'I Know Who You Are': Antiblackness in the Speculative Rhetorics Of
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Title Page ‘I Know Who You Are’: Antiblackness in the Speculative Rhetorics of Genetic Genealogy by Amber Elena Kelsie Bachelor of Arts, Dartmouth College, 2007 Master of Arts, University of Pittsburgh, 2011 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2020 Committee Page UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Amber Elena Kelsie It was defended on April 9, 2020 and approved by Dr. Karma R. Chávez, Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin Dr. Shanara R. Reid-Brinkley, Assistant Professor, California State University-Fullerton Dr. Caitlin F. Bruce, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Dr. Paul E. Johnson, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Dissertation Director: Dr. Brenton J. Malin, Associate Professor, Department of Communication ii Copyright © by Amber Elena Kelsie 2020 iii Abstract ‘I Know Who You Are’: Antiblackness in the Speculative Rhetorics of Genetic Genealogy Amber Elena Kelsie, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2020 Drawing on the theoretical frameworks provided by afropessimism, Black feminist new materialism, and rhetoric and media studies, this dissertation investigates the racial meaning- making at work in the speculative rhetorics of genetic genealogy. Genetic genealogy imaginaries are invested in a world-making project that mirrors the speculative maneuvers of biotechnology writ large. Blackness is understood as a “communicative medium” for the inscription of the Humanist drama of value in the production of technoscientific imaginaries. Genetic genealogy discourse figured in the popular HBO series Watchmen and AncestryDNA advertisements are examined as rhetorical mediations of nature and life that appropriate and (mis)recognize Blackness. This dissertation argues that genetic genealogy invests and arrests Blackness through motifs of loss and recovery, and through an incorporative logic of neoliberal multiculturalism. Rhetorical operations of structural adjustment found in this study neither simply forefront a color- conscious politic nor a post-racial one. Instead, these operations are indicative of a racialized command that one assent to deracialization in order to enter the drama of Human value. iv Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Chapter Preview ........................................................................................................... 12 2.0 Theoretical Indebtedness...................................................................................................... 16 2.1 Afropessimism and Black Feminist New Materialism .............................................. 18 2.2 Materialist Rhetoric After the Ontological Turn ...................................................... 26 2.3 Critical Feminist Science and Technology Studies .................................................... 28 2.4 The Darwinian Legacy: Scientific Signification, the Living Laboratory and the Overrepresentation of Man in Spillers, Wynter, and Ferreira da Silva ....................... 41 2.5 Affective Debt Economies: Racial Capitalism, Immaterial Labor, and the Bad Debt .............................................................................................................................................. 59 3.0 Finding Your Mother, Losing Your Mother: Natal Alienation, Black Trauma, and Genetic Repair ............................................................................................................................. 74 3.1 Natal Alienation, Black Social Reproduction, and the Filial .................................... 79 3.2 Suturing the Filial through Racial Trauma in Watchmen ........................................ 84 3.3 Genetic Reparation, National Healing, and the Sociologic of Exclusion ................. 94 3.4 Pharmacogenetics, Genealogical Transparency, and the Ruse of Empathy ......... 104 3.5 Conclusion: Fugitive Kinship .................................................................................... 111 4.0 Without You, the Story Stops Here: Incorporative Moves and Neoliberal Futures in Genetic Ancestry Advertisements ....................................................................................... 114 4.1 Finding and Forgetting Your (Queen) Mother: Courtney’s Story ........................ 119 4.2 The Call to Neoliberal Multiculturalism .................................................................. 126 v 4.3 Ontological Incapacity in the Panorama of Genetic Histories ............................... 132 4.4 The Interracial Desire of Genetic Genealogy ........................................................... 138 4.5 Conclusion: Undercosmopolitanism ......................................................................... 147 5.0 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 150 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 154 vi Acknowledgments This dissertation is dedicated to my grandmother, Helen Greene, and my mother, Helena Greene, who taught me Black women’s wisdom, strength, and care in a world we were never meant to survive. My love and thanks also go to my aunts, cousins, and family as well. And thank you to my partner Beau, whose support for me during this time in so many ways made this a reality. I am indebted to the life and scholarly lessons imparted to me by Anne Sa'adah, Celia Naylor, Deborah King, and Judith Byfield, each of you incredible teachers and mentors to me. Shout out to Sarah, Thorn, Dana, Rachel, and Dave for always reminding me of the poetry of life. And to Babe Mansion for sharing Black queer joy with me. Shout out to all the folks in Critical, Performance, and Black Debate for your brilliant improvisational existence. I have only grown in my time with you. And my thanks to Jarrod Atchison, Justin Green, and the Wake Debate Team for your support while I dove deep into this project. Special thanks must be offered to Ignacio Evans, Taylor Brough, and John Gillespie for your intellectual comradeship. My deep thanks to Lynn Clarke for sharing your brilliance with me and for your mentorship. I have learned so much from you. Thank you to the University of Pittsburgh Communication Department and my colleagues there. And not finally, my immense gratitude for Karma Chávez, Caitlin Bruce, Paul Johnson, Shanara Reid- Brinkley, and Brent Malin for reading and thinking with me and your endless support and guidance in working through this project. Shanara Reid-Brinkley, thank you for so much growing, laughing, crying, thinking—all of your support and care in this journey. I have been blessed with so many who have studied with me and practiced undercommon dreaming and planning. vii 1.0 Introduction In 2010, a man who had lived all his life as white, receives DNA test results that identify him as 90 percent Caucasian, 6 percent indigenous American, and 4 percent sub-Saharan African. He decides to sue the federal government after being denied a minority-business certification designed to offset economic disadvantages faced by racial minorities.1 A white supremacist learns on daytime television that he “has a little black in [him]” when his results include 14 percent sub- Saharan African; he denounces the test as statistical noise.2 In an event which recalled the “transracial blackness” of Rachel Dolezal, genetic ancestry testing was put in the national spotlight when Elizabeth Warren took a DNA test to prove her claim to Cherokee ancestry, prompting a response from Cherokee Nation stating that DNA testing could not determine tribal citizenship.3 An AncestryDNA advertisement features Kyle who grew up celebrating his German ancestry, and then learns that 52 percent of his DNA results designate his ancestry as Scottish and Irish. After receiving his results, he trades in his lederhosen for a kilt.4 Lyn, a Black woman from the south, 1 Christine Willmsen, “Lynnwood man tried to use a home DNA test to qualify as a minority business owner. He was denied — now he’s suing,” The Seattle Times, September 13, 2018, last modified September 17, 2018, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/lynnwood-man-tried-to-use-a-home-dna-test-to-qualify-as-a-minority- business-owner-he-was-denied-now-hes-suing. 2 BlackandRight, “Racist Cobb Finds Out He Has Some Black in Him,” Youtube, Nov 12, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-XDKiO-i4Q; Eric Boodman, “White nationalists are flocking to genetic ancestry tests. Some don’t like what they find,” Stat News, August 16, 2017, https://www.statnews.com/2017/08/16/white-nationalists-genetic-ancestry-test. 3 Cherokee Nation (@CherokeeNation), “Cherokee Nation responds to release of Senator Warren’s DNA test.,” Twitter, October 15, 2018, https://twitter.com/CherokeeNation/status/1051965527214776321. 4 AncestryDNA, “Goodbye Lederhosen, Hello Kilt: How a DNA Test Changed One Man’s Identity Forever,” Ancestry (Blog), December 20, 2016, https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/goodbye-lederhosen-hello-kilt-how-a-dna-test- changed-one-mans-identity-forever. 1 learns she’s 26 percent Nigerian, and is inspired to learn about her culture. Her gele, she says, is the most important hat she’s ever owned.5 In news, advertising,