of Afro-pessimism originally rose in prominence during the 1980s following the publication of Orlando Patterson’s groundbreaking work, Slavery and Social Death. Throughout the comparative study, Patterson examines the complex power dynamics present in relationships between slave owners and the enslaved, arguing 1 Texas Tech University, Cyrus Webb, December 2020 that the subjectivity of the slave owners is wholly dependent upon the dishonorable treatment of the enslaved: “What was universal in the master-slave relationship was the strong sense of honor the experience of mastership generated, and conversely, the dishonor of the slave condition” (Patterson 11). Building upon this initial examination of the relationship between slave masters and the enslaved, Patterson developed the foundational tenets for Afro-pessimism, arguing that, within the constraints of a post-colonial global society, Black individuals were continuously robbed of their subjectivity and rendered socially dead in order to re- affirm the subjectivity of their white counterparts. In addition