Black Lives Matter Appearance of The and 1968 and Reconstruction From Haiti to Appearance: I. Prefiguring 37 — LivesBlack Matter Ouverture: 15 — Preface 9 — Figures 3 —
Afterword 173 — Brown Michael of Murder The Nonappearance: III. Space The of 135 — #BlackLivesMatter of Appearance II. Space The 83 — Mirzoeff Nicholas
1 Nicholas Mirzoeff 2 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Figures
3 Nicholas Mirzoeff 4 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter 1.01 2.13 Freedman, 2.12 Freedman, 2.11 2.10 2.09 2.08 2.07 2.06 2.05 2.04 2.03 2.02 2.01 2.14 Freedman,
O’Sullivan, O’Sullivan, Barnard, Barnard, Barnard, Barnard, Barnard, Barnard, Barnard, Barnard, 1867. Angeles Ginning, Knox’s Plantation) Knox’s Ginning, Desiree Millenium, 40 Acres of Land and aMule Paper Illustrated Frank Leslie’s Plantation) Knox’s from the Fields) Specimen and 1968 and From Haiti to Reconstruction I. Appearance: Prefiguring Ouverture: Black Lives Matter Jill Freedman, Anonymous, James Taylor, E. “Plowing in South Carolina,” George N. Baranard, Plat of Scanlonville, SC, 1894 Timothy O’Sullivan, Black Lives Matter Millions March Library of CongressLibrary Plantation] (1861), Museum, Los Getty of Congress of Fifteenth Amendment: AGood (Returning Views Carolina South (Cotton Views Carolina South Barn, (Cotton Views Carolina South , ca. 1870, ca. Untitled Rev. Frederick Douglass and Brenda, Soul Child Soul Brenda, Madam Me Call 15 Dignity th , ca. 1870, ca. Amendment, or the Darkey’s , ca. 1870, ca. [Slaves [sic] at J. J.Smith’s Five Generations Five Alexander Knox Alexander from from , ca. 1870a, ca. Old News Old , 1866 , , Library , Library (1861), (1861), (1970) , ca. , ca. 2.16 2.15 Freedman, 3.08 3.14 3.13 3.12 3.11 3.10 3.09 3.07 3.06 3.05 3.04 3.03 3.01 3.02
Anonymous, Anonymous, Trump’s Inauguration (author) August 10, 2014 August 9, 2014 City) Does theDoes Child Die? 2016 Still from Vine posted by Antonio French, Brooke Anderson, Edited video still from showing dash-cam the Edited video still from Chicago PD dash-cam “Police Turn Backs on Protesters,” Precinct 75, “Hands Up!” New York City, August 20, 2014 Still from Vine posted by Antonio French, Cell-phone video still, Ferguson, MO, August John J. Kim, Jean-Baptiste du Tertre, St Louis Medical Examiners’ Office, Canfield II. Space The of Appearance Anonymous, Freedman, Green, Ferguson MO, August 9, 2014 New York City, December 27, 2015 2014 3, December Newspapers) #BlackLivesMatter 9, 2014 9, arrest of Sandra Bland, July 13, 2015 of the shooting of Laquan McDonald, 2014 When Do theWhen Do Eyes Change? When Untitled (Eviction of Resurrection Lamon Reccord Black Lives Matter Protest at Girl Untitled (Palestinian “Die In,” Grand Central Station, Oakland Bridge Action
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5 Nicholas Mirzoeff 6 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter 4.04 4.03 4.02 4.01 3.19 3.18 3.17 3.16 3.15
Wilson Wilson tered into evidence Missouri v. Wilson Darren Missouri v. Wilson Darren Missouri video, July 2016 6, video, July 2016 6, 2016 (author) 2016 “Balls Matter,” Setauket, NY, November 11, Photo released into public domain by Still from Diamond Reynolds, Facebook Live Still from Diamond Reynolds, Facebook Live Edited video still showing from CCTV Philip The Murder of Michael Brown Michael of Murder The III. Space The of Nonappearance: Darren Wilson in hospital, Aug. 9, 2014. Panorama shot of CanfieldGreen. Placards indicating evidence. Photograph en Michael Brown’s body. Photograph entered Charlotte District Attorney Andrew Murray, Coleman in Chicago prison, Dec. 12, 2012 Photograph entered into evidence Photograph entered into evidence 2016 30, November into evidence evidence into State of Missouri v. Darren State of Missouri v. Darren State of State of -
7 Nicholas Mirzoeff 8 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Preface
9 Nicholas Mirzoeff 10 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter The resultThe is this project. the city authorities. Heading through the Lower Side East to put this book through the usual academic channels, to gather my writing and think it through acoherent as the Civil Rights era (1954–68). It became clear that this the drive to have the murdering police officers indict to Village the East and into midtown, it remarkable was August 14, 2014, four days after the death of Michael first first appeared in which activists dropped abanner of in Boycott, support whether financially or careerin terms, from aBlack-led where it might perceived be that to trying Iwas profit, whole. At the same time, a person as defined who is adefiningwas issue of our time. I decided that I wanted what happening. was In keeping with that urgency and
Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) from the Manhattan Bridge. Bridge. Manhattan the (BDS) from Sanctions Divestment, Brown. It followed amarch in solidarity with Palestine in Rights Movement, after Reconstruction (1865–77) and Matter movement online. the As killings continued and identified“white”as by the US color line, I did not want In similar fashion, the Black Lives Matter march “wild was I participated in my first Black Lives Matter action on Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, for making this this making for Miami, Art, Contemporary of Institute march from the police and no route had been submitted to book possible. section The on Michael Brown’s murder movement. Ialso wanted the book to available be free of many people have seen the as third phase of the Civil no convictions followed, the movement grew into what how many people were galvanized by the march—running cat,” meaning that it did not have official permission to charge, so that if anyone did want to read it, they could. ed, Ibegan writing about Ferguson and the Black Lives of part be to restaurants and bars, apartments, of out I want to thank Gean Moreno and everyone at the Tidal : Occupy Theory, Occupy Strategy - - ,
11 Nicholas Mirzoeff 12 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Wilson, Pamela Brown, Patrick Deer, Nicole Fleetwood, tent that Ihave succeeded, it’s due to the collective wis the (predominantly but not exclusively) white academic Amin Husain, everyone in Free University NYC, Reclaim what Imeant. In particular, my thanks go to Kathleen in solidarity, with humility and with respect. To the ex in five countries states—but I and fifteen havelearned itors forced me to think more clearly and precisely about ing on aproject that other academic journals had veered I have (inevitably) failed, I can only promise to fail better next time. next became aware in that process that my role to was help more from each and one of every those conversations. I dom of aremarkable movement, and to the extent that and art-activist audience engage with Black Lives Matter given talks on this material in too many locations to list— and Rename, and the Anti-university (London). Ihave an essay that first appeared in away from. Space “The of Appearance” is derived from collective Ihave since joined). Ithank and later, a revised version appeared in Critical Inquiry Critical Social TextSocial Social Text Social , whose ed (whose (whose for tak for - - - -
13 Nicholas Mirzoeff 14 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter Ouverture:
15 Nicholas Mirzoeff 16 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter The AmericaThe that is seen here is at the intersection of that in turn have made their way into mainstream media. to claim justice and to make injustice visible. Finally, the three streams of visibility. First, the witnessing of these footage. the Next, embodied protests and actions taken was seenwas and how it described was “appearance,” as Murmuring. Voice. (Vehement Vision. pause). All Opening, saints Toussaint opening. L’Ouverture. Here Iwill call the interface of what done was and what Police killings captured on cell-phone video or photo sharing of these images and actions on social media media social on actions and images these of sharing supplemented by machine-generated imagery taken by scenes, depicted in cell-phone videos and photographs, body, campaigns as from antislavery to reproductive body cameras, dash cams, and closed-circuit television resolution photographs and videos have revealed is the of Black Lives Matter and my own conviction that a distinction between between that adistinction my conviction and own Matter Lives of Black appear? It is first to claim rightthe to exist, to own one’s can appear to each other and create a politics. What is to especially the as space of appearance, where you and I ciety that inflictssystemic violence on Black operations of the maintenance of alaw-and-order so al culture in the century. twenty-first What these low- graphs have become ahallmark of United States visu supremacy. Black people, blackness, and black is structural under regimes of white regimes under is structural black and blackness, people, Black 01
I am capitalizing “Black” against convention in keeping with the practice practice the with in convention keeping against “Black” I am capitalizing Enter people, the people. the Enter people, A city street. Asquare. Now. Not for the first time. Action. 01 people. people. - - -
17 Nicholas Mirzoeff 18 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter tion of the police and the prison industrial complex—the tersections, train stations, political rallies, halls, concert that the land in which we appear stolen was from them those of relative privilege. To take the foundational exam to learn how to treat each other equally in circumstances to see here,” and then giving the visible asayable name. to claim the right to look, in the sense that Isee you and to matter, in the sense of Black Lives Matter, to griev be you see me, and together we decide what there is to say where they are not equal, whether in material terms, or
People inevitablyPeople to appear unevenly—the each other infrastructures of white supremacy—to keep such spac ible lack of state in terms support of infrastructure and sports arenas, libraries,sports and lecture halls. It is the func Blackservices. Lives Matter protests reclaim spaces of social movement process is about finding ways for people racialized space with spaces of connection in protest neighborhoods that are marked racialized as by the vis killed in racialized spaces—housing projects and urban by debates over gender and sexual identity. To appear is rights have insisted, and are now being taken forward loaded with histories and inequalities. People are being different “America.” decolonial space of appearance in which to prefigure a against police violence, Black Lives Matter created a separate,es which is to say, segregated. articulating By infrastructure, malls, transport, in connection—roads, decolonial. always and so the work of creating the space of appearance is defiance of the police whosay “move on, there’s nothing aresult.as It’s about seeing what there is to seen, be in able, to aperson be that counts for something. And it is ple, the indigenous person in the Americas always knows Any appearance takes place in a specific space, ------
happens. She situated it in an idealized version of the usingbe it different in avery way. For Arendt, the space bled experience of revealed police and violence subse University of Chicago Press, 1998), 199. Press, of Chicago University attests) the on exclusion of women, children, non-Greeks, ancient Greek state, city or of speech and action,” and it is the space where politics of appearance is “where men are together in the manner quent protests in the same or similar spaces. But Iwill phrase “the space of appearance” of space “the phrase 02
Hannah Arendt, Arendt, Hannah I am appropriating Hannah Arendt’s evocative The Human Condition Human The 1.01 polis , founded (as she herself , 2nd ed. (1958;, 2nd ed. repr., Chicago: 02 to describe the dou to describe - -
19 Nicholas Mirzoeff 20 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “right to that appear” is nonetheless at once constrained Thompson and Lester Embree (Amsterdam: Kluwer Academic Publishers, Publishers, Academic Kluwer (Amsterdam: Embree Lester and Thompson than that which is predicated by the color line. It further possibilitythe very of appearing Black as in away that is that is not yet codified into law and thatcan neverbe fully the space of appearance understood was this way an as thread of Arendt scholarship, it might even said be that the category of free male citizens. In keeping with one Arendt’s formulation of “appearance” is not that being which Ihave thought this project, Judith Butler claims a Since Brown v. Brown of EducationSince Board School.pdf York, 12, New April 2010),School, 2000), 169–87; Allen, Danielle ical or cultural sense, possibility but the very of appearing not codified by white supremacy.That enables those who not just the suspension of law but the pre-figuration of by “norms of recognition that are themselves hierarchical are “white” to engage with Black people in adifferent way law.” into codified archist passages… [which] lay claim to the public in away an example of what she calls “anarchist moments or an and exclusionary.” Black Lives Matter protests are instead directly. discussed here. It is not representation, either in the polit articulation (conscious of white not) or supremacy. of representation because those admitted represented and enslaved human beings. It more was exactly aspace Indiana University Press, 2014). Press, University Indiana galloway/pdf/Galloway,%20Black%20Box%20Black%20Bloc,%20New%20 T. Kathryn and Gines, Harvard University Press, 2015), 75. Press, 38, 26, University Harvard in of Appearances,” Realm Public 05 04 03
Judith Butler, Judith See Alexander R. Galloway, “Black Box, Black Bloc” (lecture, The New New The (lecture, Bloc” Galloway, Black R. Box, Alexander “Black See See Robert Bernasconi, “The Invisibility of Racial Minorities in the of Racial Minorities Invisibility “The Bernasconi, Robert See 04 . In her recent reconsideration of Arendt, through Notes toward a Performative Theory of Assembly of Assembly Theory towardNotes aPerformative Hannah Arendt and the Negro Question the Negro and Arendt Hannah 05 The anarchism The of these moments is Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004); (Chicago: Press, of Chicago University Phenomenology of the Political http://cultureandcommunication. (Bloomington: (Bloomington: (Cambridge: , ed. Kevin, ed. 03 So So org/ - - “the constitutive“the disorder of the 1,146 people. three Forty percent of those killed were tom of how American culture is now. They are symptoms Americas is colonized. is Americas zone in which what is present matters to create nonap whathappens. In 2015, police in the United States killed without reflectionbecause it was all Native land first.
into another.”into is what it now means to intersectional: be gets to Who spaces of nonappearance—that is to say, spaces where space? streets?” “Whose people in ask protests. This had no reason to seen, be [because] it lodges one world requires a recognition that any space whatever in the because, much as it as may seem that these scenes are no one outside cares what happens there. space The of hold the intersection? In claiming the intersection in both litical questions. litical cisely because representation excludes and limits the appearance this Arendt, against endless, what can seen be is only amere sampling of called Black Lives Matter have become agenre, asymp captured the particular set of appearances that can be appearance is aclaim to space that is not subject to the appearance counters the built environment that forms appear and who cannot, and why, are the properly po end racial hierarchy. It reveals what Fred Moten called has pearance. To sure, be the space of appearance not does police. Yet in the Americas space cannot so be claimed physical space and political understanding, the space of Davide Panagia, Davide Panagia, 06 07
Fred Moten, “The Case of Blackness,” of Blackness,” Case Fred “The Moten, Jacques Rancière, “Ten Theses on Politics,” trans. Rachel Bowlby and and Bowlby Rachel trans. Politics,” on “Ten Rancière, Theses Jacques As JacquesAs Rancière put it in defining politics The low-resolutionThe photographs and videos that Theory &Event Theory 06 Appearance resists representation Appearance resists pre 07 Who has the has Who right to appear in urban 5, no. 3(2001). 5, “makes visible that polis Criticism ,” in which who can 50, no. 2(200): 50, 205. which which - - - -
21 Nicholas Mirzoeff 22 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter the future. future. the the people were newly mobilized, requiring new decolonial the police officers that did these killings. In this project, years old, shot multiple times he as wandered erratically Guardian violence enacted to the action being investigated for what whites make percent. up 63 Native people are killed 17, 2016), 17, 2016), 23, 2014–January 20, 2017) marks amoment in which US census data indicates that African Americans con Michael Brown in the summer of 2014 to the inauguration Black or white. In addition to these disproportionate up the road in Chicago, aknife carrying but threatening spaces of appearance from the deaths of Eric Garner and still tends to make people presume that “race” means stitute 12 percent of the population, while non-Hispanic I examine this transformation of visual culture and the histories of the present and creating new possibilities for nobody. And then we waited and nothing happened to numbers, what has been seen is ashocking imbalance of rarely even perhaps reported, because the color line more often per capita (although the absolute numbers questions of appearance, race, law, justice, police, and ofDonald Trump president as in 2017. This period (July a Cleveland park. We saw Laquan McDonald, seventeen shotaged twelve, to death in seconds two for playing in appear to nonviolent be offenses. sawWe Tamir Rice, are small) than any other group. people of color and 23 percent were African American. the-counted-police-killings-us-database. police_killings_native_lives_matter.html 09 08
These figures are from “The Counted: People Killed by Police in the US the in Killed by Police People Counted: “The from are figures These Stephanie Woodard, “The Police Killings No One is Talking (Oct. One No Killings Police About” “The Woodard, Stephanie , In These Times These In https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/ http://inthesetimes.com/features/native_american_
09 These incidents These are 08 , - ”
through New York City: “no running especially at night; no to visiblybe identifiable by the policeas Black is beto tler colonial regime of America. Whiteness is not simply Asian (Other)” my as given ethnicity in the UK by of virtue foundational color line that continues to constitute the set Generation Speaks about Race various diasporic identities, that in the United States, United States, not only can Inot select “Asian,” for which
Black Lives Matter changed has lives. It changed has Black, in keeping with the practice of Black Lives Matter. shiny hand; ones—in no waiting for friends on street cor sudden movements; no hoodies; no objects—especially subjectto an extensive code of regulated appearance, I am “white.” WhenIgrew up in London, asked Iwas been that I have been forced to recognize, despite my mine and for for better worse. consequence One has ners, lest I be mistaken Ibe ners, lest for dealer; a drug no standing near regimes of power. Consequently, Iwill write “white” but my Central Asian grandparents on my father’s side. In the like myself, who can do any of these things without being a corner on the cell phone (same reason).” definedas by GarnetteCadogan’s writing about walking as identity American African self-identified indicate also a descriptor of the body and it to everything has do with could, that would still place me on the “white” side of the one or South of must be Asian East descent, but even if I constantly, “that’s not an English name is it?” And under present-day government definitions,can I select“British 10
Garnette Cadogan, “Black and Blue,” in Blue,” and “Black Cadogan, Garnette On Writing About Black Lives Matter While Lives Matter Writing Black While On About At present to in be any American jurisdiction and Not Being Black , ed. Jesmyn Ward York: (New Jesmyn , ed. Scribner, 2016), 139. The Fire This Time: ANew Time: This Fire The 10 Any person, - -
23 Nicholas Mirzoeff 24 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter The Fire This Time This Fire The the density and interconnectedness of human experience this project, aperson as not subject to these regulations, tality for the racialized, with the facts of police killing these vernacular regulations, an unwritten governmen that will not regarded be with suspicion. To white be is York: Grove Press, 1962),York: 231. Grove Press, way, but against such forms of antiblackness, to articulate possibilityvery of living alife is always under suspension with toy guns, no living while black.” we might now want to augment: allowed to do anything
Frantz Fanon famously wrote Negro “the is not.” in manners of their own choosing. conditions.in these Taken together, the combination of ing here, no standing there, no talking back, no playing simply to allowed be to act. stopped by the police is “white,” regardless of skin tone. I am not attempting to speak for Black experience in any hegemonic, people could differently,hegemonic, identify people expressing rected against those people, who, like myself are defined night, no walking in the day, no turning onto this street, no no sudden movements, no driving your car, no walking at by Black Lives Matter has led the poet Claudia Rankine to and governing them. Were anti-antiblackness to become of people Black as or white for the purposes of ordering white.as Rather it is against the system of classification di not is anti-antiblackness This an anti-antiblackness. In antiblackness. of operations quotidian the demonstrate entering this building, no standing your ground, no stand create an updated list of unpermitted behavior for Black people today: “no hands in your pockets, no playing music, 12 11
Frantz Fanon, Fanon, Frantz Claudia Rankine, “The Condition of Black Life Is One of Mourning,” in of Mourning,” One Is Life of Black Condition “The Claudia Rankine, The archiveThe of violent encounters with police created , 146. , Black Skin, White Masks Skin, Black , trans. Richard Philcox (New (New Philcox Richard , trans. 12 As she As indicates, the 11 Which Which - - - “heathenish, brutish dangerous and an uncertain pride This act adopted was the as basis for slave law in South 1661, the British colonial regime in Barbados a law passed Weheliye defines it, “blackness designates Weheliyea changing “blackness it, defines Whiteness is only defined by implication: a person not a whiteness were taken to exist in that an enslaved person
Carolina in 1696 and had a long legacy in US law. In many Negro, Indian, mulatto, or mestizo is “white.” Degrees of sense within asystem of white supremacy that creates system of unequal power structures that apportion and senses, USsenses, governance continues to center this on colo specifically freed.As such, they were defined as “chattel,” sustains hierarchy. Hierarchy is sustained by police, both benefit.The existence of racecategoryas a of social life nial ordering. If you are subject to that ordering, always a killed” if they used violence against any white person. modified to “realestate” in The was act above1668. all life Black, Black as Lives Matter hasdone? Alexander As and sustains such hierarchies, in which to white be is to cannot.” humans which and delimit which humans can lay claim to full human status of “some whiter person,” or subject be to examination. away from their plantation needed to in be the company with controllingconcerned fugitives and runaways and and Indians” were enslaved, were as their children, unless of people,” whose ordering essential. was All “Negroes entitled anas institution and aconcept as of social ordering. In preventing resistance. enslaved The could “lawfully be and Black Feminist Theories of the Human Feminist Theories Black and Press, 2014),Press, 3. of Negroes 13
Alexander Weheliye, In these circumstances, what it does mean to call An Act for Act An the Better Ordering and Governance . The enslaved. The were defined in this act as Habeas Viscus: Racializing Assemblages, Biopolitics, Biopolitics, Racializing Viscus: Assemblages, Habeas 13 To “white” be only makes (Durham, NC: Duke University University Duke NC: (Durham, -
25 Nicholas Mirzoeff 26 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “subordinate and inferior race of beings” known the as “ne the police. Black Lives Matter, a theoretical as proposition, the people.” It stressed that the distinction the between to note, to contrary present-day historians, that in the to those who were simply an “article of property.” The the groups,tween two meaning that the Declaration of the legal distinction dominant “the between race” and the the appearance of both groups. that any space of appearance that would create apolitics were paupers, vagabonds, and other such denizens of the
Court opined:Court [the “He enslaved African] bought was and decisionCourt in Dred v. Scott Sanford Declaration of Independence, Africans of no part “formed ulate racial hierarchy. That police are not (just) the cops into populations. Let it also noted be how slavery was sold, and treated an as ordinary article of merchandise set of negatives, then you are Black. If not, not. That does Independence’s assertion of liberty for allIndependence’s could not of apply liberty assertion barrier” existedbarrier” in the laws of the thirteen colonies be opinion. ruling how the United States creates order by dividing people not foreclose other ways of being in the world. It states entails the abolition of the police because the police reg commons excluded from the citizenry of the Republic by citizen and the slave of is “police part regulations.” too So opinion at was that time fixed and universal in the civilized and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it. This gro African race,” to use the terms of Chief Justice Taney’s against the ordering of settler colonialism must allow for portion ofportion the white race.” went out Court The of its way prescribed for both Native and African people, meaning supremecourt/text/60/393#writing-USSC_CR_0060_0393_ZO 14
60 U.S. 393 Scott v. 406–07, Sandford, Scott U.S. 393 60 This policing reinforced was by the 1857 Supreme 14 For Taney “a perpetual and impassable https://www.law.cornell.edu/
that enshrined . - - - “general reality,” order that arranges… That reality, the real conditions of existence, is changing. that are collectively known Black as Lives Matter, from to Athens, Madrid, Occupy Wall Street and dozens of other the world’s population had access to the Internet. And in tryside for the first time in history. Since 2011, the global four hundred per million parts for the first time in millions where now. Since more 2008, people live in cities than in the coun
Ferguson to New York, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, May 2014, carbon dioxide in our atmosphere exceeded but what philosopher Jacques Rancière has called the been expected, that the global refusal to led be and to majority is under the age of thirty. In 2016, just under half locations created spaces temporary of appearance in the call “race” and what is better described white as su create apowerful encounter with what the dominant claim the right to look and the right to seen be would and already racialized in the post-encounter Americas. and Charleston, took that possibility their as point. starting of the global South and their regions, but can feltbe every others. conditions These were felt first in the megacities of years, causing drought in some places and floods in premacy. In academia, eyebrows used to raised be if privatized enclosures of neoliberalism. movements The Rose (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), Press, 28. of Minnesota University (Minneapolis: Rose 15
Jacques Rancière, Rancière, Jacques It to was expected, be or at it least should have In response, movements from Tahrir Square When Black Lives Matter: Spaces of Appearance Disagreement : Politics and Philosophy and Politics 15 which is always , trans. Julie Julie , trans. - - -
27 Nicholas Mirzoeff 28 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Ta-Nehisi Coates has put it: “white supremacy is not What is being seen is not new but simply newly visible. through avisualizing program to viewed be on ascreen the light that hits its sensor and computes an image a as YouTube, transformation. astonishing an is this founded tion of photography in 1839. That means that year, every taken. To put that in perspective, in 2012 an estimated America that it is difficult to imagine the country without for this dramatic and revealing expansion of photographs four hundred hours of YouTube video are posted every we now take a third of all pictures ever up to 2012. Some 3.5 trillion photographs had been taken since the inven In 2016, an estimated 1.2 trillion photographs were in 2005, has existed for just over a decade. Whether this it.” single minute. Even allowing for repetition and copying, happening in the lives of our friends and families of which because the image is in fact assembled data. Whenever result. That’s why we can alter the filter at a single click, merely the work of hotheaded demagogues, or a matter and capable of being printed. This data is, by definition, itect, is an instance of such assembled data, rendered a photograph or avideo is being discussed in this proj dia. A digital camera, no matter how expensive, samples and videos. All of these “images” are computational me media. traditional and media social via images digital of of false consciousness, but a force so fundamental to one used this term. For many activists it is agiven. As providing information. It tells us about things that are particular site or not, lasts this time will remembered be premacy visible newly through ubiquitous the distribution reparations/361631/. reparations/361631/. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for- 16 16
Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations,” Reparations,” for Case Ta-Nehisi “The Coates, Black Lives Matter been has able to make white su Atlantic Atlantic (June 2014), - - - -
Trayvon, others were repelled. It striking was how often Tometi created #BlackLivesMatter in response to the Zimmerman went on trial, it seemed that these actions they need to activated, be forced out of the continuum of the ways in which the social order operates. then, These, the movement is led by young queer Black women and third Civil Rights Movement. In Ferguson and elsewhere, than just acopy. combined The impact of the repeated tation of Civil Rights era tactics. resultThe far was more trip to Ferguson on September 2014, 3, in conscious imi that comment mentioned was the as point where things that if he had had ason, that child would have looked like we were previously unaware. And it gives visible access to work soon after Michael Brown shot was in Ferguson, while being president. Black Lives Matter began activist were moved when President Barack Obama said sadly
Missouri, on August 9, 2014. group The organized a bus inhabited and experienced by means of reenactment. if not justice. But acquitted. he was And while many I read in journalists’ accounts of Trump supporters that men, using networked technology to create spaces of had gone too far. Obama As understood, he could a be had achieved at ameasure least of legal accountability, murder of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. When capitalism’s ever-advancing time, to so as collectively be of justice) by themselves. Like any other fragment recu are not just images. Nor are they just images (in the sense appearance. Alicia Garza puts it this way: this it puts Garza Alicia appearance. generated the beginning of what some are calling the deaths of young African Americans at the hands of police perated from the totalizing ambition of the carceral state, president while being Black, but he could not Black be
In 2012, Alicia Patrisse Garza, Cullors, and Opal
- -
29 Nicholas Mirzoeff 30 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter With the seemingly unending repetition of Black deaths the restraints imposed by the society of control, which is think that all US citizens are equal before the law. In 2014 tics about deprivation and discrimination, should one no that we’ve already recognized that it’s fucked up for us.” Feminist Wire Her message is clear: unless Black people get free, no it.That the instances keep coming in which the energy recognition that it’s fucked up for you, in the same way body gets free. Or, put in terms of anti-antiblackness, contained in social and visual frames breaks free from gan to claim justice, precisely because they did not have a new moment of abolition began in which people be at the hands of law enforcement and the of seas statis Fredas Moten coalition does: “The emerges out of your and Black Study Black and blacklivesmatter-2/. 18 17
Fred Harney, Staphano and Moten Alicia Garza, “A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement,” Movement,” #BlackLivesMatter of the “A Herstory Alicia Garza, tionate impact state violence has on Black lives, free, gets free. everybody we are able to end hyper-criminalization and sex we understand that when Black people in this #BlackLivesMatter doesn’t mean your life isn’t ualization of Black people and end the poverty, important–it means that Black lives, which are important to your liberation.important Given the dispropor single person in this world abetter has shot at seen without as value within White supremacy, are getting and staying free. Black When people get control, and surveillance of Black people, every and transformative for society awhole. as When getcountry free, the benefits willbe wide reaching , October 7, http://www.thefeministwire.com/2014/10/ 2014, October , , (Wivenhoe, New York: New , (Wivenhoe, The Undercommons: Fugitive Undercommons: The Planning
Minor Compositions 2013) Compositions Minor 17 , 140. , The The
18 - - - - -
than being tenured. It is rendered in numbers: your credit tainerized life. It’s living in boxy apartments and working the indemnity with which they had punished been for abol the debt and the amount of labor-time required to do so. for slavery. President When François Hollande visited form of control for small nations and ordinary people alike. warrants, arrests, further fines, andwarrants, further arrests, additional costs im Frenchwas radical philosopher Gilles Deleuze who called (Winter 1992): 3–7.(Winter
Haiti in 2015 and spoke of France’s debt to the country, Black Lives Matter movement, it become has clear that in open-plan offices with swipe card and desks. hot entry itself now notably out of control, Itake to the be condition ishing slavery. French the But state quickly clarified that islanders assumed he meant that he would now return score, your cholesterol level, your GPA, all the numbers It’s precarious an job adjunct security—being rather Its opposite,Its in a racialized context, form is reparations It creates arestraining order over the future. During the measure of time, both the amount of time it takes to repay law enforcement uses debt apunitive as form of social of hope for years ahead. indication an and appearance space(s) of present the of dollars or so, this relatively small finecan lead benchto offense, but for those unable to pay the one hundred control. first debt The maybe incurred for a minor traffic a society ordered by less enclosure, meaning the appro out the “society of control” back in 1990. allocated such numbers are of privilege aspects today. It and zones that limit your possibilities. And even being posed on the incarcerated. Debt is an extremely effective priation of physical space, and more by debt. Debt is a 19
Gilles Deleuze, “Postscript on the Societies of Control,” of Control,” Societies the on “Postscript Gilles Deleuze, Being under control is living acontained and con 19 He pointed He to October 59 59 - - - -
31 Nicholas Mirzoeff 32 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter The spaceThe of appearance is the means by which we catch Tahrir, Sol, Syntagma, and Zuccotti. Then there Gaza, was the past isthe past also seen differently, both in the ways it shapes that coalesces common sensation. That is to say, first, I singlethan a payment. tion” is the first item on the reparations agenda, rather your body in aspace where it not supposed to and be to for Black Lives published its future commons or communism. It is doing the work of Washington Post financialcannot debts be forgiven. When Movement the financialized but, according to prevailing neoliberal logic,
Of ademocracyOf rather than arepublic. And in so doing Ferguson, Detroit, and Hong Kong. To feel the rupture, put space into materially shareable and distributable form. see you and you see me and a space is formed by that stay there. If it works, aspace of appearance is formed not been fully recognized or allowed to be. space The of but by our consent it is possible to mediate that dialogic appearance is not universal and it is not unchanging. It is and determines the present, well as that pasts as have abolition, creating the possibility for abolition democracy. a glimpse of the society that is (potentially) to come—the exchange, which generates no surplus for expropriation, control fails. It Sidi was Bouzid in Tunisia, 2011. It was ending the war on Black people. In turn, “lifelong educa arations were the second item on its their agenda, after only a“moral” debt owed. was term=.96e48e12656f. term=.96e48e12656f. worldviews/wp/2015/05/13/does-france-owe-haiti-reparations/?utm_ reparations/. 21 20
“Reparations,” Movement for Black Lives, https://policy.m4bl.org/ Lives, Black for Movement “Reparations,” Ishaan Tharoor, “Is it Time for France to Pay its Real Debt to Haiti?” Debt France for Real to Pay Tharoor, itTime its “Is Ishaan Moments of rupture are any place whatever where , May 13, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ 21 Vision for Black Lives 20 Moral debts cannot be , rep , - - “I do”“I and is thereby married. Being seen and seeing in a Through this crack, it can become possible to look back to the future, the ways in which it appears become pre forces, future. It not does represent, Speaking it performs. can be Waging Non-Violence, figurative.That is say,to what we see when we create a where acrack in the society of control becomes visible. what happens there happens now everywhere, and in the fight-system-change/. fight-system-change/.
Commune, the gesture to the future much is pres very in the future. Prefiguring is always performative. space of appearance prefigures in the present a possible, space of appearance is also such an act. It creates real space of appearance, people act In the moment of the space of appearance, then, there are not previously perceptible, well as look as forward to the nect withnect that potentiality, precisely because it not has relations of existence, without regard to external social multiple temporalities at work. Sometimes, in as the Paris but not necessary, future that others might aspire toward. and discover new genealogies of the present that were crowds out considerations of how the act may viewed be ent. At others, at as Tahrir Square, the present necessity occupiers chant “Black Lives Matter” that sense of being conceded temporality. its temporary marchers When or at other moments of appearance, it is possible to recon an act, in as the marriage ceremony when aperson says possibility of another world(s). another of possibility present in aparticular space is evoked and remains open. Mark Engler and Paul Engler, “Should We Fight the System or Be the Change?” Change?” the Be or System We Engler, the Paul and Fight Engler “Should Mark 23 22
See John Holloway, John See For an analysis of prefigurative politics in the present-day context, see see context, present-day the in Forpolitics an analysis of prefigurative If the space of appearance is aplace that connects as if as they were permanent. people look back When June 3, 2014, 3, June http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/ Crack Capitalism Crack (London: Pluto 2010). Press, as if as they were free, 23 In the the In as if if as 22 - - -
33 Nicholas Mirzoeff 34 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Taking action in and with them unleashes that energy. This dialectic is conditioned by that the pasts have made it This documentation can called be photography in the What happens in spaces of appearance is not simple, African American Freedom Struggle American African themselves. Even under such circumstances, refusal the state wants its subject to look, not how people see tational of imagery all kinds, especially generated as by the kinetic, live space in which real people interact, and video, three-dimensional certain objects, and compu which is why it is powerful. moments These condense
Benjamin called these moments “dialectical images.” contrast,By police or official photography looks how use photography to order and control, use people can ing camera-generated photographs, but also film and its potential, latent form in mediated documentation. information and emotion into aspace, creating energy. may paid be for that refractory gesture. Where the police memory.” movements, Leigh Raiford an intersection described audiences. philosopher German and antifascist Walter and resistance can sometimes seen, be although aprice of “struggles for the black body, the black eye and black critical study of photography in African American social contain the potential of the space of appearance. In her cell phones. Not all photographs in this extended array expanded field generated by computed mean imagery: photographs to send amessage to present and future possibilities. ca/~andrewf/CONCEPT2.html. ca/~andrewf/CONCEPT2.html. Press, 2011),Press, 17. 25 24
Leigh Raiford, Raiford, Leigh Walter Benjamin, “On the Concept of History” (1940), of History” https://www.sfu. Concept the Walter “On Benjamin, The spaceThe of appearance then, has, forms: two 24 Amovement image would have each of these Imprisoned in a Luminous Glare:in a PhotographyLuminous Imprisoned the and (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Carolina of (Chapel North Hill: University 25 - -
“promised land,” been has envisioned before; it not has 1776. In the next section, Icreate agenealogy of the (from climate change to extinctions mass and sea-level that sustaining such an open future is impossible within the space of nonappearance. adialectical As form, this tained. This is the crisis we call the present. from the scenes of such killings soto as exclude the body from the scene of the shooting of Philando Castile. Such which Dr. King in his final address Memphisin called the
Matter have been supplemented by such interventions Matter, such “Hands as Up, Don’t Shoot,” the turning of Haitian revolution and its reappearance in Reconstruction in the moment of viewing and offers future possibilities. in South Carolina (1861–1877), then the revolution most is not new: in the first section, I trace its formation in the It is prefigured, not preordained.The open future, that racial capitalism. Given the crisis within system the Earth realized Increasingly it seems form. been in sustained made public in during the investigation of the murder of make them “visible” in ways. two Firstly, by editing images backs, and the die-in. early These forms of Black Lives ofmodes appearance used by activists during Black Lives rise), it also seems that racial capitalism cannot sus be er length, Ianalyze the transcripts and other materials of the slain. Then in the third section, at much great ance are where police violence takes place. Iendeavor to corporate norprivate spaces of land. nonappear These events take place in what I term no one’s land—neither Diamondas Reynolds’ extraordinary Facebook Live video an end to enslavement, unlike the anticolonial revolt of moment inary United States because history it brought of appearance and its counterpart created by the state, possible, while it prefigures the choices that are available In the subsequent sections, Iexplore the space - - - -
35 Nicholas Mirzoeff 36 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter their allies in the United States has been followed by a the afterword, I reflect briefly on the repudiation of Black to “impeach” (as the lawyers say) the eyewitnesses. In you in the streets. Once again, amoment of progress for Black people and Lives Matter implied by the election of Donald Trump. Michael Brown. include These hundreds of photographs resistance. That’s going to up be to you. And me. See movement in anetworked world will allow for astronger moment of profound reaction. Perhaps the strength of the created the to police support view of what happened and and 1968 and From Haiti to Reconstruction I. Appearance: Prefiguring
37 Nicholas Mirzoeff 38 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter This ground is where the kinetic, live space of appearance tic relic or atradition to reinvented. be It is the means to grounded. be It is created by people seeing each other, the post-encounter Americas is the work of prefiguring tography, the ground enables the subject or figure be to the (re)formation of common ground and the possibility of them.” that stifle problems the willing to expend all of their energy to solve in common, understood coactivity, as collaborative in process and inventing each other, and thereby creating acommon its depiction possible in potential form. In painting, the is arevolution. sustained Its state would permanent be space of appearance them. between It is not an atavis In the revolutionary space of appearance, abolition de It is arecurrent moment, and so each time it is present by which social change metabolizes, creating aform of mocracy prefigures the commons.This space of appear happens. Secondly, ground is the element that makes revolution. Making and sustaining that common space of lives lived for common good, rather than personal profit. University Press, 2014), Press, University xi. counterpower, joining “the together of women and men ance is not space in an abstract sense but makes a claim conversational in research method. Claiming ground in such. Groundworkcomprehended is as itself common, ground makes acanvas into apaintable surface. In pho other such terms have legal and colonial meanings). It is commonlyas worked or shared (land, earth territory, and appearance is what Icall groundwork, aparticular form of of appearance is not (yet) permanent but prefigurative. prefiguration. Here ground a has double meaning—first and Stateand Bolivia in Power at the margin of, beyond, and outside state normativity, 26
Raquel Gutiérez Aguilar, Gutiérez Raquel , trans. Stacey Alba D. Skar (Durham, NC: Duke NC: D. Alba Stacey (Durham, Skar , trans. Rhythms of the Pachakuti: Indigenous Uprising Uprising of the Pachakuti:Rhythms Indigenous 26 But the common space the common But - - - -
39 Nicholas Mirzoeff 40 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter that space, contains its potential and is not simply afterlives. their toabolition, support using shadow “the to the support we see, in the sense of coming to understand, a photo
upon the memento mori, the evocation of death. To the it (as in the form of photojournalism). This work has been is undoing the shattered worlds made by slaveries and Coco Fusco and Brian Wallis Fusco 2003), Brian and York: (New Coco Abrams, space of appearance, active or potential, not does disci surveillance and discipline, it cannot do this work. The it. put she substance,” as space without regime—abolition democracy. In abolition, I awoman?” Truth famously sold her own photograph mon groundmon is shattered.” relations of the visible and the invisible, and the visible media). the When camera is, it as so often is, the tool of asubject,be Sojourner as Truth’s (apocryphal) call “Ar’nt la Deriva “a as desire for common ground when the com ephemera described by the Spanish feminist collective Precarias a graph and the sayable. That common sensation occurs when contrary, it sends messages to the future. It creates new can framed be by the photograph (or other lens-based sensation,common and consent, potential common its ground of her abolitionism. Making ground in abolition a person is not asubject to representation but claims to or suspended, the space regimes between a becomes and performing abolition. slavery When is abolished pline, operate surveillance, or categorize. it Nor does rest and the Index,” in Index,” the and 28 27
Nicholas Mirzoeff, “The Shadow and the Substance: Race, Photography, Race, Substance: the and Shadow “The Mirzoeff, Nicholas Colectivo Situaciones, “Something More on Research Militancy,” Research on More “Something Situaciones, Colectivo When thereWhen is acommon space of appearance, of 5, 4 (2005): 602–14, 4(2005): 5, 606. the space of appearance that emanates Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self of the American Visions Changing Deep: Skin Only 28 27 The reshaped The ground is the This “substance” the was about from , ed. ,ed. - - -
“eye” cited by Raiford) that create embodied subjects. It We see ourselves in common spaces of appearance, as that kinship constructs relations with all living beings who to Cree scholar Winona Wheeler is ‘mnemonic, it has its tential to intersect and interface the points of view (the the space of appearance. This commons is our desire. the space of appearance, photography prefigures the is also crucial,the commons. Raiford Here memory as form that becomes itself akind of common memory. In which we can photographed, be aground that can hold (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011), Press, of Minnesota 118. University (Minneapolis:
Crow Dog said to veterans who had come to hisask for Chickasaw scholar Jodi puts Byrd it: “Within American inhabit it.”inhabit is individual. But photography surrogates it into material Indian epistemologies epistemologies Indian more than important when and the land itself, according kinship relations with all living things who reside on it. As hold and that thereby ground constructs memory has has suggested. It exists, it cannot represented, be and it seen.be Like land, the photograph holds the imprint of like manner, the commons (that which cannot owned) be litical claims to land, we as saw at the 2016 Standing Rock giveness: “we do not own the land, the land owns us.” In own set of memories.’ Aland that remembers is aland and in the visual forming sensation. commons, common a and shape our imprint. It is aframe for the potential of ground of acommons and depicts the ground that it occu creates aground against which figures or subjectscan potential commons and the potential for acommons, in protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Leonard pies. Similarly, many Native peoples across the Americas 29
Jodi A, Byrd, Byrd, A, Jodi Photography in its extended field holds the po 29 This memory is the This key memory to aset of current po The Transit of Colonialism The Critiques of Empire: Indigenous where where something takes place is - - - -
41 Nicholas Mirzoeff 42 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter that is, Carlyle history as would have put it, the of history tomed, perhaps that reflects the ongoing presumption tislavery revolution in the Atlantic world; to its reappear thinks of itself being. as In its dialectical form, it is the that can mediated by the photograph. land The itself, freedom, is, in this sense the space of appearance, that for people of the African diaspora and their allies. If they which holds the imprint of the commons. This ground when liberated from being into territory the grounds of States in 1861 and the radical Reconstruction in South Democracy in America, 1860 America, in Democracy
Carolina that W. B. Bois Du E. called the “dictatorship imperfect, toimperfect, sure, be shaping only what Dr. King called in which one space of appearance prefigures another, is burrowing its between irregular appearances. it might the be place where an autonomous community nonmaterial place where Marx’s “old mole” of revolution might physical be soil under occupation cultivation, or or even it as remembers its predecessors. process The is great men (gender designation intended). It is ahistory do not form the narrative to history which we are accus appearance revolutionary of spaces related dialectically encampment in Washington, are moments These DC. ous year of world revolution and the Resurrection City proletariat” the of ance in the general strike against slavery in the United astonishing appearance in Haiti, the first successful an enabled by human and nonhuman memory, aprocess passes frompasses the living into the ground and back again, a History of the part which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Folk the to in Attempt Reconstruct Played Black which of the part a History https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch07.htm. 31 30
W. E. B. Du Bois, W. Bois, Du B. E. Karl Marx, Marx, Karl In this section, Iwill follow that mole on from its The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte of Louis EighteenthThe Brumaire Black Reconstruction in America: An Essay toward Essay An America: in Reconstruction Black 31 ; and finally, into the tumultu1968, – 1880 (New York: Russell and Russell, 1935), Russell, and York: 346. (New Russell
(1852), part VII, VII, part (1852), 30 - - - - “Slavery is abolished forever,” using present, past, and 78, no. 4 (December 2006). Gulick discusses the 1805 version (another one was was one (another 1805 version the 2006). discusses Gulick no.78, 4(December 1804 Constitution. Haitian The Revolution remains the the “arc of the moral universe.” that could not have beenimagined by those not involved Article 12: Article formal visual image or not, blackness is always in some future tenses in one four-word prefigurative phrase. 1965, http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/
Domingue. revolution The restored the indigenous Taíno France on the island of Hispaniola under the name Saint- is (among many other forms) an Atlantic of world theory imagined whiteness. From this perspective, blackness image since the Haitian Revolution. Whether there is a in 1804, it abolished the colonial regime established by Challenge to Political Legibility in the Age of Revolution,” Age in the to Legibility Political Challenge sense visual or visualized in dialectical relation to an revolution, derived from the Haitian Revolution and its made itself into the scandal of by modernity decreeing in had structured the Atlantic world since 1492. Haiti then politicalry distinction and “free” between “slave” that relation to indigeneity. Constitution The of 1804 declared: name for the island, reminding us that blackness is also a more than ten years of struggle, when Haiti founded was but which carefully was planned and executed. After extraordinarymost of revolutions (1791–1801), an event abolishing slavery, Haiti abolished further the prima issued in 1806), but the clauses I mention here were not changed at that time. changed not were here in 1806), Imention clauses issued the but 33 32
See Anne W. Gulick, “We Are Not the People: The 1805 Haitian Constitution’s 1805 Haitian Constitution’s The People: W. the Anne Not Are “We See Gulick, Martin Luther King, Jr., “Sermon at Temple Israel, Hollywood,” February 29, 29, at Jr., February Temple King, Luther “Sermon Hollywood,” Israel, Martin Blackness in all its forms been has adialectical
No whitemanNo of whatever nation he may shall be, put his foot on this with territory the title of master 32 mlktempleisraelhollywood.htm. American LiteratureAmerican 33 By By -
43 Nicholas Mirzoeff 44 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter This clause undid colonialism, and sought to foreclose then on. In this frame, the colonized Irish would black, be tion land to the enslaved, formerly to understood it was tionary affiliation asand abolition democracy. term “unthinkable” for its revolution, it all was the more to Black, be regardless of personal past histories. As Alexandre Pétion began creating such acommons with History History
inconceivable revolu rewriting as for its of blackness in Haiti were to known “be only by the genericappellation so too the radical sisted, against the highly complicated racial hierarchy of scribed other masters and proprietors, allowing and In place of the regime of slavery, the Constitution rein have institutionalized the revolution. the have institutionalized much Haiti’s as in was, Michel-Rolph history Trouillot’s miscegenation created by slavery, that all persons living requiring private property. Crucially, it nonetheless in of colonial ordering has depicted its others Black as from democracy had claimed blackness, visuality ameans as planta former 1814 in redistributing by passed law a aries for was communally owned land. President When abolished, the abolition demand from the revolution in the everywhere as Atlantic world that slavery was of Blacks.” To present be in the decolonial space was or segregation. any future possibility of white supremacy, neocolonialism, Prince: Collection du Tricinquanternaire du l de Collection Prince: 35 34
Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Michel-Rolph Dantès Bellegarde, Bellegarde, Dantès (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1997), Press, 70–108. Beacon MA: (Boston, What names were the nonenslaveable now to have? or proprietor, neither shall he in future acquire any property therein. property sans-culottes Histoire du Peuple Ha duHistoire Peuple Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of the Production and Power the Past: Silencing of the French of the Revolution ’Indé pendance de Ha ïtien, 1492–1952ïtien, 35 Since abolition abolition Since 34 ïti, 1953), 118. 1953), ïti, In Haiti, (Port-au------the end of the condition of slavery. From Haiti to Jamaica white supremacy, all claim to personhood.
Haitians were “Black beyond remedy.” Martin Luther King’s Have “I aDream” speech in 1963. For abolition to meaningful, be it had to more be than is the militarized maintenance of hierarchy. Revolution is introduced the concept of visuality in English, put it, the is avisual iconography of abolition, ranging from the revolt and Black be is to beyond be all recognition from blackness in the colonial frame of white supremacy. To revolt is to black be in a system where white supremacy both of subsistence and depiction found themselves in by communal farming. redistribution of land so they could themselves support and the Paris Commune. Carlyle, Thomas But as who enslaved person on their pleading knees for freedom to occupied to as be all but invisible. In the Americas, there of Reconstruction hassubsequently been so thoroughly any possible commons have beeneffectively most occu of photography, invented in 1839. common The land and and their visual technologies, including the new format opposition to representation and its by arrests the police America, theand formerly North enslaved called for the pied by capitalism. actually The existing Black commons of Visuality Hall, 1896), 222. 1896), Hall, 37 36
Mirzoeff, Mirzoeff, Thomas Carlyle, Thomas (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011), Press, University Duke NC: 10–13, (Durham, 111–13. Abolition, Reconstruction, and and Reconstruction, Abolition, The Right to Look, Right to Look, The
See also Nicholas Mirzoeff, Mirzoeff, Nicholas also See the Visual Commons The FrenchThe Revolution 37 The commons and their The ground, 90–101. The Right to Look: A Counterhistory ACounterhistory Right to Look: The , vol. II (1837;, vol. II Chapman London: 36 That is to say, to -
45 Nicholas Mirzoeff 46 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Thirteenth AmendmentThirteenth that allowed for the emergence There are intertwined threads two to these dialectical im the “general strike against slavery” that had begun at the they have life distinct from that of other of burden? beasts to labor and create value, whether within the capitalist them. There is no such set of visual references for would later say that they did not. these Between eras vate collections only with the spread of digital technology. wealth that might have given autonomy to the freed wronged submit demands to those who have wronged Slavers said that they did not. Jim Crow sharecropping
Fifteenth Amendment but undone by the loophole in the Reconstruction do not exist. It is because the work of white Reconstruction, the radical redistribution of land and so thoroughgoing.so supremacy in erasing these accomplishments been has It is an iconography of representation, in which the may said be to revolve around the question of Black life incarceration.mass dialectics These of Reconstruction market self-sufficient as or small The con other holders. have been invisible for many years, emerging from pri of hundreds of thousands of the enslaved to continue as outbreak of the Civil War. described He how the refusal ground of slavery, almost soon what as as Bois Du called the revolutioncame of Reconstruction. and whether it matters. Were Black people people? Did of formation the and labor lend-lease penitentiary, the of cerns the human status of freed citizens, protected by the ages. One concerned the capacity of African Americans der after slavery, and still because less visual images of cause there no was counter way to imagine social or and made abolition fully meaningful. That is not be Even the photographic traces of Reconstruction The BlackThe commons formed itself on and in the - - - - -
that Bois Du hailed “a as revolution comparable to the their right to do so. There is no question that those who work in the American West and famed for his Civil War Sea Islands.Sea All those present had participated in the Union-held territory. From the strike came arevolution Magazine
Carolina Constitutional convention, the African American American African the convention, Constitutional Carolina upheavals in France in the and past, in Russia, Spain, understood very wellunderstood very in 1901 that “Reconstruction is still ical accounts, the white supremacist Woodrow Wilson stood to be photographed that understood they stood series over ahundred people, mostly women, have gath strike. In O’Sullivan’s best-known photograph from this the American South American the India and China today.” neither slave nor free, they were technically contraband history. At the time, their persons very were interstitial: moment in his 1861 photographs of African Americans matter.” revolutionary lutionary times.” lutionary at a transitional and transformational momenttransitional in US a at ered for the purpose of being photographed to attest to on aformer slave labor camp (aka plantation) in the chattel led to migration a mass from the Confederacy to as revolutionas been has obscured by the standard histor pastor Rev. Ennals J. Adams declared, are “these revo platform of the Union Republican for the South party per of the period. At an 1867 meeting to determine the photographs, captured the potential of this revolutionary revolutionary this of potential the captured photographs, in Reconstruction Charleston, South Carolina,” South Charleston, in Reconstruction 40 39 38
Du Bois, Bois, Du Bernard E. Powers, Jr., “Community Evolution Jr., Relations Race and Powers, E. “Community Bernard Bruce E. Baker, Bruce E. Timothy O’Sullivan, for known history his in art later 95, no. 1 (January 1994): 87. no. 1(January 95, Black Reconstruction Black (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2007), 113. of Virginia Press, University (Charlottesville: 39 What Reconstruction Meant: Historical Memory in Memory Historical Meant: Reconstruction What While the framing of Reconstruction 40
38 His description met the tem , 708. , South Historical Carolina - - - -
47 Nicholas Mirzoeff 48 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “Five Generations,” makes this message abundantly clear. abundantly message this makes Generations,” “Five was arisk:was the Fugitive Slave Law still was in effect and invertise human the South, the property strikers claimed
Matter because that is, in brief, its clear message. presentingBy themselves to seen be by the camera, a standing in front of one of the so-called “slave cabins,” sage outweighed that risk and that their picture should strikers have must believed that sending this visual mes It depicts agroup of nine men, women, and children of be celebratedbe agathering as of revolutionaries. From a machine that had hitherto been used more often to ad because they had under slave law “stolen” themselves. built by enslavers to house their human property. Some different ages—from babies to an elderly man.They are could have been used to identify and reclaim them. The a new subjectivity before and outside the law. image The present-day perspective, the photo prefigures Black Lives Another photograph from this known as series, 2.01 - - their former owners theirs was by right they as had troops in Charleston were saying “all of the property that would never remember it (Jim Crow notwithstanding), that these people had familial ties. point The is nonethe that it could to disrupt Black families, it cannot certain be that it visibly contains have yet to fully be realized. tain of their right to seen. be One woman her has eyes whom it would only avague be memory, and the babies
song during the Civil War had the chorus: “Occupy the sufficiency bymeans of the communal ownership of land. land.” In December 1860 aplanned revolt of the enslaved and might have seemed permanent, to the young children for broom can seen be at we As left. know that slavery did all moved during the exposure, a phantom as arm holding a have shoes on, some do not. Someone seems to have mules and money” reparations as for slavery. remains evocative and moving because the aspirations revolutionary change happened has within the span of for All less made:less from the older man, into born a slavery that lowered, expected as by slave owners, while the young in American Life Life American in against US slavery were clear that their goal self- was enslaved across the Atlantic world, those who struck ofcosts racial capitalism. Across and acentury ahalf it mourningas but possibility, as despite all the palpable era, at us. group The expresses the passing of time, not children and the man oldest stare directly into the cam one human life. Those photographed still appear uncer poor whites in Alabama had already set the goal of “land, 42 41
See David R. Roediger, David R. See Manning Marable, Marable, Manning (New York: (New Verso, 2014). 42 Like their predecessors in revolutions of the Indeed, whites that reported African American (New York: Basic Books, 2002), 224. 2002), York: Books, (New Basic The Great Wells of Democracy: The Meaning of Race of Race Meaning The of Wells Democracy: Great The
Seizing Freedom: Slave Emancipation and Liberty Liberty and Freedom: Emancipation Slave Seizing 41 A popular popular A - - -
49 Nicholas Mirzoeff 50 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter 2.02 “vagrants” by the Bureau. Awoman called Harriet King these contracts and only offered land for purchase to an agent “in aVulgar manner kicking … up her heels vacant houses.” vacant Carolina Carolina worked for it.” which she beaten was and jailed. work with the old poor Rebs.” Ultimately she responded She endeavored to “persuade other freed people not to instead short-term performed work on her own terms. in Morgan, Georgia, “would not Contract at all” and slaved human beings in South Carolina refused to sign By the endBy of Reconstruction in 1877, the top 5percent in the former Confederacy,in the former consciousness once settled, despite beingconsciousness settled, designated once byed the Freedmen’s Bureau to “occupying be all the of white planters owned over percent 40 an impossible target for of most the formerly enslaved. or loans usually had to repaid be in three to five years, after three years of renting. In this period, mortgages contracts during the Constitutional Convention, ex dependency, King as clearly was aware. Formerly en depended on yearlong contracts to keep workers in and dancing her tongue … going at aterrible rate” for loss of rights a corollary was to the loss of common lands. pecting to awarded be land. Reconstruction South,”Reconstruction and the Efforts of the Freedmen’s Efforts and the BureauCombat to Vagrancy in the 46 45 44 43 47
Marable, Marable, Mary Farmer-Kaiser, Vagrants?’: Mary Gender “‘Are Sorts in Some Not They J. Woodruff, Ibid., 35. Powers, “Community Evolution Relations,” and Race “Community Powers, 45. (Charleston: Denny and Perry, 1868),(Charleston: Denny and Perry, 111. The Great Wells of Wells Democracy Great The Proceedings of the ConstitutionalProceedings Convention of South 43 In Georgia, freedwomen were report 44 Nor did they lose their revolutionary revolutionary their lose they did Nor Georgia Historical Quarterly Historical Georgia 47 46 meaning that the political The Bureau The encouraged , 227. , 45 Sharecropping 88, no. 1(2004), 88, 25. of the farmland farmland the of - - -
51 Nicholas Mirzoeff 52 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter (or given) be land. White Republican Parker N.G. hoped tions in order to recoup some of their debt. In the postwar than paupers and the military). very cheap andvery these sales would not in many have cases whether debts contracted by those selling and purchas who attained has the age years” of twenty-one (other whatever” to all persons and enfranchising “every person with drawing up anew state constitution in light of the Sea Islands,Sea the land claimed by the strikers avisual as
General Sherman’s Special Field Order no. 15 confiscated Carolina Constitutional Convention of charged 1868, Reconstruction statutes and a way as of bringing the ing enslaved human beings before and during the war included giving access to all places “of any public nature in Reconstruction. question The central was to the South seeking to limit the damage. Constitutional proposals state into line with the Union. whites Most boycotted the have provided an for opportunity the freed to purchase raised enough to clear the debtors. They would, however, recession with no established labor system, land was had to honored. be There were thousands of such debts ments to the freed. is As widely known, this redistribution outstanding and creditors were to trying sell the planta dominated, however, by the question of debt, especially Republicansery and some cannier former Confederates election for the Convention, with the exception of antislav cially in South Carolina, home of the radicalmost efforts differentat redistribution efforts were considered, espe did not take hold at national level. In the individual states, commons in 1861 became amaterial commons when plantation land and redistributed it in forty-acre allot 48
Woodruff, Woodruff, In 1865, that outcome not was preordained. In the Proceedings ,
72. 72. 48 The Convention was - - - - - The transparentThe hope that was three months later, when Jefferson’s imagined America. yeomanfarmer that will “there not alarge be plantation in the State” but that which being was mortgaged not was owned in the the Union army would have departed, the debts could five yearscarpenter’sas a apprentice and four more as first place.One of the most eloquent opponents of the
Glasgow in Scotland where he graduated in 1861 and Cardozo, the son of afree black woman, Lydia Weston, Reconstruction wouldReconstruction have grounded become and per slave owners’ debt annulment the was Rev. Francis L. munal agriculture been established, the revolution of hadhistory: the plantations been broken up and acom might have looked something like slaveowner Thomas rather “one hundred thousand farms” of fewer than ahun measure,” to protect slavers. he pointed As out, they had he had attended a school for free blacks, then he spent his brother Jacob. the Between ages of fivetwelve and by the antislavery sentiment that there is no “right of majority. Another motion then was reframed, motivated quietlybe forgotten. Delegates rejected this by alarge frozen,be or, its opponents as put it, granted astay. manent. At first, white delegates proposed that the debt later became aPresbyterian minister. dred acres. dred a shipbuilder. In 1858,a shipbuilder. In he attended the University of a journeyman. Cardozo then worked acarpenter as and and a Portuguese-Jewish man, either Isaac Cardozo or property in man,”property so no debt could incurred, be because 49 50
Ibid., 456. 456. Ibid., Ibid., 63. 63. Ibid., This adetermining was moment for future US Cardozo described the debt annulment a“class as 49 This abolitionist small-holders democracy 50 - - -
53 Nicholas Mirzoeff 54 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter than single cash-crop agribusiness cultivation, which agribusiness single cash-crop than they had collectively just bought six hundred acres of Americans so opposed to slavery in all forms that they $50,000. Cardozo declared: Cardozo $50,000. who made alliance temporary with self-identified whites were prepared to cancel any debt incurred in its name, Scanlonville, in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, after its
Charleston Land Company. Land Charleston shares individually, Buying Perhaps this is the first use of 99 percentthe meme? It in this one matter. is today promoted by food activists, environmentalists, such settlements were created at settlements Lincolnville,such Maryville, succeed in creating a community, now known as his allies lost the vote to amajority made up of African how ahundred freedmen in Charleston had formed the known the “precarious tenure” of slavery when they took land that for $6600 would formerly have sold for $25 to and de-growth economists. and de-growth envisions afuture of sustainable, local agriculture, rather chance to break up the “plantation system.” described He on the debt. More importantly, he saw this the as only presumed leader Robert L. Scanlanpresumed L. leader (or Robert Scanlon). Other 51
Ibid., 117–18. Ibid., The Charleston Land Company did nonetheless CharlestonThe Company Land did nonetheless [Planters] do not want that a nigger or a Yankee
Men are now beginning not to plant cotton but shall ever own afoot of their land. my race, but the poor whites and ninety-nine hun lishing asystem of small farms, by which not only dredths of the other thousands will benefitted be grain for food, and in so doing, they are estab
Nonetheless, Cardozo and and Cardozo Nonetheless, 51
… - -
1870 and 2000, the name “Scanlonville” ineffectively was tations tations the southwest side, an area is designated “lands of the the freed in the Reconstruction Revolution. It first was to the commune were by unanimous consent. freed The to cultivate. Each is free to work suits as him, and each was revisedwas in December 1894. At some point between adepictionwas of the Black commons being created by Sewee Indians, the site colonized was by the British as Edisto Island, and Bull’s Island. Bull’s and Island, Edisto Health care mutual. was In 1873 the undertook dayundertook labor cents a atday fifty to raise the mon Community and the Cemetery,” Cemetery,” the and Community small plots for residences were supplemented with longer scratched out by person. some angry plat The shows name still used by local Realtors today. First settled by merly belonged to a plantation called Remley’s Point, a by colored people, who have united their resources and heading “Negro Communism”: of “Some the largest plan members of the society, or so much they as may wish land set aside for agraveyard and even asmall park. At consensus. People worked they as were able and willing. early 1680. as it When became acollective very farm, drawn up on February 14, 1870. version The we have now combine in their labor ey for the plots at $1.50 an acre. can dispose of his crop he as deems proper.” Admissions byed the officers elected for that purpose among the plots were bought by women. All decisions were taken by plots for collective farming. One-third of Scanlonville’s published an account of life at Scanlonville under the 53 52
“Negro Coooperation,” Michael Trinkley, “Scanlonville, Charleston, South Carolina: The Carolina: South Trinkley, Michael Charleston, “Scanlonville, … are now owned and successfully conducted New YorkNew Times Chicora Research Contribution Research Chicora … The land The is equally distribut 52 53 Scanlonville’s land for land Scanlonville’s , August 17,, August 1873. The plat, The or title deed, Charleston Courier Charleston 34 (2001): 34 9. - - - -
55 Nicholas Mirzoeff 56 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Jim Crow.Jim After hostilities had ceased, he seems to have settled in was a setwas showing a cotton plantation in Mount Pleasant, well-known series depicting Sherman’s March to the Sea. Scanlonville from set of a ste the era, Reconstruction
George N. Barnard another was member of Matthew Charleston, where he took many pictures. Among them Company,” Land Charleston indicating perhaps some However, Knox died in 1867, when succeeded he was Massachusetts and purchased the land after the war. Brady’s team photographing the Civil War. Hetook a use. perhaps Or the communal way of life ended was by reograph views close of afarm very by apparently oper land kept in common not made available for communal longing to one Alexander Knox. Knox aQuaker was from a few miles from Scanlonville, which he named be as ating on communal principles exist. does Photographer While Ihave not yet found aphotograph of 2.03 - - - What happening was here? Quakers As were known for their opposition to slavery, it seems unlikely that simple trait by Barnard of Alexander Knox showing survives a formal white ownership to allow for African American (PPOC), Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, http://hdl.loc. Division, Photographs and Prints of Congress (PPOC), Library 1892), MA: (Oxford, 403. middle-aged man but it is inaccurately dated to 1874. by his brother George, who died in 1871. olition “beard” for the freed, meaning that that they held profit was their motive. Was Knoxthe ownership an ab gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.38911. 55 54
Portrait of Alexander K. Knox, Prints and Photograph Online Catalog Catalog Online Photograph and Prints Knox, K. of Alexander Portrait George Fisher Daniels, Daniels, Fisher George 2.04 History of the TownHistory Massachusetts of Oxford, 54 A tintype A por 55 - -
57 Nicholas Mirzoeff 58 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter the commodity system. If that is not revolutionary as as than the compulsion inherent for those without other the cotton ready to woven. be Slavers had believed that African Americans could not do such work unless closely forms of ownership to sell their labor power. One man fact demonstrably political in the period, a visual argu work that separated the seeds from the fiber and made
incapable of self-directed action. ing the cotton, whether for purchase or to measure the in South Carolina for Louis Agassiz before the Civil War. sense of being compelled to photographed be that is pal subjects forced to labor. In them, there is none of that showing community at a rather work, than oppressed In one stereograph, Black men are seen ginning cotton before laborers these were considered chattel, supposedly eyesmodern might want, again remember that just years he is any not carrying visible weapon. he Or might a be bag cotton outside what seems to the be same barn. An of another In Reconstruction. ment for the success image, may appear like somewhat banal scenes today were in monitored, photographs these but say What otherwise. by themselves. Operating the machinery skilled was lies stretched out on the ground, an unlikely pose in the loaded onto might He acart. an be overseer, although commercial agent. physical No coercion is visible, other daily labor of the workers. Sacks of the material are being elderly white man (not one of the Knox brothers) is weigh a group of African American men, women, and children are similarly hard to interpret. They certainly seem to be community? presence of an overseer. Free labor is working of part as pable in J. T. Zealey’s photographs of the enslaved taken Another scene shows and men women workers Barnard’s photographs, mostly stereograph cards, - - - 2.06 2.05 2.07
59 Nicholas Mirzoeff 60 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter The processionThe is led by aBlack man wearing atop hat 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment forbids any interference to into pass insignificanceas it should have. Passed in to show someone with dark skin, asignifier that has yet the one hand, he took astudio picture of an African than an as enslaved laborer. But is it freedom? the application of human energy and imagination to the disciplinarian. or overseer an as than American child, into born slavery but subsequently far more intact than elsewhere in the United States, lead freed, and entitled it “Fifteenth Amendment: AGood with the right to vote, “race, color previous or condition of Specimen.” Whereas many abolitionists had used light- Kingdom Brazil and America
utopia: gathering cotton is hard, physical labor. But it is upright in front of him. Clearly, he is depicted being as in in participating in such work an as equal person, rather ing to the creation of Gullah, an Atlantic world Creole if in ceremony, many with loads of cotton on their heads. skinned children in such photographs, Barnard chose skilled work and African people contributed their insight he was actinghe was aleader as in West African tradition, rather returning from the fields, posed in an elegantas curve, language, which is still in use in the area today. This is no argued: labor “the that the slaves did also was work: and knowledge to it. Walter As Johnson has recently especially on the Islands, Sea African traditions survived charge. Marcus Wood interestingly has suggested that and dressed in afrock coat, astick, who is held carrying physical world.” 57 56
Walter Johnson, Marcus Wood, Barnard’s own allegiances are hard to define.On (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2013), University, of Harvard 164. Press Belknap MA: (Cambridge, (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2013), Press, University 311. Oxford UK: (Oxford,
57 Black Milk: Imagining Slavery in the Visual Cultures of Cultures the in Visual Slavery Imagining Milk: Black River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Empire the in Cotton and Slavery Dreams: ofRiver Dark There is every difference, There is every nonetheless, 56 In the Carolinas, - (now future past) that never fully materialized. the On Water Melon Eater” much every was the racist stereotype the disabled or the so-called “criminal classes.” While theless participated in the prevalent racialized regime of Americans of such communities, African Americans Americans African communities, such of Americans wanted to manifest good intentions, they did so within white supremacy. white No person would designated be
Barnard’s photographs, like the Knox plantation, no doubt its title appears to predict. Mysense is that what radical inferior (“defective” in the language of the time), such as some degree, they show us what free African American servitude.” Both that amendment and Barnard’s photo retreated back into white supremacy. by 1875, and Barnard, like so many other white people, other hand, his 1875 stereograph entitled Champion “The communal culture might have looked like, pictures of a a paternalist and hierarchical regime of difference. To a “specimen,” unless they were in some way considered graph seem to yet as be unfulfilled.By terming the young possibility there in was 1870 felt increasingly likely less person he photographed a“specimen,” Barnard none While there are no known photographs by African 2.08 - -
61 Nicholas Mirzoeff 62 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter 1840 ties of Black labor being was visualized. It might well that presented it an as inevitable failure, it becomes African Americans are yet known, it is reason perfectly first first African Americanstudio known is that Knightof and with mainstream white depictions of Reconstruction were targeting the freed and working While classes. no woman is wearing both earrings and along necklace. The were commissioning and making photographs in South
Civil War politics. Barnard’s When work is contrasted Carolina at the time. George Smith part who was Cook, Kinds of Photographs Are Taken Cheap,” suggesting they Randolph took ambrotypes and had astudio All “Where KnightHenry is referenced being as African American but Randolph, established in Charleston in December 1865. sages to the future have beenmade invisible by the skills at so early adate. studio in Charleston where he took antebellum photo be saidbe that this debate continues to this day. actu The possibilities. its and medium been unlikely for alocal to have gained the necessary have come because from it the would Northeast have his origins are not known. Harvey Teal he must suggests hairstyle recalls that of Frederick Douglass, while the ally existing commons of Reconstruction and its mes clear that acontest over the capacities and possibili able to assume that the community familiar was with the dressed stylishly. young The man’s but parted dramatic a young man and woman, perhaps siblings or acouple, graphs of free African Americans. One example shows of Matthew Brady’s studio during the Civil War, had a photographs from the Reconstruction period taken by 58
– Harvey S. Teal, S. Harvey 1940 1940 Visual culture after was, all, akey arena for post– (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2001), Press, 288. Carolina of South (Columbia: University Partners with the Sun: South Carolina Photographers, Photographers, with Carolina South the Sun: Partners 58 Be that Be it as may, Knight and - - - - - William Stone of Massachusetts came to work with the Freedmen’s Bureau in South Carolina and wrote in his in South Carolina” (1866). To present-day eyes, it might show how poorly prepared the freed were to farms. run seem like a“positive” image, but it in was fact meant to simultaneously created of myth the Black incapacity to labor. In In reports for 1868: reports a sketch by James Taylor E. shows afreedman “Plowing Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper While this officehas always encouraged the hiring freedmen seem to have that apiece of land and who had sufficientmeans them on suc to carry
an old, broken down are horse sufficientto ensure cessfully, it discouraged has the idea that many or purchase of farms by industrious freedmen 2.09 , aprint made from -
63 Nicholas Mirzoeff 64 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter They cannot but help to testify the remarkable new reality Just as theJust as debt of the slavers prevented aredistribution to emerging industrial capitalism for it to set be aside to done. be Mass-produced cotton far was too central their options independent as or collective farmers. This for the pursuit of human happiness. too So Toussaint with the caption: “15th Amendment, or the Darkey’s Freedom: William Stone’s Record of Service in the Freedmen’s Bureau the in Freedmen’s Bureau ofFreedom: Stone’s Service William Record
Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s, living as reminders Pétion’s efforts at redistribution in Haiti were undermined undermined were Haiti in redistribution at Pétion’s efforts L’Ouverturehad denied his own revolutionaries small Millenium, Acres 40 of and Land aMule.” rac These ist images were clearlyimages meant to makeist the radical small- idea widely was visualized. Astereograph from Florida supposedly in “exchange” for the losses caused by the by the need to repay the indemnity imposed by France holdings in favor of large plantations—so cash-crop he holding solution to post-slavery society seem ridiculous. University of South Carolina Press, 2008), 105. Press, Carolina of South University abolition of slavery. commodity The fetishism so often could repay his loans to the United States. Later President of what might have been possible and what remained establish themselves. of independent African American small to holders trying depicted aman using amule to pull aramshackle cart of land, the lack of credit extended to the freed limited 59
William Stone, Suzanne Stone Johnson Johnson, and Robert Several of these communities continued until the them not only subsistence while raising acrop start with. start withoutshould, having credit, attempt to carry but abundance for the next year. … Freedman No on unless afarm he six has months provisions to 59
(Columbia: (Columbia: ,
Bitter Bitter -
The spaceThe of appearance affords an experience of coun terpower that returns and revolutionizes itself. It often was transforms “lashes into labor into bales [of cotton] into formations at work in making the linen so often discussed Great Britain to fuel the Industrial Revolution. In Blake’s in in satanic mills, the immiserated British proletariat evoked by Engels wove slave-grown cotton, illuminated by light dollars into pounds sterling.” pounds into dollars generated by whale oil. Thus capitalism. endpoint because fully percent 85 of US cotton went to creased sixfold 1820 between and 1860. Sterling is the thatcess average productivity per enslaved person in described following conceals Marx an earlier set of trans 60 Capital.
Johnson, Resurrection City: Reconstruction II Reconstruction City: Resurrection As Walter As Johnson describes it, this process River of Dark Dreams ofRiver Dark 2.10 , 244. , 60 So efficient So was this pro - - - -
65 Nicholas Mirzoeff 66 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter to the conscience of the sovereign republic in the hope the Prince’s stratagem: play’s “The the thing wherein then convincing evidence that America out was of joint the Civil Rights claim to visible be in public space. formance the was means to approach the sovereign would present bodies our ameans as very of laying our A. Berger, A. Struggle for Civil Rights for Civil Struggle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011). Press, of California University (Berkeley: King, media mass presented the spectacle of suffering Dr. King sought out ways to challenge white supremacy, Berger, Berger, Martin Leigh Raiford, and others have and was the commons ofReconstruction Reconstruction in acknowledgement of the echo in King’s paragraph of supposed to be. And that in itself provided what was shown, photography and visual media were central to said that the Civil Rights Movement the was Second the Times: The Visual Politics of Crow Jim Politics Visual The the Times: I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” For Hamlet, per by the refusal to moved. be Iuse the phrase from means of demonstrating inequality to the media mass highlighting instances of resulting police violence a as our capacity to suffer… we will so appeal to your heart legislation of and affect him sufficiently that change would result. For counters, on buses, and in the streets where it not was community.” beforecase the conscience of the local and national audience. From Birmingham Jail in 1963, he wrote: “we powerfully felt in its return. Elizabeth As Abel, Maurice of Martin Luther of Martin Row, 1986), 291. 2010);Press, Berger, Maurice 62 61
See Raiford, Raiford, See Martin Luther King, Jr., King, Luther Martin Seeing through Race Seeing
King 62 . As King. As put it, “we’ll wear you down by Imprisoned in a Luminous Glare in a Luminous Imprisoned
The BlackThe presented was body at lunch
Jr. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010); Haven: (New Yale Press, Martin and University , ed. James Melvin Washington (New York: Harper & York: (New Washington Harper Melvin James , ed. For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Culture and Visual For to the World See: All : A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings A Testament Essential The of Hope: A Reinterpretation of Photography Rights Civil (Berkeley: University of California of California University (Berkeley: ; Elizabeth Abel; Abel; ; Elizabeth Hamlet Hamlet Signs of Signs 61 -
the encampment? It a“resurrection was of the spirit,” as to June 23, 1968, just weeks after King’s assassination. the Mall in Washington, DC, for six weeks from May 13 the movements produced anew space of appearance. It the “colonized” within the settler colony. tiracist direct action, explicitly designating the poor as Act (1964). violence The in Selma helped the pass Voting Alabama, in 1963 led to the passage of the Civil Rights Here? was madewas visible at Resurrection City, where thousands an and movement antiwar the from inseparable was
Rights Act (1965). September 1, 1968, 50. 1, 1968, September invisible in the old sense.” old the in invisible in poverty. Poor The People’s Campaign of 1967–68 social inequality. In his 1967 book strategy worked: the televised violence in Birmingham, In 1962,In Michael Harrington’s In those tremendous weeks of upheaval worldwide, the mal legal inequality to the structural violence maintaining nonetheless conceded that conceded nonetheless after the encampment, “it is racism, poverty, and war required a new Reconstruction. lighted the invisibility of the poor, showing that in 1959, activists in 1965. Rather, the movement looked beyond for and conscience that we will win you in the process.” His doubtful that the poor can any longer described be as a labor movement organizer, supportive, not who was very to captureencampment struggled attention. Tom Kahn, camped along six blocks beside the Reflecting Pool on an extraordinary percent 55 of African Americans lived during the American Century during the American 64 63
Aloysha Goldstein, Tom Kahn, “Why The Poor People’s Campaign Failed,” People’s Tom Poor Campaign The “Why Kahn, , Dr. King stressed that inseparable “the triplets” of But there no was sense of for victory civil rights Poverty in Common: The Politics of Community Action Action of Community Politics The Common: in Poverty (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014), Press, University Duke NC: 137. (Durham, 64 What being was resurrected at The Other America The Where We Do From Go 63 Connecting Connecting Commentary high - - - ,
67 Nicholas Mirzoeff 68 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter to sure. be city attracted The the famous. Sidney Poitier Scanlonvilletween and Occupy Wall Street. six The hun Kent Corita the artist put it in her 1969 memorial to King Appalachians, Native Americans, and Latina/o farm Latina/o and farm Americans, Native Appalachians, funeral there stopped for the exchange cortege of workers at the Many Races Soul Center and the Poor
People’s University. Not without tension and arguments, King’s murder, Ralph Abernathy and other SCLC lead signed by the architect John Wiebenson of the University demands. policy specific with residency symbolic return of the Reconstruction project, signaling King’s mutual respects. many coordinated 5000, as by Reverend Jackson, Jesse land in 1865. Resurrection City an was amplification and led amorning cleanup brigade, Kennedy’s and Robert openly framed acorrection as to the failure to redistribute a “radical redistribution of wealth and power,” which he of Maryland. In the city, Black Panthers mixed with white dred wooden huts where the occupiers lived were de day-to-day population around was sometimes 3000, as ers opted instead for a permitted encampment and a ence, in order to highlight inseparable “the triplets.” After of disruption, such and arrests mass as civil disobedi good will toward all” but also other more embodied loves. as opened the possibility of of acity love in King’s sense of love construction. Resurrection City claimed public space and i putting Resurrection City’s population somewhere be and the Poor People’s Campaign People’s the Poor and , aresurrection somewhere insurrection between and re 66 65 agape
King, King, Gerald D. McKnight, D. McKnight, Gerald The goalThe to was make visible Dr. King’s 1967 call for King had intended for out daily the city to carry acts A Testament of Hope , meaning, creative, “understanding, redemptive The Last Crusade: Martin Luther King Jr., King Luther the FBI, Martin Crusade: Last The (New York: Basic Books, 1998), York: 111–30. Books, (New Basic , 253–58. , 66 Its Its 65 if if ------
“Resurrection City,” “Resurrection the Poor People’s Campaign. In 1915, African Americans the limited media coverage concentrated had who on InstitutionSmithsonian the to demand the return of Native the return of land. march The from Resurrection City to American activists called for respect for the treaties and figure had declined to 6million acres. wealth agoal, as the campaign understood that common Guadalupe Hidalgo were made by land grant rights Court in oppositionCourt to their decision in the fishingrights People’s Caravans that converged in Washington in Land claimsLand in New Mexico against the 1848 Treaty of Mississippi, to visualize the connection to Reconstruction. Smithsonian because “there are some relics there that belong to them,” that belong there relics are some “there because Smithsonian it an as African American project. intersectional of Resurrection aspects City and depicted had owned 15.7 million that acres of land, but by 1963 the designating By politics. revolutionary toward move been responsible.been kind. leader Reies LópezTijerina of New Mexico. Native land in and of itself did not create the commons under late case of the SCLC joined Native protesters at the Supreme cultural among was the first, if property not the first, ofits cluded a much-photographed Mule Train from Marks, capitalism. still was Land a vital decolonial demand of acommons,city as and positioning redistribution of and the Mass Media,” Media,” Mass the and in the in no. 1(2010), 33–54. 70 69 68 67
Gordon Mantler, “‘The Press Did You Did Press People’s Poor Campaign In’: The Mantler, Gordon “‘The New Yorker New A point derived by implication from Calvin Trillin’s sarcastic commentary Trillin’s Calvin by from implication derived Apoint commentary sarcastic Marable, Marable, McKnight, McKnight, 68 Puyallup African leaders American like Ralph Abernathy The Great Wells of Wells Democracy Great The The Last Crusade, Crusade, Last The , in , . When windows. When were broken at the court, New YorkerNew
which one Indian notes that most of them were at of them the that notes most Indian one which The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture and of Politics History, AJournal Sixties: The 69 Overall, the media downplayed the (June 15, (June 1968), 77. 131. , 228. , 70 Gender and sexual Gender 67 The nine The Poor 3, 3, -
69 Nicholas Mirzoeff 70 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “Resurrection City itself, City “Resurrection conceivedof model com a as took some telling shots, especially of the Native American that spring. In a typical column, the failure to make that space sustainable. the cards were addressed. From the photographs, it does there were active antiwar protests, including the first burn Americans. goal The overall to was generate aspace of free-floating violence.” from below. Perhaps such racialized divides account for wage—which iswage—which not the minimum wage, but abasic wage
News photographs in the mainstream media tended to Butches and queer people of color lived alongside hip ill-housed, ill-fed, self-segregated, absentee-rum slum ing of draft cards by women, which liable was to the same seem if as more white people participated in the antiwar rapher Constantine Manos took classic photojournalist munal living, had fallen into a true-to-life squalor—an heavy penalties by those when as performed to whom afflicted with low morale, deepeningrestiveness, and concentrate on the deep mud caused by the heavy rain appearance capable of reimagining the United States on which aperson can live. the As Vietnam War continued, orientation were configured by residentsas they chose. passionate. pictures—matte black-and-white, tight to the frame, dis protests, while antipoverty protests drew mostly African pies. City The created nonviolent campaigns for aliving Photos, https://pro.magnumphotos.com/Catalogue/constantine-manos/1968/Photos, usa-poor-people’s-march-1968-nn145818.html. 72 71
Quoted in Kahn, “Why the Poor People’s Campaign Failed,” People’s Poor Campaign the 54. “Why in Quoted Kahn, See “Constantine Manos – USA. Poor People’s March. 1968,” Magnum People’s Magnum 1968,” Poor March. – USA. Manos “Constantine See There are many photographs of the encampment. 72 Movement photographers like Bill Wingell 71 By contrast, Magnum By photog Newsweek asserted: asserted: - - - - - Jill Freedman. She joined the occupation because of her the thousands of photographs of the occupation, hers to Washington with aNew York contingent. She lived in was part of its commons. part was She called her book of pictures Resurrection City from its first days to the eviction. Among sense of revolutionary possibility in the new space of are perhaps the resonant, most precisely because she anger at the assassination of Dr. King and marched down appearance. One who did New was York photographer participation. http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=470967. 73
See Bill Wingell, “Poor People’s Campaign––Washington, DC, 1968,” 1968,” DC, People’s Campaign––Washington, “Poor Bill Wingell, See 73 Relatively few were able to convey the 2.11
71 Nicholas Mirzoeff 72 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter … And talking man power, woman power, Chicano power, the Capitol, women burning draft cards, aBlack Panther there to work: “In our town, work meant demonstrating Every day.” Every soul power. Claiming all our human rights to dignity. Indian power, black power, white power, people power, couple, the Soul Power university, and many other history.” ancient of Resurrection City Publishers, 1970),Publishers, 18. 75 74
Ibid., 34. 34. Ibid., Jill Freedman, 75 Her photographs show people marching on 74 Old News: Resurrection City Resurrection News: Old She not was just an observer, she was Old News. Old “Poverty,” she wrote, “is 2.12 (New York: (New Grossman them to seen be on their own terms. She engaged in the
Her photographs did not idealize the city. They are matte, space of appearance and able was to convey its com moment” of colonialmoment” photography. In aphotograph titled black-and-white pictures in ranging shades of gray with a directly. Her camera not does capture them but allows grainy quality. Notably, however, her subjects look at her encampment, but she saw what else happening. was of what it do the was work of resurrecting the city.aspects participation of those depicted, rather than the “decisive plexity and possibility in images that seem open to the Freedman aware was of the problems in the 2.13 -
73 Nicholas Mirzoeff 74 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter folded, regarding the camera with aquiet smile. Above his Dignity with mud, the hut immaculate, was there a carpet was Monument created a sharp vertical to counterpose the Reflecting Pool where he was playing, the Washington in asimilar pose. While his shoes and boots were covered ment among the intensity of the city. In horizontal line of the flute. It is a surprising and quiet mo haunches while playing the flute. At the other end of the man wearing coat, asports squatting comfortably on his rhymes. Another picture showed an African American hooks. This man occupying was for the long term, cre head, aframed craft image of President Kennedy sitting a person who appears to trans* be poses outside her hut ating his own space. Freedman liked to find these visual on the floor, and clothes and quilts hanging neatly from aman sits inside his hut, legs crossed, hands 2.14 Call Me Madam Me Call - - , the ankles, with the index left finger aligned along the Douglass Kirkpatrick and Desiree while the toddler, dressed in afringed buckskin jacket,
Center, whose sign reads “Nothing But Soul.” She holds in aconfident pose against the backdrop of Soulthe slogans of Resurrection City. Aportrait of most confidentmost smile.“Soul one was Power” of the main looks off into the distance with interest at something we labeled “Madam.” She is wearing afringed garment like child in his arms with his eyes shut in ablissful expression, a lollipop in her teeth and looks at the camera with the and fears of the city. Ayoung girl called Brenda stands once astrikingly queer and proud image. cheek. Madam’s rain-sodden boots are adjacent. It is at a poncho, holding amirror and posing, legs crossed at Three photographs of children captured the hopes 2.15 shows him hugging the Rev. Frederick
75 Nicholas Mirzoeff 76 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter 1963 March on Washington, but the media had already the encampment. tion of Emancipation. This the was largest rally since the wrote: “Dream City had old nightmares. People messing (1968): 1243–48.
On JuneOn 19, 1968, around one hundred thousand people City attracted the poor, but rather than being praised for up …Turning their rage on themselves and others, show in the journal ing how being poor can make you crazy, can kill you long stand how they could so be beautiful.” mixture of eugenics, pessimism, and racism that gained before your body stops … Yet day every I saw incredible button says “Smile!,” her worries are evident. Freedman has caught young two people, one about six years old necting back to resistance against slavery, to asense of looking at the camera with glee, while an older woman, lished an essay Tragedy called “The of the Commons” lice using tear gas evicted the residents and tore down demn anydemn of provision. idea common attended the Solidarity Day on Juneteenth, the celebra offeringcare, the encampment was critiqued for making of and couldn’t kindness I compassion. And acts under to thatcontrast assemblage, another image asks: cannot see. There’s apalpable desire for change in this portrayed the afailure. city as Just four days later, po visible,poverty which of was, course, why it there. was perhaps twenty, looks abstractedly away. Although her possibility that comes from the love that is visible here. In photograph, from name the of very the minister, con do the eyes change? When does the child die? 77 76
Ibid., 116. Ibid., Garret Hardin, “The Tragedy Common,” of the “The Hardin, Garret Later that year the geneticist Garret Hardin pub Science
that often has been used to con 77 Science 76 It an was odd Resurrection Resurrection Freedman Freedman 162, no. 3859 162, no. 3859 When When ------
to say these days), there is no reason acommons cannot to all.” However, acommons not does behave like this. At to all to pasture their animals. Hardin insisted that each tempted to demonstrate that the commons a fallacy was Scanlonville and other such communal farms, the consid Unless you assume that the pursuit of private (meaning individual) profit is ingrained (or hardwiredas people like survive long as it as behaves like a commons. A more ac sufficient surplus to trade for other goods and services. run as a commons as run understands that planetary resources became exhausted: “Freedom in a commons brings ruin herdsman [ by using the example of pasturage. Common land is open respectability with the imprimatur of science. Hardin at are akey of aspect the sustainability of the commons a clear demonstration of this modifiedaxiom. A commons a commons brings ruin to all.” His example of pollution is curate version of Hardin’s phrase would be: “capitalism in eration supplying was enough food to eat and creating a own possession of animals until the pasture inevitably sic ] would to necessarily maximize try his 2.16 - - -
77 Nicholas Mirzoeff 78 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter without pollution.
Hardin’s fear of the commons more was exactly fear of sides, no doubt, but above all from African Americans. subtle way: a In 1968, the call for rights and freedom came from many land remains fertile and the animal waste is disposed of land, rather than farming just plants or animals is one a Black planet. eugenic lines. His motive presented was in none too example of how this worked has in practice. Manured and acts accordingly. Using animals to manure arable Hardin wanted above all to limit population along “freedom” fill“freedom” the air.But“freedom” what does they become free to pursue other goals. Ibelieve it that we vigorously oppose; cries of “rights” and ty. Infringements made in the distant are past the infringement of somebody’s personal liber was Hegelwas who said, “Freedom is the recognition
Every new enclosure of the commons involves mean? men When mutually agreed to laws pass less so.less Individuals locked into the logic of the of necessity.” once they see the of necessity mutual coercion, commons are free only to bring on universal ruin against robbing, mankind became more free, not of aloss. It is the newly proposed infringements accepted complains because no contemporary Intersection -
tion of indigenous and urban knowledges. One striking to claim the rights of the indigenous to autonomy. Their the city. Thus, the commons will have to urban. be At the themselves. They have nonetheless rural left areas for for many of those people, the city is apolite name for the from Latin and South America are examples of the first widespread rejection of hierarchical governance. The Democracy from Greece to Occupy to Occupy from Greece Democracy By its very name, its very ResurrectionBy City implied that it was Black Lives Matter, are aprocess of imagining how such indigenous, people of color, and antiwar protesters as slums, or informal housing, that migrants have built for something whose function to was return. From our vantage sponse to the scientific consensus on anthropogenic anthropogenic on consensus scientific the to sponse spread across South and Latin America, it generated a successful forms of the commons in the era of financial commons peasant and indigenous, landless, time, same majority has lived in cities for the first time ever.Of course, rainforest on January 1, 1994, at the moment that NAFTA a grounded urban commons. Since the global 2008, climate change, already visible in countries like Bolivia of Cochabamba (2010), adocument drawn up in re example of this interaction the was People’s Agreement commons that is endeavoring to emerge is the interac cosmology for the global present. a version of the “one culture, many natures” indigenous cosmology argues for “one world in which many worlds fit,” enshrined neoliberalism across America, in order North cities. Zapatistas The emerged out of the Lacandon commons might in dominated world work a by global globalization. global These social movements, including part of atransitionpart from acommons of the ground to point, we can see the intersection of direct action by the 78 Marina Sitrin and Dario Azzellini, Azzellini, Dario and Sitrin Marina (New York:(New Verso, 2014), 15. They Can 78 ’ t Represent Us!: Reinventing As this movement movement this As - -
79 Nicholas Mirzoeff 80 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter town so abandoned by racial capital that the US Army to the African American residents of Flint, Michigan, a the effective most challenge to settler colonialism.The the descendants of those who were enslaved been has to Standing Rock, the alliance of the indigenous with that depend on glaciers for drinking water. Rather than for Afghanistan and Iraq within the United States. From Climate Change announced that carbon emissions must ings. In 2016, this movement reached part the northern In November 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on ments.” many made the journey to the encampment. From Haiti now amatter of global not necessity communal imagin over_in_fli.html. ate in urban environments for upcoming overseas deploy conducted exercises there in May 2015 in order oper “to alternative is the privatized, lead-poisoned water offered with Standing and solidarity Rock chapters expressed at Standingcry Rock. Black Lives Matter activists and of the when Americas, “Water is Life” became the rallying cease rising immediately. “Living well,” or making a life, is offer a hi-tech design solution, the People’s Agreement: com/2010/04/24/peoples-agreement/. com/2010/04/24/peoples-agreement/. Flint,” http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/06/military_exercises_ Flint,” https://pwccc.wordpress. Bolivia,” Cochabamba, 22nd, April Earth Mother 79 80
“World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Rights the Climate and on Change People’s Conference “World Ron Fonger, “Army Calls Cease Fire on Military Exercises that Rattled that Rattled Exercises Fonger,Ron Military on Fire “Army Cease Calls thought and practices of “Living Well.”
Indigenous Peoples, which are affirmed in the knowledge, wisdom, and ancestral practices of covery, revalorization, and strengthening of the propose[s] to the peoples of the world the re 80 In other words, Flint is an adequate substitute 79 - - - - the United States considered has its African American to Donald Trump’s threat to send troops into Chicago, the deployment of armed National Guard in the streets vehicles and weapons deployed in Ferguson, Missouri, to Lives a matter Matter” as of national security. For whom? New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that led to prevent the expression of the simple statement: “Black population an as insurgency. And so we saw military
81 Nicholas Mirzoeff 82 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter #BlackLivesMatter II. Space of Appearance The
83 Nicholas Mirzoeff 84 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter The activistThe movements connected by the hashtag this persistent persistent this that point of intersection what between we know, what the years two since the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael from what is kept out of sight,stage, off and out of view. we perceive, and what we all feel—using our senses. Unlike the traditional one-sense visual perspective, it is #BlackLivesMatter have created anew way of seeing in Brown. the World the new engagement refuses to allow to moments these a collective way to look, visualize, and imagine. challenged exclusions that constitute white supremacy have been at first seems be to unbearable.The prohibitions and pass. It keepspass. us looking with persistent attention at what com/how-ferguson-and-blacklivesmatter-taught-us-not-to-look-away-45815. Not to Look Away,” to Look Not 82 81
For more on this definition of “seeing,” see Nicholas Mirzoeff, Mirzoeff, Nicholas see of “seeing,” this definition For on more Nicholas Mirzoeff, “How Ferguson and #BlackLivesMatter #BlackLivesMatter and Taught “How Us Ferguson Mirzoeff, Nicholas (London: Pelican, 2015), Pelican, (London: 71–98. 81 “Seeing” here should understood be to mean during the Black Lives Matter movement by Conversation looking, meaning arefusal to look away , August 10,, August 2015, https://theconversation. 3.01 How to See to See How 82 This This
85 Nicholas Mirzoeff 86 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter This looking is sustained by long histories of resistance. tions them shifts from being simply protests—meaning their first shock in order to understand what has actually the presence of the future can felt. be Repetition matters to feel the presence of the absent bodies of those fallen Alton Sterling, and Philando so many Castile—and more from Michael Brown and Eric Garner to Sandra Bland, women and men, girls and boys. In that repeated present, engagement with and embodied witnessing the space. Such of performances looking are about the recurring situation in others and for the participants to overcome It comprises aset of grounded, distributed, and repeated happened. formal The similarity and repetition of the ac here, ameans as both of instilling the urgency of the record in digital media. Persistently, they choose to keep nerable, but not to traumatized. be Looking here is both media. It calls for us to see what there is to see, to be vul looking against the prohibitions of the carceral state and actions, whose persistence is enabled by in social part present that people choose not to escape, and continue to 3.02 - - While this regime ultimately was enabled by spectacu ti-antiblackness would look like. look would ti-antiblackness Americas within this looking. Slavery sustained it A French planter from Saint-Domingue mourned after the felt surveillance of the overseer of enslaved human beings.
security, with their where doors four open, on aproperty revolution that created Haiti the passing variety of “the regime by what Ihave elsewhere called “oversight,” the colons de St-Domingue expropri de St-Domingue colons lar violence, it allowed for the quotidian performance of of performance quotidian the for allowed it violence, lar grievous labor.”grievous or five hundred blacks were subjected to a more or less and made it so that three or four Whites could sleep in all of magic, which gave the empire of opinion to whiteness, complicated labor, often not under direct supervision. a wrong—and indexical an 83 84
See Weheliye,
De Saint-Domingue. Moyen d facile Saint-Domingue. De There is adecolonial of history slavery in the call to the state or other authority to remedy Habeas Viscus Habeas become instead invocations of what an 84 Under US slavery, this magic required és (Paris: Ponthieu, 1825), Ponthieu, (Paris: 16. , 42–53. 3.03 ’ 83 augmenter l ’indemnité due aux aux due s - -
87 Nicholas Mirzoeff 88 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “reckless eyeballing,” with the added connotation of for the informal of the prison industrial codes complex both there the absence was of any act.” overt that apedestrian may assaulted be by a look, however that might bring them to the attention and violence of the African American media like media American African feature of being “reckless,” any activity by the enslaved frightening, from aperson riding in an automobile some violence in response. Many people met their death by History
it never was formally of the part legal code, the accu sation of such looking used was to aggravate assault Ingram. bidden desire across the color line that authorized fatal leads to revolt. recklessness reckless act, and no such act could tolerated be because lynching a result as of such looking. purported Although longer represented grounds for conviction an “overt” as act. “Reckless eyeballing” nonetheless remains part of eyeballing” remains part nonetheless “Reckless act. distance away… He may have looked with lustful eyes but vacatedcourt the conviction because: “it cannot said be charges to rape recently as 1952 as in the of case Matt color overseer and his drivers. and immediately was punishable. It aparticular was at an overseer or owner it considered was “eye service,” absolute visual dominance. If an enslaved person looked the Denial of African American Sexual Freedom,” Sexual American of African Denial the and Sexual Freedom Sexual and 88 87 86 85
Sarah Jane Cervanak, Cervanak, Jane Sarah Mary Frances Berry, “‘Reckless Eyeballing’: The Matt Ingram Case and and Case Ingram Eyeballing’: Matt The “‘Reckless Frances Berry, Mary Johnson, State 93, no. 2(2008), 227–30. 93, During the Jim Crow period, looking across the line became known by process of condensation 87 v. However, after pressure from the NAACP a
Ingram, 74 (N.C. 1953).Ingram, 532 in Cited ibid., 232. S.E.2d River of Dark Dreams ofRiver Dark (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014), Press, University Duke NC: 66–67. (Durham, Wandering: Philosophical Performances of Racial of Racial Performances Philosophical Wandering: 86 To look at the enslaver a was , 168. ,
Ebony Journal of African American of American Journal African , the state supreme 88 That look no nd nd 85 - -
their dogs were so ready to chase down. more As people the police to look at the faces of the babies and children to-meet the police gaze. In Ferguson, Missouri, Johnetta All the trials of the police officers involved in thedeath for which he ended up dead. appeared He always already voice in the movement, described how: decided “I to dare
Baltimore. His only offense was that he met the look a of Elie, who and tweeted @Netaaaaaaaa as became akey inside institutions and as part of law enforcement. To enforcement. law of part as and institutions inside it, simply in “uppity” language of racialized encounters. in the language of sovereignty but, bell as hooks named seen in official scene of thecrime photographs, St. Louis to Black Liberation to Black marked in the space where police believed themselves to metaphor. That looking back at the police directly was began to look directly at the police and yell their griev responsible for his death sovereign.be To meet the police’s gaze was less eyeballing against her. against eyeballing less corrections officertestified performedthat he reck had conviction upheld was on appeal because in part afemale cite just one example, in a 2013 in case Florida, a man’s death to deter protesters, so Elie not was speaking in ances, the more aggravated they became.” the experiencedescribed of the movement coming- a as charges being dropped, if as no one but Gray could be of Freddie Gray resulted in acquittals, with subsequent police officer in the eye,leading toassumption an of guilt police used police dogs within hours of Michael Brown’s Routledge, 2015), 168. 89 91 90
Johnetta Elzie, quoted in Keeanga-Yamahtta quoted Elzie, Taylor, Johnetta Keith Lamont Peters, Appellant, v. State of Florida, Appellee, no. 4D11-607. v. Appellee, Appellant, State of Florida, Peters, Keith Lamont bell hooks, hooks, bell Notably, Black Lives Matter protesters have Black Looks: Race and Representation and Race Looks: Black (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2016), (Chicago: Books, Haymarket 156. 89 Remember Freddie Gray in From #BlackLivesMatter From #BlackLivesMatter (1992; Abingdon: lèse-majesté 91 As can As be 90 - -
89 Nicholas Mirzoeff 90 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “space” J. Kim took a picture of then-sixteen year-old protestor the digital era. the long-standing sociological concept of copresence, modalitiestwo in a common temporality. In this sense, from which it is possible to look. Persistent looking has fined as “the diversefinedas ways in which people maintain a visible, or more exactly networked, via cell-phone video, what she calls new Black “the political elite”
Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Vine in a For Keeanga Yamahtta Taylor, the moment challenges Each stares at the other, directly in the eye. Reccord Reccord confrontingLamon police a sergeant in Chicago. ing full citizenship, something that the equally engaged set of interactive and intersensory relays, which create stands fully committed to his right to engage the police 5 (October 2003):5 (October 445–55. meaning face-to-face interaction, been has updatedfor rendered that system visible in and of itself. responsible for the death of Freddie Gray happened to be. return look of the police seeks to deny him. That police recorded when in November 2015, photographer John a copresence physical between and digital spaces. The of appearance created by protests and vigils are newly of each individual within it in order to situate the place above and beyond the imputed—but not actual—race Obama. of officer is African American, as threejust of the six police publicas Despite servants. his age, Reccord is claim 93 92
Shanyang Zhao, Shanyang “Toward a Taxonomy of Copresence,” Taylor, This possibility enabled was because the spaces
in which we might want to appear at has least From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation to Black From #BlackLivesMatter 92 The point The is that systemic racism operates 93 Such digital de been has copresence , 77. , Presence
in the era 12, no. no. 12, - -
“ICT-Based Co-Presence in Transnational Challenging Families Co-Presence Communities: and “ICT-Based There are now multiple spaces in which we can appear, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media &Electronic of Broadcasting Journal Justice tive online between information sharing and physical the protesters, in met person.” focused on disseminating news. disseminating on focused Beyond the Hashtag the Beyond while also maintaining sense a of presence. report The what followed: “In those early days, we were united by #BlackLivesMatter began online, when people located #Ferguson on Twitter… And once the protests began to Hashtags: #Ferguson, #Blacklivesmatter and the Online Struggle for Offline for Offline Struggle the Online and #Blacklivesmatter #Ferguson, Hashtags: Networks
Many of us became friends digitally, first. And then we, sense, engaging in protest the in outcome was part of sense of ‘being there’ spread, we became aware of something compelling and actions in the streets. Activist Deray McKesson described each other using the hashtag. Thenit became interac cursive, public performance of Black identity.” André communications scholar articulation of the way in which Twitter, in the words of describe the protests: the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter … concise, something that provided language common to participating in Black Twitter. Black in participating the Premise of Face-to-Face Proximity in Sustaining Relationships,” in Sustaining Proximity of Face-to-Face Premise the rights-movement-deray-mckesson-protest. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/09/ferguson-civil- 98 97 96 95 94
André Brock, “From the Blackhand Side: Twitter “From Blackhand Conversation,” the a Cultural Brock, André as Loretta Baldassar, Mihaela Nedelcu, Laura Merla, and Raelene Wilding, Wilding, Raelene and Merla, Laura Nedelcu, Mihaela Baldassar, Loretta Deen Freelon, Charlton D. McIlwain, and Meredith D. Clark, D. Clark, Meredith and D. Freelon, McIlwain, Charlton Deen Freelon, al., et Deray Mckesson, “Ferguson and beyond,” and “Ferguson Mckesson, Deray (Washington, DC: American University, 2016), University, American DC: 15–17. (Washington, The useThe of the hashtags horizontal as identifiers 16, no. 2 (April 2016): 16, no. 2(April 134. Beyond the Hashtags the Beyond
showed that #BlackLivesMatter for each other across distance.” 98 96 , 35.
95 56, no. 4(2012): 56, 537. This possibility an was
As a formal a movement, As Brock, enables “a dis Guardian , August 9, 2015,, August 97 Beyond the the Beyond In this this In Global Global 94 - -
91 Nicholas Mirzoeff 92 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter the future, outside the enclosure, it is always becoming, what Negar Mottahedeh hascalled “collective sensorial 21.6 million times from June 2014 to May 2015.
Michael Brown in the summer of 2014 to the inauguration in the Americas from the killings of Eric Garner and solidarity online,” solidarity ble to form aspace of appearance, which can engender limited place of interaction an becomes open space of of Donald Trump that was place where the Black person always in appearance. Because it makes common away to in be cific,as in #Ferguson, which was used astonishingan others, sometimes with surprising speed and reach. It is encounters and actions. This made copresence it possi enabled people to findeach other and beginto physical of Online Life Life of Online 100 99
Negar Mottadeh, Mottadeh, Negar Freelon, al., et The spaceThe of appearance where Black Lives Matter formation, while being site-specific. (Stanford, CA: Stanford Briefs, 2015),(Stanford, Stanford Briefs, CA: 16. Beyond the Hashtags the Beyond #iranelection: Hashtag Solidarity and the Transformation and Solidarity Hashtag #iranelection: 99 which is not utopian but site-spe 3.04 , 21. 100 The The - - this practice operates been the has relationship between that solidarity is taking amutual new as form—solidarity with asweet smile. Black Lives Matter activists got the with tear gas and the other tools of counterinsurgency
Palestine and Black Lives Matter. soon active As as re November 2014. In October 2015, a video called “When imagination that forms aright to appear. The sistance began in Ferguson, Palestinians sent not only selves visible to each other. Astriking example of how seeing, enabled by social media, which creates atrans violence.” against state-sanctioned soli Such struggle space of appearance allows those present to see and showed ayoung Palestinian girl asign carrying that I See Them, I See Us” ISee Them, I See posted was to YouTube, featuring messages of support but practicalmessages of support advice on how to deal might see each other and invent each other, in adialogic national space of appearance that might in turn form a neither aguarantee nor arequirement—it is a choice. We message and organized aresearch trip to Palestine in rectly at the camera, conveying message the one-on-one reads: “Ferguson with love from Palestine.” line, the person designated white like Angela Y. Davis and Robin D. Kelley G. But attests. appearance is practice, a whereby make people them different kind of politics. of kind different isdarity by no means new, the as work of activist scholars choose to build with one another in ashoulder to shoulder experience each other: “Black-Palestinian solidarity is activists. It adirect was expression of the idea that a over African sixty American and Palestinian and artists deployed in Missouri. A widely circulated photograph developed and tested on Palestinians that were being and those in revolutionary affiliation with Black people In the peculiar conditions enforced by the US color
appears in order to She looks di freedom of - - - - -
93 Nicholas Mirzoeff 94 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter the United States. the On Oakland Bridge, there a was ty. But since the antiwar mass demonstrations of 2003 to say, otherwise hierarchy will itself. reassert were dismissed by President George W. Bush a“fo as relativelywas little national media coverage. It not, was Oakland Bridge by chainingOakland Bridge through together themselves Day 2016, protesters in San Francisco shut down the usually unhindered benevolentand under supervision in short, an actionin short, claiming recognition. contrast, a By struction of thisstruction sensation common of blackness has mass demonstrationmass makes ademand of state authori been persistently produced when bodies deemed Black reversal, whereby those whose negotiation of space is listen listen light one action among many: on Martin Luther King cus group,” such demands have been largely ignored in a line of vehicles. There no was call for legislation. There position themselves in spaces deemed white. Tothemselves high position to what the other designated Black might have 3.05 The con The - - - - January 21, 2017. This one was of several such direct the entrances to the inauguration of Donald Trump on found themselves instead inconvenienced by havingthemselves to found Black Lives Matter made a strong visual impact by using Matter activists chained themselves together at one of slightly different character, reflecting those participating. participating. those character, reflecting different slightly space of appearance is thereby uneven, depending on how and why you have entered it. While mediated co mediated While it. how and why you have entered blocking traffic to make the disruptive claim that Black lives matter appear. protesters’ The chains forced the activists, and Standing Rock activists. Each action had a justice climate feminists, by blockades joining actions, actionsed became visible to millions when Black Lives cannot sustained be or developed online. Such unherald cut the shackles of Black people. experience The of a experience people, both Black and white, refusing and presence makes these spaces persist and resonate, they these makes presence police into avisible reversal, whereby the police had to 3.06 - -
95 Nicholas Mirzoeff 96 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter The two signature two The gestures of the post-Ferguson move BlackThe Lives Matter movement mobilized has political to the shootings of three civilians during by the the LAPD the state by the police. themselves by repetitions these to the representation of to the witness in the space and to the watcher online to of the older tactiction of the die-in. mass appropriative By feel actively engaged, whether online or locally. It calls Opposition in Globalizing California in Globalizing Opposition vernacular of Black protest into asignature movement. In bywas enslaved labor. 2013, Los Angeles residents began wearing T-shirts that
2006), 28. 2006), in which its claim can appear. Ruth Wilson Gilmore has read, “Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Not Chris Dorner,” referring by making their body political. Political bodies oppose become engaged first through bodily mimesis, and then reclaim the right to existence. This vulnerable moment reversal of vulnerability, embodied these performances ment were “Hands Up, Don’t and the Shoot” appropria bodies from vulnerable bodies in order to sustain spaces limit access of white people to celebrate the accession creates adynamic whereby those following or watching death.” premature to vulnerability group-differentiated defined racism the as “production and exploitation of of an avowed racist to live in the White House, built it as chains in an unmistakable evocation of slavery, to trying 101
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, “Hands Up, Don’t transformed Shoot” the existing Hands Up,Hands Shoot Don’t Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Crisis, Surplus, Gulag: Prisons, Golden (Berkeley: University of California Press, Press, of California University (Berkeley: 101 - -
“Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Black,” although Garner not was transformed this set of associations into a new form of of form new a into associations of set this transformed funeral on July 23, 2014, mourners wore T-shirts reading was shot,was beginning with his friend best who on was the what believed was to have happened, it not was asim Robinson wrote widely a circulated piece under the op-ed in 2014, February Caleb Ferguson, Dorner,’”Chris http://newsone.com/2204122/dorner-signs/. shot but strangled by police. shooting of Jordan Davis by Michael Dunn, because the headline, “I’m black, don’t shoot me” in response to the later testified thatBrown’s hands were up at the time he latter found Davis’s music to too be loud. At Eric Garner’s embodied protest. Although “Hands Up” flowed from ple re-creation of the scene of the murder. pursuit of Dorner, police former a officer. slideshow/eric-garners-funeral-draws-police-and-protesters-6314853/5 103 102
“L.A. Residents Plead with LAPD on Signs, Shirts: ‘Don’t Shoot, I’m Not I’m Not Shoot, ‘Don’t Shirts: Signs, on LAPD with Plead Residents “L.A. “Eric Garner’s Funeral Draws Police and Protesters,” photographs by photographs Protesters,” Funeral and Police Draws Garner’s “Eric Village Voice Village Washington Post , July 24, 2014,, July 3.07 103 The events The in Ferguson http://www.villagevoice.com/ columnist Eugene 102 Many people Ayear later, . -
97 Nicholas Mirzoeff 98 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter 1964. It not was until 2:30 pm that the police allowed 1963, police dogs were set on protesters in Birmingham, the medical examiner to begin his or her investigation, that the crowd agitated,” “very was Alabama, in scenes that were said to convince John F. from the scene and called in police dogs, apparently footage shows people mostly standing quietly behind August 9, 2014, http://fox2now.com/2014/08/09/man-shot-killed-in-ferguson- (St Louis, MO: GorePerry Reporting and Video, 2014 Video, and Reporting (St GorePerry MO: Louis,
Kennedy to pursue what became the Civil Rights Act of 2016): 46–71. 2016): indifferent to the parallel with civilrights history. In May scene immediately.scene his hands were up?” It expresses confusion well as as raised in agesture that clearly asks: “why did you shoot, made at the scene, such those as of awhite contractor, bullet before he turned around. raised his hands, or attempted to surrender, aprocess up. hands his of Michael Brown: Reading the Grand Jury Transcript,” Jury Grand the Reading Brown: of Michael and dogs can seen be in the background of some of the crime local scenetape, police dispatched Darren Wilson crowd that quickly swelled to seventy or eighty. Feeling questioning. Police testified that peo twenty or thirty caught cell-phone a on video. complicated by the fact his right broken arm was by a and witness, told Fox 2News that he had been shot with photographs taken evidence. as Heavily armed police in ple were outside immediately after Brown killed, was a apartment-complex/. 107 106 105 104
Betsey “Teenager Bruce, Shot, Killed in Ferguson Complex,” Apartment Missouri v. Darren Wilson, vol. V: v. Wilson, 44 Darren Missouri State of Missouri v. Darren Wilson Transcript of Grand Jury, XXIV vols. vols. Transcript v. XXIV Wilson State Jury, Darren of Missouri of Grand For a full account of the events at the scene, see Mirzoeff, “The Murder Murder “The Mirzoeff, see at scene, events the of For the account afull The gestureThe of raised hands also imitated those 105
Local people clearly believed Brown 104 Piaget Crenshaw, alocal resident 106 He stood He with his hands 107 ), vol. XIII: 159.), vol. XIII: although media media although Social TextSocial 126 (Spring - 3.09 3.08
99 Nicholas Mirzoeff 100 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter taken on August 11 in front of Ferguson Police Department tributed by then to Michael Brown, while holding their their hands, saying, ‘Don’t shoot me!’ police as officers were being blocked by protesters with chants of “Shut It formedwas from amontage of the isolated and vulner with barking dogs tried to keep order,” depicted in aVine, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Louis St.
Canfield Green housing shows local residents alternat Down.” up. Mike RIP Brown.” the next day, By the sentence had ing chants of “Black and Proud” with “Don’t Shoot,” at into identification—for common a theyknew that any one standing with their arms in the air and one man holding been condensed to “Hands Up, Don’t and Shoot” was by Michael B. Thomas. up. hands request of Michael Brown’s mother Lesley McFadden. The bulletproof M-16 carrying vests, rifles, arrived at the scene a sign that reads “Please do not shoot me, my hands are of the phrase “hands up” and “don’t together shoot” was of them could have been killed Brown as hadbeen. body ofable Michael Brown and the crowd’s resistance activists had helped him with the crowd. That evening, although the police chief told local Fox news that 2TV posted by alocal alderman Antonio French. protesters at the scene came together to hold a vigil at the co/v/MVEjLJdplx3. Ferguson’s Protests,” August 13,Ferguson’s 2014, August http://www.vox.com/2014/8/13/5998591/ Protests,” hands-up-dont-shoot-photos-ferguson-michael-brown. 111 110 109 108
Lauren Williams, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot: The images that Define images The Shoot: Up, Don’t “Hands Williams, Lauren Vine by French, Antonio https://vine.co/v/MVEjLJdplx3, Vine https://vine. Vine by Antonio French, August 10, by French, Antonio Vine August 2014, https://vine.co/v/MVQje76ul0d. Vine by Antonio French, August 10, by French, Antonio Vine August 2014, https://vine.co/v/MVTjzm2Ditx. By the followingBy afternoon, social media at the 110 The first The photograph that bringstwo theparts 109 Soon afterward, intersections afterward, Soon in Ferguson 111 reported that reported “residents held up It shows agroup of protesters 108 The action - - -
“Hands up?” “Don’t Shoot!” It calls to people to join in, though it perpetrated too was quickly to documented be to of the become part action. phrase The spread quick Up, Don’t makes Shoot” visible what happened even
in New York on August 20, 2014, people out rushed of by cameras. event The portrayed was an as O.K. Corral buildings to share the gesture or join the march. “Hands raising hands acall-and-response as marching action: being printed on signs, seen as in Olson’s Scott press ly across the and country has been used in countless affective embodied political protest.When I first saw it actions. Ihave never experienced amore effective and photographs from Ferguson. These wordsThese were combined with the action of 3.10 -
101 Nicholas Mirzoeff 102 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter traffic in San Francisco on May 21, 2015, with theirbodies took the appearance of the sexualized female body and the #SayHerName project. Because the conventional the gains performance aparadoxical strength. “Hands the police that says people “when have their hands up, teen buildings, each with twenty-three of apartments, American women at the hands of the police. Protesters fact, it took place in a busy apartment complex of eigh was anwas unequal response at first to the deaths of African were conducted possible every to so as cast suspicion which 324 were occupied of as August 9, 2014. Cars were Up” not was in this sense addressed to the police at all
Probable cause is alower standard than that enshrined up, you don’t dare to shoot.” not By only displaying vul unremarkable statement. But it follows: “our hands are iation with West African traditions, Black women blocked invoked by protesters turns these legal concepts around in the phrase “beyond areasonable that doubt” would space of representation is normatively masculine, there rendered it political. Naked to the waist in articulated affil wounded,be even die, but who do not submit and are but to the protesters, naming political bodies that can nerability but admitting to it and doing so in numbers, hearings (see Chapter Three), the question of justice have at pertained atrial. Before and after the grand jury blocked on the road by Wilson’s SUV, and dozens heard ability strength as became clear when women formed open to others. feminist The implication of this vulner don’t shoot.” In itself, this should be—an would be—or and reveals the failings of the criminal justice system. on those eyewitnesses to deny probable cause to indict. or saw of the some part events. hearings grand The jury conflict between MichaelBrown and Darren Wilson. In At the same time, “Hands Up” is acommand to - - - - The actionThe prevents the media from its usual call for clo tal moment (in the sense of living well as essential) as the legal phrase) would have ceasedfiring at a wounded, to force the connection their between visibility and the feel in that repeated present their choices for the future. forgotten names of women killed by police: Rekia Boyd, when protesters reenact, they are making choices. It has fore Sandra Bland, Keyla Moore, Shelley Frey, Joyce Curren,
in that moment that is not singular, but already has been sure, healing, and moving on. Protesters choose to remain surrendering child. It concentrates our attention on the vi been said that “Hands Up” is apassive, evenform. weak repeated. For Michael Brown, there no was choice. But crucial moment, when any “reasonable person” (to use and so many more. May 2015, 22, http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/05/22/say-her- Bared,” Chests With Action Women Stage Direct Black name-expression-vulnerability-and-power-black-women-stage-direct-action. 112
the definitive violence.Those witnessing the action Sarah Lazare, “Say Her Name: In Expression of Vulnerability and Power, and of Vulnerability Expression In Name: “Say Her Lazare, Sarah “Hands Up, Don’t pauses Shoot” the action at the 112
3.11 Common Dreams Common be - - - ,
103 Nicholas Mirzoeff 104 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter their hands. Heartbreaking. But not weak. That action to die, do not salute the sovereign power of the police, the refusal to accede to their order. Roman gladiators form arupture with the form of order in which the police will not registered be murderous. as action The claims the Brown’s funeral, a room full of people stood and raised in fact have to most fear from it: people placing them interaction of the Snapchat/selfie generation with direct state with its own violence. space that is usually that of circulation and commerce to speak but those they rule make noises. “Hands Up” is selves in situations that can deemed be noncompliant, shots. “Hands Up, is Don’t the Shoot” first product of the salute you.” Those performing “Hands Up,” if as about to Images from Selfies to Self-Portraits, Maps to Movies and More and Movies Maps to Self-Portraits, to from Selfies to Images I have not experienced it that way. “Hands Up” creates happened and defies the social order in which those shots create a space of appearance, in which to confront the defiant. It defies the shots that will have in fact already combines reenactment, remembrance, and resistance to allowing the police to claim the right to shoot. At Michael operations of the prison industrial complex by those who protestor. the of action in the streets because it created a new self-image and do not accept their right to kill. They refuse for those addressed the Emperor: who are “Those about to die afraid, the refusal to stay in the place allocated to us, and and then in others watching. It is about the refusal to be a sympathetic reaction, first in the body, performing protest at the killing of an unarmed child and all the other people who have died to die again, and prohibit any future Basic Books, 2016), Books, Basic 29–69. 113
On the selfie, see Nicholas Mirzoeff, Mirzoeff, Nicholas see selfie, the On 113 It is not asimple reenactment. It is a How to See the World: An Introduction the Introduction World: to An See How (New York: (New - When counter-bodyWhen politics die-in, what Marc Augé has Westfield Mall London.in Rather than restage one death that all who might fail to comply are potential targets. tinued week every in Grand Central for over ayear. Online took over Grand Central Station during the evening rush from feminism to ACT UP and the environmental move Greenham Common women die-ins performed in protest Modern politicalModern bodies in the space of appearance are November 2014, one of the first mass die-ins in New York space and it divert into becoming commons. atemporary In medieval theories of sovereignty, the King never dies not eternal like the body of the King. But they have sus king that but the idea can hurt, be of the King is eternal. because bodies. he has two One is the human body of the hubs become visible the as spatial component of the hour, causing adramatic response online. Protests con base in Britain, while ACT UP activists staged anow- ment, reclaimed has it means as to disrupt commercial by the carceral state and white supremacy for noncompli legendary die-inlegendary on Wall Street in 1987 to protest the lack called the “non-places” of shopping malls and transport at atime, there have die-ins, been mass making it clear a British Can’t “I Breathe” die-in at the Australian-owned activism generated solidarity actions worldwide, such as of AIDS treatments available. In recent protests, partici against cruise missiles stationed at the US Air Force ance, the new civil rights movement, like many before it dying but not dead. Because death is asanction applied pended death in the die-in. This counter-body politic is policed the only society— public spaces we are supposed pants took over spaces of circulation and consumption. In Die-ins and Turning and Die-ins Backs of - - - - -
105 Nicholas Mirzoeff 106 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter the eleven statements: Can’t “I Breathe,” the words last inhabit. to viewpoint from above, making each person vulnerable, refusing to In dying depart. but not transitioning into may close your eyes, listen to the silence, broken only by but creates asense of freedom you as your rest with body of Eric Garner, the body of the commons dying and yet counting experience solidarity the as collective body dying-in. You others in spaces where you never normally are at rest. You Howe (New York: (New Howe Verso, 1995). 114
Marc Augé
that not does enumerate value but re-performs
114 Performed death surrenders to Performed the dominant , Non-Places: An Introduction to Introduction Supermodernity An , Non-Places: 3.12 , trans. John John trans. , There is within movements these what performance the sincerest form of flattery: imitation.On the first night officers NYPD two onDecember 20, 2014.Its effective the penal colony on Devil’s Island. In a doubled historical Memory in the Americas Memory
Black protesters turned their backs on the militarized Darren spaces of owned and militarized appearance in order to studies scholar Diana Taylor would call arepertoire, not soldiers turned showing ble to create aspace of appearance outside norms. The ness was recognized was ness by targets, its primary the police, in ment of policing that has become the visible presence rituals of dishonor were far harder for him to endure than itshas roots in the formation of the body politic—it was constitute adifferent ground for politics. archive. an death, the die-in prevents the circulation of commodities. of Louis and XIV other absolutist monarchs. French of public demonstrations in Ferguson, in August 2014, an challenged that and priority suspended it the between of the carceral state in everyday life. Black Lives Matter ond trial in Rennes in 1896. Dreyfus later said that these convicted aspy, as asign as of his dishonor at his sec an gage with the line of battle being presented. tactic The political body in movement opens the way to overwrite po com/S_Roach/status/498694653852397569/photo/1. 116 115 nouncement of the grand verdict jury in the of case lice arrayed in front of them. offense to turn your back on the King at the court
Diana Taylor, Diana Twitter photograph by @s_roach, August 10, August 2014, https://twitter. Twitter by @s_roach, photograph Each police killing resulted from the intense enforce intense the from resulted killing police Each Wilson on November 24, 2014, and the killing of disrespect for their power and refusing to en 115 From such repertoires, it becomes possi their backs on Col. Alfred Dreyfus, falsely The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Performing ArchiveThe the and Repertoire: (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003), 20–23. Press, University Duke NC: (Durham, 116 They were at once - - - - -
107 Nicholas Mirzoeff 108 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter This repeated was performance at the funerals and at a that that their “zero tolerance” to elected officials, andrestated its physical as the form that of the soldiers in France, that asserted the real locus two 2014. Police carried out so-called “vertical patrols”
Officer Officer Rafael Ramos and later Officer Wenjian Liu. Brooklyn to Police Precinct 75. An African American man Dreyfus, DeBlasio called was a“traitor.” BlasioDe at the hospital where the dead had been taken. Brooklyn Mayor Bill De Blasio he spoke as at the funerals of first andNYPD its allies turned their backs on New York City in which absolute power in theto shut effort asserted, was shot to death by Officer Peter Liang on November 20, subsequent speech to the police academy where, like housing projects, going up and down buildings, of part as named Akai Gurley had lived at the Pink Houses and was mournable bodies of the police. had traveled to New York after assaulting his girlfriend, 30, 2014,30, http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/nypd-turning- authority of the police. Their gesture relocated the body down the space of appearance and restore the ubiquitous any representative capacity. It reopened afield of seeing of power with was the police in and of themselves, not in of Black men. Later that day, police turned their backs on apparently motivated to kill by the spate of police killings and contemporary moment, on December 27, 2014, the protesters marched from the Louis H. Pink Houses in politic within the carceral state, making it inaccessible back-de-blasio. back-de-blasio. 117
police officers had been killed on December Amy Davidson, “No One Here Should Be Turning Be Should Here December His Back,” One “No Amy Davidson, were never fully explained, Liang fired his weapon On theOn same day Rafael as Ramos’ by aBaltimore man named Ismaaiyl
policing strategy. circumstances In
This dissent, like like dissent, This Brinsley, who
funeral, 117 20 in The The
in in January 5, 2015, 5, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/01/why-January to infrequent. be For all that, the hyperbolic description the New York City police then withdrew their labor in a rules. different to this action, the officers visibly laughed at the crowd. They fueled the the fueled felt they were now back in control. Although Liang was were often broken. Arguably, Gurley died for want of a wildcat strike. Neither unions nor employers used that Sheriff David Sheriff
Pink Houses described how the New York City housing Republican convention in 2016, quoted was in nation 2014, https://nypost.com/2014/11/22/tenants-live-in-fear-at-the-notorious- in adark it anymore.” seen. December On 27, 2014, speaker at a rally at the stigator of the combined police and white backlash that most dangerous” most by police union leader Patrick Lynch of the project “the as risks they take to keep communities safe are even worth madenity service it clear that police operate according known atough as station, where Liang worked, march nonsense. light light lined up on the roof above. Far from being disturbed by authority rarely maintained the buildings and that lights al media that police were “beginning to wonder if the convicted, his lenient sentence of probation and commu ers responded by turning their backs on police who were the-nypd-turned-its-back-on-the-city/384196/. the-nypd-turned-its-back-on-the-city/384196/. Fear at the Dark and Deadly Hellhole Houses,” Houses,” Hellhole Deadly and Fear at Dark the pink-houses/. 119 118
Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Why the NYPD Turned City,” the on Back NYPD Ta-Nehisi the Its “Why Coates, Ben Feuerherd, Lorena Mongelli, and Sophia Rosenbaum, “Living in “Living Rosenbaum, Sophia and Mongelli, Lorena Feuerherd, Ben bulb. Trash collection and other amenities were said In retrospect, this moment seems to akey be in stairwell, killing Gurley whom he had not even 118 Trump candidacy. hitherto The locally known When the When march arrived at Precinct 75, long 119 Clark of Milwaukee, who later spoke at the In order to demonstrate this sentiment,
projects in New York obviously was New YorkNew Post , November 22, 22, , November Atlantic - - - - ,
109 Nicholas Mirzoeff 110 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter these administrative codeswere operating apresent-day as term, presumably not so as to muddy the water of toler Gawker work at their own pleasure, arrest whomever they deem intendedwas to make visible the reality that the police Revelations from Ferguson and elsewhere showed that Despite all the millions spent, police rarely prevent vio Far from generating chaos, must have as been expect surveillance policing.surveillance showed of-american-life-1692392051. of-american-life-1692392051. lence. activist-scholar As David Graeber wrote during the arrestable, and answer only to themselves. What it actually ed, the police stoppage accidentally created very two ated police protest with highly regulated labor disputes. police strike: police pleasant weeks for everyone in New York. protest The 120
David Graeber, “Ferguson and the Criminalization of American Life,” David Criminalization of Graeber,the American and “Ferguson , March 19, 2015, http://gawker.com/ferguson-and-the-criminalization- Broken WindowsSupremacy White and The policeThe little spend very of their time dealing where one can eat, drink, smoke, sell, sit, walk, with infractions of various administrative codes police sociologists with violent criminals—indeed,
kind. of Most the remaining is spent 90% dealing thatreport only about 10% of the average police and drive. and and regulations: all those about rules how and officer’s time is devoted tocriminal matters of any was thatwas cities modern can function without mass 120 - - -
that often was prohibited except during carnival, known this state of affairs. It allowed police stopto people if they than anyone else. Judge Shira Scheindlin’s A. judgment Americans, especially those in levels. or near poverty felt they had cause and to search them. Behind this recent found that fully 42 percent of the 4.4 million stops record Vulnerable, FromVulnerable, Ferguson to Flynt Beyond and which the carceral state monitored and exercised control 12. See Hill, Marc Lamont, 12. Lamont, Hill, Marc See 23 percent and 29 percent of city population respectively.
Only 6percent of the stops resulted in an arrest with a Black Code, restricting and controlling the lives of African Latina/o populations, who constituted 52 percent and 31 “furtive officersmovement” defined NYPD Black Lives Matter protest in New York can attest that Scheindlin in the matter of v. York Floyd 12, of New matter in the August City on 2013,Scheindlin 4, 2016), 56–59, its fast-walking and irritable act pedestrians. very The style of policingstyle lies along of history controlling the move ments and gatherings of the enslaved, especially dancing dancing especially enslaved, the of gatherings and ments as Pinksteras in New York. of movement was criminalized for African American and and American African for criminalized was movement of away from you.” of acar too quickly,” direction,” and 2004 between ed 2012 were movement.” for “furtive on stop-and-frisk, in which she ruled against the NYPD, over nonwhite populations. Anyone who has attended a ercise of police expertise. In practice, it ameans was by percent of those stopped respectively, while making up police are far more likely to arrest a visibly Black person NC: Duke University Press, 2015), Press, 74–82. University Duke NC: 122 121
Simone Browne, Browne, Simone Memoranda and orders filed by U.S. District Court Judge Shira A. Shira Judge Court District by filed U.S. orders and Memoranda In New York City, the stop-and-frisk policy enforced
“walking in way,” acertain 122 Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness the Surveillance On Matters: Dark All of this in New York City, famed for
Nobody: Casualties in America’s War Against the War Against America’s in Casualties Nobody: or even of their “turning a part body 121 In theory, it aneutral was ex , (New York,, (New NY: Atria Books,
“moving in and out
as “changing “changing as (Durham, - - -
111 Nicholas Mirzoeff 112 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter The TrumpThe administration has now proposed returning 1982 article by social scientists James Wilson and George they urged that those they call “drunks,” “vagrants,” and to criminal invasion.” To prevent this loss of confidence, that allowing “broken windows” to proliferate creates the to small infractions of the law prevents more serious to the nonoccurrence of euphemism crime. The “broken to the Eric Garner protests published by the Manhattan to more confrontational policing. terms. Few of the charges were container serious—open frisk hasbeen withdrawn, the continues NYPD to subject 6 percentfurther generating a summons, meaning that windows” beenhas used to name this ordering, loosely
Kelling, the strategy proposes that to maintain order and Bratton had addressed St. Louis–area law enforcement attention close paying that claiming Zombardo, Philip StLouis_third_day/ Institute, the “aggressive maintenance of order,” meaning 88 percent88 of the stops were unjustified, even on police based on controversial 1980s psychology research by multiple officersarmed with M-16 rifles in subway stations. breaches of regulations that lead has to the presence of monitoring the subway for fare jumping and other trivial appearance of disorder and makes an area “vulnerable “vulnerable area an makes and disorder of appearance actively controlled. name The came from their argument officials “brokenof on the virtues windows.” than Less ones. ayear before the Michael Brown murder, an active prevention of disorder that leads (in their view) commissioner William Bratton called, in his response offenses and the like predominated.stop-and- Although prevent chaos the vagrant and the marginalized be must people of color to intense scrutiny, with acurrent focus on 123
http://ago.mo.gov/newsreleases/2013/AG_four_day_Crime_Summit_ The policeThe of power theory is what former NYPD 123 Based on a a on Based “undesirables” should subject be close to very police “Left unchecked,“Left street corners can degenerate into crim they now call “quality-of-life” including arrests, that of that their critics were not in New York prior to so 2000 York: John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 2014), Justice, ofYork: Criminal Jay John College 22. verdicts in verdicts concerning the cases Eric Garner and Michael would forty-four. now be windows” that clarifies present-dayits character.They vaguely defined demographiceconomic or factor. Crime with one another, often with firearms… Current crime 2014 on which report Bratton collaborated, so the young
Brown, Bratton and George Kelling (one of the original Eric Garner’s death to “anomalous” be and suggested use. Amid the wave of protests following the grand jury urination, to vagrancy, loitering, prostitution, and drug process. this undermining is actively managed in New York day.” City every intimidate and shake down citizens, honest engage in inogenic environments. bullies The take over. They drink scams and criminal enterprises—and, worst of all, fight sneered at “ivory-tower” criticism of their idea. They held bodies and bodily practices, from public drinking and have no idea what it like, was raising the unlikely specter levels don’t stay down by themselves because of some attention. They admitted that there is the risk of “bigotry” alcohol and take drugs openly, make excessive noise, adultest who experienced the worst of those conditions peakedarrests in New York City in 1989, according to a of widespread car radio at thefts that time. In fact, felony authors) made vigorous, a belligerent defense of “broken Policing,” Policing,”
125 124
William J. Bratton and George L. Kelling, “Why We Need Broken Windows Windows Broken We Need Kelling, “Why L. George and William J. Bratton Preeti Chauhan, et al., et Chauhan, Preeti “Broken windows” in New York targeted aset of City Journal (Winter 2015). (Winter Trends in Misdemeanor Arrests in New York New in Arrests Trends Misdemeanor in 124 They nonetheless assert that: They nonetheless assert 125 What What (New (New - -
113 Nicholas Mirzoeff 114 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter 100,000 Black people were arrested for misdemean marijuana for were arrests misdemeanor of 15 percent tactics. Empirical evidence cited includes a whimsical tenance.” whereas So felony peaked arrests back in 1989, while property-related had arrests declined to 16 percent with outstanding warrants. authors The attribute the
Bratton thus identifies those punishedas “a small portion Bratton, “highly correlated with and both race.” poverty Eric Garner, are held to the be preventative key to such study from the Netherlands where more people stole cash sion of the original thesis, quality-of-life (and arrests stop, more order” abound. However,more order” even according to Bratton misdemeanor have arrests tripled since then. In an exten lic transport offenses, so nearly a third have nothing to out visiblyleft from amailbox with graffiti on it than from ors inors 2013. cent for Blacks and 4.4 percent for Hispanics.” Over on ethnic groups: arrest rate “the for Whites 1.2 was are groundless. dismissed by magistrates 7percent and afurther not of the total. With percent 38 of misdemeanor charges do with the locality. John The Jay indicates report that and Kelling, 28 percent of are arrests for traffic and pub a clean one. Unsupported like assertions “order breeds drop in New York City murders and crime directly to these question, and frisk tactics) are used to discover people apparently desirable “aggressive as outcomes order main percent in 2013, compared to an rate arrest of 6.4 per pursued by district attorneys, nearly half of these arrests possession and 14 percent for turnstile jumping in 2013, 127 126
Ibid., 36, 42. 36, Ibid.,
What remains clear is their differential impact impact differential their is clear remains What See Chauhan, et al, et Chauhan, See 127 Such “disorderly behavior,”Such is, asserts 126
Trends in Misdemeanor Arrests ,
25, 45, 56. 45, 25, - - - - - ‘90s,” ‘90s,” 1300 police officers ata cost of one hundred million dol What became known the as “Ferguson continued effect” to be asserted in right-wingto asserted be media, meaning that police fall in 2015, although there a slight was increase in the flatly “The most plausible asserted: explanation of the
Offering somecarefully selectedstatistics that crimi Liu, Bratton used this thesis in conjunction with the work in May 2015 that Ferguson and the resulting protests stoppage to persuade New York City to fund an additional shootings and homicides were at record low levels. In the aftermath of the killings of Officers Ramos and Institute, Heather MacDonald, went so far to as claim homicide rate. In 2016, that direction reversed and both months.” In fact, New York City crime rates continued to misleading, were say experts justice nal lars, in what is already one of the intensively most policed cities in the world. are told, that other considerations should secondary. be concerned of having these racialized bodies removed, we of the minority population.” great So is the benefit to all claim not to able be to do their jobs if subject to being against over nine Americanpolice the departments past current surge in lawlessness is the intense agitation against the police had actually produced acrime wave. ID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article. ID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article. effect/396068/. Region®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&content news-1&action=click&contentCollection=N.Y.%20%2F%20 nyregion/new-york-shootings-decline.html?&moduleDetail=section- http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-nationwide-crime-wave-1432938425. 130 129 128 http://www.citylab.com/crime/2015/06/busting-the-myth-of-the-ferguson-
New York Times, YorkNew Times, Ashley Southall, “Shootings in New York Fall to Lowest Number Since the the York Since in New Number “Shootings Fall Southall, to Lowest Ashley Brentin Mock, “Busting the Myth of ‘The Ferguson Effect,’” June June Effect,’” Ferguson 17, of ‘The Myth the 2015, “Busting Mock, Brentin Heather MacDonald, “The New Nationwide Crime Wave,” Crime Nationwide New May 2015, 29, “The MacDonald, Heather Going still further, another writer for the Manhattan January 4, 2017, 4, January http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/ 129 MacDonald 130 128 - - -
115 Nicholas Mirzoeff 116 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “whitelash” against Black Lives Matter. There are repertoires of protest and those of polic when Black lives do matter, the social space of appear videoed or photographed. It should noted be here that Dallas during aBlack Lives Matter protest on July 7, 2016, most notablemost “Ferguson of all effect” was the election many of these negative predictions and assumptions how events are viewed. five When police were shot in action. There is also the new range of machine-generated of Donald Trump of what part as Van Jones termed the appeared to many (white people) to vindicated. be The ance has changed, meaning that police do not control Machine Repertoires 3.13 e -
tion for the problem of police violence. From the cases that we might call the machine repertoire of persistent family objected to awhite Ti-Rock Moore artist making visual materials recording the repeated police killings what happened: has for example, both officers involved Sterling and Philando Castile. Philando and Sterling
Campaign Zero have proposed these devices asolu as Rice (among many others), it is clear that the existence Police Chiefs on reported in-car cameras in con 2006, intolerable, especially after the concurrent deaths of Alton in the death of Alton Sterling on July 5, 2016, had body installed strictly for the purpose of disciplinary actions, the ing machines. Like any other device, machines these seemingly endless stream of videos of police killings in by the police. Politicians and some activist groups like building for some time. For example, Michael Brown’s looking. are These the videos from body dash-cams, of Eric Garner to Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling and Tamir cameras, CCTV, and other forms of surveillance of and a (somewhat inaccurate) life-size re-creation of his dead again at broken Black and brown bodies has become another way? For many people, looking over and over cameras that somehow became “dislodged.” and little from support the rank and file.” agency’s program will plagued be with broken equipment cluding “If the officers believe that the cameras are being can manipulated. be International The Association of convictions, despite the apparent neutrality of the record of such materials not does lead to indictments, let alone Death,” J-Stor Daily,Death,” J-Stor 20, 2016, July http://daily.jstor.org/how-do-i-not-look/. http://www.theiacp.org/portals/0/pdfs/incarcamera.pdf. 132 131
“In-Car Cameras,” International Association of Police Chiefs (2006), 67, Chiefs of Police Association International Cameras,” “In-Car Alexandra Juhasz, “How Do I (Not) Look? Live Feed Video and Viral Black Black Viral and Feed Video Live Look? I (Not) Do “How Juhasz, Alexandra How can we (not) look at these images and the 132 Such sentiment been has 131 That is exactly exactly is That - - -
117 Nicholas Mirzoeff 118 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “white.” Located private between and corporate property, The spaceThe of nonappearance is the racialized counter this space of nonappearance become has afeatureless without making aspectacle of the deaths that are and Paris CBS News, July 15, July 2015, News, CBS http://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-brown- needs to do is crop a still image taken from the video to have always the been gross product of the settler state. In zone. killing machine images can used be instead to show the space body for a Chicago exhibition in 2015. father-chicago-art-exhibit-on-ferguson-teens-death-disgusting/. father-chicago-art-exhibit-on-ferguson-teens-death-disgusting/. order to make this zone of nonappearance visible, all one of nonappearance, the no one’s land where people die. part to thepart “nonplaces” of consumer society, designated Paris underclass and their non-spaces, non-spaces, their and underclass Paris 134 133 (Bibliothèuqe national France). de (Bibliothèuqe
I have in mind here Eugène Atget’s Ihave 1913 Eugène in here mind of the of photographs album See “Michael Brown’s Family Reacts to Art Exhibition on Son’s on Death,” Exhibition Brown’s to Art “Michael Family See Reacts 134 This zone is an index of state violence 3.14 Vues et types de la zone militaire zone de de la Vues et types 133 Perhaps these - the militarized white supremacy of the settler colony. from being complete censorship—the images still being widely available—this is acoming-into-visibility of what
is otherwise not seen or ignored—the space of nonap name is meant to convey an ideology, not ageography, exclude the fallen about-to-be-wounded or person. pearance. Let me give that space a name: America. The art projects, such as the collaboration between Claudia Rankine and John John and Claudia Rankine between collaboration the as such projects, art Marion, Indian, in 1930. Indian, Marion, in Lucas removed the victim’s bodies from the infamous lynching photograph taken in taken photograph lynching infamous the victim’s from the removed bodies 135
This simple tactic is derived from many more sophisticated contemporary In image 3.13, Ihave edited the video dash-cam Citizen: An American Lyric American An Citizen: 3.15 (Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2014), Press, Graywolf (Minneapolis: which 135 Far Far -
119 Nicholas Mirzoeff 120 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter There ayearlong was dispute over the release of this They would have known of that forty-six seventy the space. bus stop. Adeserted Weeds taking over the the scene from being recorded. Only one of the five police that done was everything by Chicago police to prevent than sixteen times, even though he still seems to alive. be that shows the fatal police shooting in 2014 of teenag Authority found only one to unjustified. be And no doubt, whatever real estate development is intended to take over vehicles at the scene recorded video. All failed to record were Black. video’s release, his family argued against making it public. video, which clearly demonstrates that OfficerJason Van United States reality is common to these videos that have Laquan entirely left was alone after being shot no fewer Dyke shot McDonald when he posed no threat. What is 26, 2015, http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/chicago-tops-in-fatal-police- sidewalk. image The conveys the aterrible loneliness, It is unbearable. However, in the long dispute over the no one’s land, the killing zone. This bleak capturing of houses lurk behind their alarms and CCTV. is Between nonfatal from 2007–15, the Independent Police Review killed by Chicago Police Department from 2010–14 appallingmost and heartbreaking about the video is that like the Ferguson community, they feared reprisals. Note dazzles with halogendazzles lighting and video displays. Private awful meaninglessness of the scene. Corporate space died? Achain link fence. Abillboard announcing to no one do we now see of the America where Laquan McDonald of shots. If the video is edited to exclude the body, what any sound, which is for important determining the pattern er Laquan McDonald in Chicago to exclude his body. shootings-among-big-u-s-cities/. 136
“Chicago Tops “Chicago U.S. July Cities,” Big in among Fatal Shootings Police 136 Of four hundred police shootings, fatal and people people -
Trees. Evening. space The is again featureless. Abroad, that shows the scene where Sandra Bland stopped was vate in the United property States and so no one does. Utility wires dangle, awaiting the next tostorm fall. The
No one’sNo land. one No cares. Someone dies. This is the is no one’s responsibility to maintain or enhance nonpri in Texas on July 13, 2015, for failing to signal alane space of nonappearance. In hazy white of climate-changed Southernhazy sky summer. It might did ask, Bland need to signal her lane change? become the hallmark of its visual culture. deserted roaddeserted with no visible markings. To whom, we change, astop that to was her cost her life. road. Acountry Consider this still from the police video dash-cam 3.16 Waiting for Godot (whose -
121 Nicholas Mirzoeff 122 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Vladimir and Estragon. Today in no one’s land, America, time whatever, on any day whatever. the unlucky residents await the arrival of the police at any American graduate of the University of Chicago, who was incarceratedwas on December 12, 2012, after suffering
industrial complex. Above is an edited still from the vid stage directions are evoked here), Lucky, aslave driver, eo showing the Tasering of Philip Coleman, an African analogous to the mind-destroying cells of the prison- arrives instead of Godot and terrorizes the tramps two The emptinessThe of American spaces these is formally 3.17 -
Treatment 2014, Center, 8, http://tacreports.org/treatment- Advocacy April to his in way. every cell The is so devoid of features to as to antipsychotic medication. image The shows the cell the present-day carceral landscape, first formed in slav hospitals. psychiatric state in tients the Treatment Advocacy Center, in 2012 there were an the United States confines mentallyits ill. According to for assault because he spat at police, ultimate he was world, abandoned but hardly defeated.” hardly but abandoned world, incident ended with his death from an adverse reaction incarceration. in prisons and jails, ten times the number of such pa see the claustrophobia,see the insufferableboredom, the rural locations where prisons are built, Gilmore as has mirroring of abandoned urban spaces and the deserted ly Tased thirteen times before his arraignment. The from Lockup Amounts to ‘Brute Force,’” to ‘Brute Amounts Lockup from judge-ruling-met-20151214-story.html. of the incarcerated. White walls. Bars. You can almost verbaldefy description. Ablue shelf to place the body adjacent to Coleman’s, visible in the video and identical psychotica episode at his mother’s house. of nonappearance under the present regime of mass ery, modified under Jim Crow, and rendered into spaces cancounterparts, understood be to form one political estimated inmates 356,268 with severe mental illness discomfort, and the smell. are These the spaces in which pointed forgotten out: “These places, and their urban behind-bars/executive-summary/226-summary-of-findings. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-philip-coleman- 140 139 138 137
Todd Steve and “Judge: Mills, Lighty Using Taser, Coleman Dragging Johnson, Gilmore, Gilmore, “The Treatment Of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails”, and in Prisons Illness Treatment Mental with Persons “The Of Golden Gulag Golden River of Dark Dreams ofRiver Dark 140 , 247. , , 210. Chicago TribuneChicago 138 There is a further There is further a , December 7,, December 2015, 139 137 They form form They Arrested Arrested - - -
123 Nicholas Mirzoeff 124 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter The machine-generatedThe image stream and the digital When Mr.When Castile reached for his wallet to produce his to protect and to She speaks serve. of Castile’s com the articulation of Black and blue from Miles Davis to death. his to leading times, the killing of her boyfriend Philando Castile in asuburb of the self-broadcast by Diamond Reynolds at the scene of American men. For Mr. Castile, this the was fifty-third and St. Paul, Minnesota on July 2016. 6, police The thought
Castile’s nose” “wide-set matched that sus of arobbery Reynolds calls on the law not to break its own promise David Hammons. Realizing that Castile has passed, she Black. cop The told Mr. Castile to produce his license and repeatedly asks: “Please don’t tell me that he’s gone.” happened in detail, calling the police officer, who visibly a weapon, hecarrying was for which he had a permit. registration. In an excess of caution, he responded that last suchlast stop he had endured in the area for driving while above process of law, for which she dies a living death a royal prohibition. She puts justice and the sibling bond defies statethe her by burying slain rebel brother against era makes her appear blue, unintentionally evoking composed, elegant, perhaps elegiac. phone The cam continues to point his weapon at her, “Sir.” Her face is astonishing composure, she describes what has just casting networked video on Facebook Live. Showing documents, the panicked police officer shot him several copresence of Black Lives Matter actions converged in procedure—her term. In Sophocles’ tragedy, term. In Sophocles’ procedure—her Antigone pliance with the officer’s request and of the breach of adescriptionpect, that could encompass African most At this moment Diamond Reynolds began broad Antigone in St. in Paul Antigone - - - -
Yanez. Antigone, Reynolds’ speech act not has prevented the law from its enactment of death. Antigone in St Paul. Who, as work that enables us to see her. It becomes our view Saul, stopped was on the road to Damascus of all places,
Corinthians but written 2 Corinthians). Corinthians). 2 written but Corinthians under threat of death from the gun. until 5am the following day. days Just after the presi in adie-in for machines, continues to stream live. Like silence, Castile will not yet have died. All the while she is slaugh because she is being arrested, apparently for the offense road. live, streaming via Facebook Live, and alive, but remains demands that and is continues to live with difficulty in the precarious margins acquittal sentence lesser a or Reynolds at best. herself of ten years, although experience cautions us to expect dangerous eye, charges were finally filed against Officer Jeronimo dential election, if as to keep the out case of the public campaign Two as Corinthians (usually known Second as and he not was shot. Paul, As he went on to write the one accused by Jesus of persecution. But not he was frisked of being present. Her camera, lying on the ground if as piece of scripture miscited by Trump during the election column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0. action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first- is Charged with Manslaughter,” with is Charged nytimes.com/2016/11/17/us/philando-castile-shooting-minnesota.html?hp& 141
Christina Capecchi and Mitch Smith, “Officer Who Shot Philando Castile Castile Philando Shot Who “Officer Smith, Mitch and Capecchi Christina Reynolds was unaccountably held in police custody unaccountably in policeReynolds held custody was For minutes, we see astatic scene. Asuburban Wires. Evening. physicality messy The of the net 141 ter and two counts of intentional discharge of a a of discharge intentional of counts two and ter buried alive. Reynolds speaks to the law and He was charged was He with second-degree man weapon. Conviction could lead to sentence a it not describe what it done. has In that New YorkNew Times , November 16, 2016, http://www., November - - -
125 Nicholas Mirzoeff 126 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Vine, the popular soon-to-be-discontinued but six-second tragic form for our fragmented time. Amoment in which fundamental separation and antagonism of white su who was runningwho was away eight times in the back and then video formant created new narratives, and in which its in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 2015, 4, acell- is not, however, about the tragic hero. It expresses the state: white supremacy. white state: something rotten within the state, something that cannot shows unity of time, place, and action. It depicts loss. It In the uneasy interval the between presidential election be correctedbe without changing nature the very of that of Video,” appearance. In the of case Walter shot Scott, by police of visual materials and counter any possible space of and the inauguration, legal two decisions reinforced the claim justice. flaw The is not within the characters but character character assassination. Her ten-minute film of white Minnesota. phone video showing apolice officer shooting a man power of white supremacy to rewrite the interpretation premacy and opens aspace of appearance in order to parent company, Twitter, won the presidency via the 140- com/national/stay-calm-be-patient/2016/09/10/ec4ec3f2-7452-11e6-8149- b8d05321db62_story.html. 142
Eli Saslow, “For Diamond Reynolds, Trying to Move Past 10 Trying Tragic to Move Past Reynolds, Eli Diamond “For Saslow, Minutes Washington Post , September 10, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost. , September 142 Interregnum In this video, she has created a -
The DAThe set out to displace that simple question with an Times the center console and the front seat.” passenger that he never raised his hands in such away that he might fire that gun, even if he were holding it. Is that sufficient 2016, Andrew Murray, the district attorney in Charlotte, justification.
Brentley Vinson on September 20, 2016, in aparking lot Darren Wilson, Michael Brown’s killer, in Charlotte, Carolina, North while waiting to collect one released asubstantial twenty-two-page racies. We are told no book found. was But there “a was statementsness that reading was Scott abook were reason, beyond adoubt, for aperson to shot be to death? 30, 2016,30, http://www.charmeckda.com/news/113016_1.pdf. account not was the actions of the police but the gun of his children, no charges were brought. In December of Keith shot Lamont Scott, to death by police officer array of questionable and marginal evidence. or even show his hands at all. It did clearly demonstrate deceased) did not show that he had the gun in his hand, and acell-phone video taken by Rekiya (wife Scott of the owned by video The Scott. evidence from body cameras discounted by discovering other minor alleged inaccu planting evidence resulted only in a purple compositionpurple notebook, found between wedged scott-michael-slager-north-charleston.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Home Mecklenburg Country, Country, Mecklenburg Scott,” Shot Who Walter Officer Carolina South for Blinder, “Mistrial news&WT.nav=top-news. page&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top- 144 145 143
, December 5, 2016, 5, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/us/walter-, December See Mirzoeff, “The Murder of Michael Brown, 49–71. Brown, Michael of Murder “The Mirzoeff, See District Attorney’s Office, 26 Office, Attorney’s District The video can be seen at https://vimeo.com/124336782. seen be can Alan video See The Following the tactics used in the earlier of case 144 The central The throughout question his The Keith Lamont Scott Death Investigation Death Keith Scott The Lamont th Prosecutorial District of North Carolina, Carolina, of North District Prosecutorial mistrial 145 repeated wit . document 143 In the case , November, New YorkNew Were Were of of - -
127 Nicholas Mirzoeff 128 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Wilson photographs case, created at the location after Was anything written in the notebook that he might have took photographs from the spot at which witnesses said the event were used to impeach witness testimony. Police witnesses asked what kind of reading? was book Scott been reading? things These we are not told. in As the 3.18 The CharlotteThe DA stated that acop named “Wiggins is the photographs two supplied by the district attorney, the they were standing and used them to “prove” that it would the shooting, the calculated way he moved the Taser to there no visual was evidence whatever that could convince the Charlotte an case, absolutely clear view of apalpable the dismissal of what clearly so very was seen in the case fear becomes reason. None of this can seen. be The infear” his encounter with Walter That Scott. totality, video, and the steadiness of his hand before and after which eclipsed all reason, becomes the enabler of “rea well epistemological as frames. Aperson held must be Slager like asserted, so many police, that he felt “total
Notably, the witness in question also said he had “often” Law and reason necessarily interact in procedural as in the way, but it does make it impossible to see people? sonable” doubt. In this thinking, fear cannot doubted, be readingseen Scott in that spot before. heads, lean or stand on tip-toe to see things. If we look at have seen what they claimed to have seen. However, peo have difficult, been“very if not impossible” for them to right and wrong to convicted. be Police Officer Michael enough to counter the officer’s verbal expression offear. give him for acase the shooting: none in of court, this is calm disposition of the officer as he shot, as seen in the order to tried, be and to know the differencebetween capable of understanding the charges against them in at some white least people beyond a“reasonable” doubt. of Walter However, Scott. to convict that officer of murder, crime is required. That condition fulfilled was in case the of Walter To Scott. indict apolice officer, it seems from point seems unproven: the foliage of the trees get does ple are not geometric points. We can and do move our Compare this version of the of necessity seeing with - -
129 Nicholas Mirzoeff 130 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “move on, there’s nothing to see here.” It taken has the “thing” is said to Scott’s be gun. Nothing here indicates Taser in Charleston. enforcement Law have had success (July 2014–December 2016) the was time to learn to un to counter this demand. Even so, there have (at time of the DA presenting if as acase to agrand but not jury in that slight risk preempted was in the Charlotte by case taking their in to cases the of a grand cases jury—as that Wiggins might not have removed it from Scott’s fully know, but should have known, the span of death so. doing fact visual documentation of police killings and the addition with one hand and moving something from near to Scott jury or anyjury lawyer to cross-examine witnesses. only The Michael Brown to Alton Sterling and Philando Castile Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and others—in see the unseeing imposed on the space of appearance It used to said be that of liberty once seen, you could by white supremacy. That is to say, the police demand happened is adouble negative. For those that did not never go back. I’m not of so certain that now. What has back Wiggins’ between feet, and then standing up.” al information provided by machine-generated images combination of widespread citizen-generated networked and legal process that extends from Eric Garner and questions come from grand jurors themselves, and even considerable because part there is no judge to direct the ankle holster and dropped it, just Slager as moved the crouchingobserved down, appearing to reaching be What matters now? matters What This - - The marchThe confronted was by Trump supporters, one ticipated in aBlack Lives Matter march in Long Island in a this fear, it becomes the truth. Such absolutism renders their fear is equally absolute. That is to say, by naming was “Finally,was someone with balls.” It condensed was here writing) beenno convictions leading to jail time for police
slogan reproduced often memorabilia on like T-shirts shootings in this period. White supremacy performatively It is far from clear whether it will be. must be themust be point of departure for how we see America. nonnameable matter that matters the racialized disci blackness visible only what as Simone Browne calls “that of whom held asign reading “Balls Matter.” One Trump congressional district that had swung strongly for Trump. any evidence to the invisible, contrary unseen. It makes that police absolutely, tellassumes truth, the and that plinary society.” plinary 146
Simone Browne, Browne, Simone On theOn weekend after the presidential election, Ipar 146 Dark Matters For Black lives to matter, that matter 3.19 , 9. , - -
131 Nicholas Mirzoeff 132 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter what become has known the as resistance is to undo that with the counter-slogan “Blue Lives Matter,” used by
supremacy by decolonizing the space of appearance. supporters of police. maybe Or it simply held that white revealed over tumultuous these past years. of task The male misogyny now was what mattered. of white supremacy is, then, what has been so forcibly power is justified and that force is law.The supremacy The sloganThe on the rests absolute conviction that
133 Nicholas Mirzoeff 134 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Brown Michael of Murder The III. Space of Nonappearance: The
135 Nicholas Mirzoeff 136 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter The maintenanceThe of white supremacy relies on the transcripts of the grand hearings jury in Ferguson, (for bill” true these materials,these the relations of force inherent in the fully visible, they should taken. be After the verdict of “no vent the public from seeing became visible but not trans with which to explore the space of nonappearance. In available. made were (St Louis, MO: GorePerry Reporting and Video, 2014). Video, and references Reporting Subsequent (St GorePerry MO: Louis, Robert McCullochRobert released all shooting on November 23, 2014, St. Louis prosecutor shooting, shooting, structures of racial hierarchy operate. At the time of the mally State of Missouri v. Darren Wilson) black, while no official city was African American. Four out meaning the entire apparatus of social to control—try pre hierarchy racial media clips, and photographs shown to the grand jury statements, interview transcripts, ness forensic reports, of December 15, 2014), 15, http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/25/ December of continued existence and exploitation of spaces of nonap of fifty or so policeof fifty officers in town wereAfrican American, on August 23, 2014. In addition, supplementary wit pearance. When opportunities arise opportunities topearance. make When such spaces parent. This archive can used be to study how the informal type=Homepage&module=a-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT. and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America in Inequality of Racial the Persistence and Littlefield, 2003).Littlefield, us/evidence-released-in-michael-brown-case.html?&hp&action=click&pg by volume and page number in the text. text. in the number page and by volume nav=top-news&_r=2. 148 147 149
“State of Missouri v. Darren Wilson Transcript of Grand Jury,” XXIV vols. vols. Transcript v. Wilson Jury,” “State XXIV Darren of Missouri of Grand See Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo See See “Documents Released in the Ferguson Case,” Case,” Ferguson in the Released “Documents See
against then-Officer Darren Wilson for Brown’s over percent 60 of Ferguson’s population was 149 of the United States that the police— 148 Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism without Color-Blind Racism Racism Racists: This, then, created an archive archive an created then, This, twenty-four volumes of of volumes twenty-four (New York: (New and Rowan New YorkNew Times 147 that began (as (as - - - - -
137 Nicholas Mirzoeff 138 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter to indict, especially when involving police officers. tend to where cases be prosecutors do not in fact want the key location for determining the operations of power, the police. the this reading, we can see that the New Jim Crow creates ject toject inappropriate statements evidence, or let alone to judge, and legal advice comes only from the prosecutor, is rarelyjury the subject of so much attention. In nearly
No defenseNo lawyers are present, so there is no way to ob it, and comparing visual images to the verbal narrative systemic discrimination that has no remedy because because the process is designed to produce indictments. sealed. remaining reading with the additional materials supplied to the jury, read the grand transcript jury and supplemented that cross-examine witnesses. The unusual always The hearings, cross-examine witnesses. quested to do so by prosecutors, with the proceedings all grand cases, juries reliably indict suspects when re are academic skills well suited to this At task. the end of deducing the dominant and resistant narratives within contradictions, and patterns observing archive, large a a specificas form of persistent looking. Understanding a number that not has changed ayear later. datalab/allegations-of-police-misconduct-rarely-result-in-charges/. http:// Juries,” Grand about Students School Law Columbia for Answers and Facts-on-Ferguson-Grand-Jury. Real,” www.law.columbia.edu/media_inquiries/news_events/2014/november2014/ in Charges,” FiveThirtyEight, November 25, 2014, http://fivethirtyeight.com/ 2014, 25, November FiveThirtyEight, Charges,” in Questions “FactSheet: Harcourt, E. Bernard Jeffrey Fagan and indictment. 152 151 150
exercise of power and reason has been ceded to In 2010, only 11 out of 160,000 Federal grand juries did not return an return did not 2010, In juries 11 only grand Federal of 160,000 out Reuben Fischer-Baum, “Allegations of Police Misconduct Rarely Results Results “Allegations Rarely Fischer-Baum, Misconduct of Police Reuben Monica Davey, Monica “A It’s If Year Asks but Change, Later, Sees Ferguson New YorkNew Times This is an unprecedented set of materials. Agrand , August 6, 2015. 6, , August 151 Proceedings are not by supervised a 150
152 I have have The The - -
the the three African Americans, marked was in this way from the chronicle of an acquittal foretold. that this not was aserious proceeding because t takes for laughs, and do they everything could to signal As aresult,As many gave up on the materials but they are for the grand and jury tried hard to create was framedwas in such a way by the prosecutors that an were released to was find incriminating evidence against would leave the room when DVDs were playing, make jokes and comments, point out their own frequent mis US law, in which prosecutors seek to gain indictments
Officer Officer Wilson. While such evidence abounds,case the usual” indictment never was likely, and aconviction beyond a ings did some slight doubt creep in. introduction from McCulloch. Their claim that was all and it clear that they were fully aware of how the was case suggest that,suggest clearly was as intended, they quickly formed sues on the Internet. Their questions and comments sequestered and their comments and questions made sistent with the conduct of hearing. the jury Prosecutors reasonable doubt would have been all but impossible. neighborhood. Only toward end of the the very proceed being presented in the media and were researching is later the public. Setting aside the adversarial process of and and pieceevery of evidence would shared be with the jury, and ecutors, grand in Ferguson, jury consisting of nine whites and and their established stereotypes of Ferguson a “bad” as a presumption of innocence based on such knowledge at the televised verdict announcement entirely was con beginning. It conducted was by Ferguson two pros convictions, they claimed only to serve What many had hoped for when the transcripts
feeling with them. McCulloch’s smirking manner Kathi Alizadeh and Sheila Worley, after abrief Jurors were not were Jurors a “business as as guides guides as his was - - - - -
139 Nicholas Mirzoeff 140 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Wilson’s immunity produced was and its subsequent the beginning intended was to have the opposite effect. terials to generate an indictment. Instead, their work from that then–Attorney General Eric Holder would bring civil tirely reasonable to read these materials we as might In order to achieve this result, it important that was they made. Prosecutors were supposed to presenting be ma rights charges against Wilson. Although this hope was materials werestill first there released, was hope some nity for police of asocial part as order where the police control what filmmaker a wouldcall the mise-en-scène, disappointed, it is still important to see how the was case confirmation by the Department of Justice.When the object. My reading highlights the techniques by which any other narrative assemblage of word, image, and of the nontechnical nature of the proceedings, it is en ance of due process is in fact the production of immu all the more illuminating for showing us how the appear produce and aracialized supervise hierarchy. Because 4.01 - - - - tor’s effect The was behest. to expand space and time, time of the event. It created was using extensive crime waythe very that jurors would understand the space and to by Wilson implicated the unstated “reason” the standard against which the physical evidence was that cannot used be to prove anything one way or the to take hold. of thetype violent Black youth had to opportunity every American man of above average size, who smoked mar judged, even when other police testimony contradicted
Careful to avoid the obvious charge of racism, prosecutors uncertainty anduncertainty lies were found in witness testimony, ijuana. Brown’s physical size referred was to over and it true and was what he had said contrast, true. was By infallible, rather than, Ishall as show here, aset of data in the physical evidence, playing on an audience attuned so that what happened seemed like agrand drama, a scene photographs, data from the St. Louis autopsy she lying, was in order to able be to take amoral stand minute. andreport, additional photographs taken at the prosecu have led Brown to attack—his being ayoung African him. If the evidence what could support he had said, then gunfight at the Corral, rather O.K. than a banal shooting again, making sure that the long-standing racist stereo drama, in which the “reasonable” against her. This contrast set up the central exculpatory allowed a white racist to testify, even though they knew other. In all instances, Darren Wilson’s testimony was played out over no more than yards sixty in than less a particularly those were when witnesses African American. C.S.I. Prosecutors then located the “truth” the located then Prosecutors These techniquesThese worked to produce the expected and other crime dramas in which forensics are
fear for his life attested attested life his for fear
of the event
that might might that - - -
141 Nicholas Mirzoeff 142 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “both hands held high above the head.” the frame of the hearing, it followed that Brown did not the three seconds in which Brown did make a gesture of we should begin by remembering Michael Brown, whose crucial potentially the discredit to combined They verdict. 289-pound weight,289-pound showing the video of him allegedly Even this detail now has been shown to questionable. be analysisNo brings back the person that been lost: has Brown’s death in 2015. Harris, afriend who was of Michael Brown, shot was in Because witnesses were held to untrustworthybe in stealing fifteen dollars’ of cigarillosworth over and again. surrender did not fully agree on the posture of his hands. reports mostly stressed hisreports six-foot-five-inch height and rise in crime. In Ferguson itself, eighteen-year-old Tyrone ment. In this view, the post-Ferguson protests were all raise his hands. This chain of reasoning so obvious was hands shot. up he was as Prosecutors took this to mean majority witness testimony that Michael Brown had his ly astretch that it appeared relatively little in the post- disputed circumstances by police on the anniversary of criminal activity that has engendered an overall (alleged) detail doubt to cast on the entire Black Lives Matter move did not raise his hands, conservative media seized on this of Justice appeared report to endorse the belief that he did not meet this standard. Witnesses who glimpsed arm broken was and his right hand had been shot, Brown presence publication controversy. However, the Department when is elided in the grand transcripts. jury Media Michael Brown
Because his right - -
Jason Pollock reveals footage CCTV from the day before the shooting. Here Michael Brown is shown trading some tal, which is why heliving was with his friend on August to collect his cigarillos and denied was them, he became was a “bigwas fun” person (vol. XIII: 110). He usually lived with New YorkNew Times
Black man. living The Michael Brown known was to lo in fact then returned the cigarillos to the shelf. in which ayoung African American man cheated was store revealed footage further in which awhite store clerk store clerks, presumably to collect later. for Lawyers the stepfather, but had an argument with her and moved into surmise that when Michael Brown returned to the store In a 2017 documentary entitled In his friend’s sister’s apartment, four adults and two 85) marijuana for boxes two of cigarillos. them left He with mother in his death: his friend’s sister’s house for acouple of weeks before his grandmother, rather than with one of his parents or him “that baby” (vol. 33). X: His friend best said that he fashion. overdetermined racially happened of the part was invisible economy, drug-based 9. 9. explains what happened the next day. It is reasonable to attempting to exonerate the store, this sequence in fact cals the as “gentle giant,” and one witness even called depicted the as stereotype of the threatening, criminal of his share of the (illegal but ubiquitous) transaction in and angry took what he felt heowed. was what In short, michael-brown-ferguson-police-shooting-video.html?mwrsm=Facebook&_r=0. 153 Michael Brown had also lived with another grand . In that time, his grandmother went into the hospi
Mitch Smith, “New Ferguson Video Adds Wrinkle to Michael Brown Case,” Case,” to Brown Michael Wrinkle Adds Ferguson Video “New Smith, Mitch In the grand hearing, jury Brown nonetheless was “he didn’t“he have nowhere else to go” (vol. XIII: Normandy, where attended he high school. , March 11, March , 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/11/us/ Stranger Fruit , filmmaker filmmaker , 153 While While - - -
143 Nicholas Mirzoeff 144 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “teenage” problems but would not say more about them, This ateenager was with problems, certainly, financial that the night before he died, “we did awhole lot of talking that the windows were closed so that they could not have
Christ will help me… through my problems” (vol. XII: 207). However, there are pictures of his body in the street tak ing—prosecutors asked if it on, was hoping to establish ing just graduated from apoor-quality local high school shown to the grand jury, but have still not been released. set out to the store, Michael said to Lord him Jesus “The body was releasedbody was to the public of the part as grand jury by some witnesses. not ahard-bodied football player, described he was as heard anything. People mentioned he had been having and the sheet over the body were put in place before the howdescribed the orange screens around the scene ceedings by the medical investigator. investigator The eleventh photograph displayed on the first day of pro a sheet and surrounded by orange screens. It the was documents. It shows him lying in the street, covered by appears abig, as chubby boy, recognizably young, very en by local residents to make up for this deficiency.He at the morgue prior to autopsy, and during autopsy were chance of getting them. past Not aviolent monster. Many and otherwise, but someone who had given himself a on aneighboring apartment testified that before just he about (vol. God” XIII: 150) and awhite foreman working air conditioners, areasonable aspiration because many and technical about was to start college. hoped He to fix children shared the space. eighteen He was years old, hav photographs of Michael Brown’s body taken at the scene, perhaps referring to his marijuana use. His friend said people testified that their air conditioning was not work Only one official photograph of Michael Brown’s - - - - the scene (images 73–97 [not released to the public]. Vol. the stream of blood flowing away from MichaelBrown’s to block onlookers’ view. Noattention focused was on the scene once already. Two police SUVs were positioned from local people, who were outraged and had stormed II: 122ff). II: little discussion followed when the crime scene investi gator displayed twenty-four photographs of the body at or thechest, way that the sheets were so stained. Very arrival of the medical investigator to conceal the body 4.02 -
145 Nicholas Mirzoeff 146 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “deceased became belligerent towards WILSON.” Officer The first first sessionsThe of the hearing, whichbegan on August The cinematicThe term is intentional: defining the space and (not named to in get the out report) of the street, the the framework of assault and noncompliance set. was paragraphs, short two this supposedly nonjudgmental the St. Louis Office County ofMedical the Examiner. In tures. In fact, they illustrated the narrative supplied in time defines the event. To those reading the transcript Alizadeh asked long a set of procedural questions before were atrial, the “Narrative of Investigation” Report by what Alizadeh called State’s Exhibit Number 1, if as it 20, 2014, eleven days after the shooting, saw a set of Later Wilson modified many details of this account, but Brown ran off and “as thebegan deceased run to towards During a“struggle,” Wilson’s gun “became unholstered” illustrated lectures from the crime scene investigators 5143-narrative-report-01.pdf. 5143-narrative-report-01.pdf. him he discharged his weapon service several times.” material sense of how the police divide up an event into and the “weapon discharged.” Wilson gave chase as of what happened. states report The that when Wilson document contains the first of Darren Wilson’s versions alone, it might seem that these are almost random pic a set of measurements and objects to create a scenario. of which have beenreleased to the public) gives us a and the forensic pathologist. set The of images (not all pulled up to tell Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson Louis County Health: Office of the Medical Examiner, 2014,http://int. 9, Medical August the of Office Health: County Louis nyt.com/newsgraphics/2014/11/24/ferguson-evidence/assets/reports/2014- 154
“Narrative Report of Investigation: Michael Brown 2014-5143,” Brown Michael of Investigation: Saint Report “Narrative Space and Time 154 -
tures to form avisual narrative of the killing, creating a then aclose-up, apparently technical terms, which were tigator displayed their sequence of photographs, taken to tuted what would considered be “reasonable” evidence, the Rodney King trial in 1989. apparently The conclusive we watch, there is nothing special about these pictures. video of the beating of King by George Holliday bro was jurors time to read document. the short
High-resolution, wide-angle photographs presented the ing the plastic placards with the investigator, taking the its principal actors but covered with material evidence. story in whichstory King’s refusal to “comply” drove the events. space in which the action played out seem larger than it Instead they turn horror into data: measured, calibrated, In the Ferguson the long sequence case, of crime scene not in fact defined. Unlike the revelatory insight often ken into sequences aset to of short tell different avery really This was. technique broke event up the short into or an identifying placard. Prosecutors used these pic casings without human subjects, often including aruler of the area, Wilson’s vehicle, blood splatter, and bullet Jurorsquestions. saw long display a of photographs on in astand adarkened room, aformat that reduces getting to the events at hand, which would have given and categorized. Prosecutors spent along time discuss give an overall sense of the scene, amidrange view, and other than those of Wilson himself. crime inves scene The an extended series of objects, following the precedent of appearance of clarity and authority, while making the dramatic space, literally and metaphorically, devoid of provided by photographs police in the dramas TV that privileging the visible and measurable over any words photographs, detailing evidence points, consti twenty Photograph after photograph then was placed - - - - -
147 Nicholas Mirzoeff 148 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter (more controversially) point the that furthest Brown was thumb and palm that medical examiners testified would tions: the front tire left of Darren Wilson’s SUV, the place withthe jury a map of the scene, indicating where all the to the restoration of order. farthest pointfarthest he had reached. However, it is clear that a where Michael Brown’s blood found was marked the inferredwas by assuming that the distant most place where Michael Brown’s foot left lay when he died, and were taken to create panoramic views from three loca witnesses said they were and aset of 210 photographs
standing. Further, Brown suffered a deep wound to the said to have reached (vol. 29-75). XXIV: third The point hearings returned at with returned prosecutorshearings end the supplying close range might spill blood away from where they are of the scene (vol. 246-63). photographs These XXIII: eyes of away the jury from the blood and bullet casings person being by struck large caliber bullets at relatively The visualThe mapping of the killing that began the 4.03 - “actuarial gaze,” whose “political character is explicit in its These These Wilson), blood would no doubt have been scattered. the event can specified be quite precisely. Darren Wilson the space, it took than “less aminute,” two, and can adjust their position. While it certainly was was equallywas flawed. To turn witness testimony into ge 2; 29). Aset of photographs is not directly equivalent to
2005), 206. 203–26, in the wrong order, providing amachine-rendered 360- in favor of the prognostics knowledge.” of expert immediacy and experience everyday of devaluation its in seen Wilson’s vehicle they as claimed (vol. 133). XVII: A have bled profusely. heWhen turned around (as everyone mate, for Wilson to kill Michael Brown. hierarchical distance from everyday life structures, and human sight. In one instance, Alizadeh used astraight degree panoramic overview of the crime scene. For the entire proceedings, were not subject to cross-examination. agrees that he did, whether to surrender or to confront a formation media scholar Allen Feldman has called the is toometry give those measuring the ultimate authority, even misrepresenting what they saw, police testimony established that some local witnesses were mistaken or edge to “prove” to awitness that she or he could not have could move them around if they wanted to do so (vol. XXIV: attached to fiveeasels with removabletape so that they purposes of deliberation, the jury the photographs were person moves and in sees three dimensions, rather than references by volume and page number in the text. text. in the number page and by volume references 156 155
“State of Missouri v. Darren Wilson Transcript of Grand Jury.” Subsequent Transcript v. Wilson “State Jury.” Darren of Missouri Subsequent of Grand Allen Feldman, “The Actuarial Gaze”, Actuarial “The Feldman, Allen The photographsThe were displayed to the jury, often Despite all this extended visual apparatus to define assumptions were never questioned and, like the Cultural Studies Cultural 156 by his own esti The timing of of timing The 19, no. 2(March 155 - -
149 Nicholas Mirzoeff 150 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter The transcriptsThe contain three forensic pathology reports thirty-six seconds. It recorded seconds. (by accident)thirty-six the shots the shooting (vol. 263-65), XIX: which lasted for eleven that it lasted for fifteen seconds. Allow Wilson ten sec to open it into his body. Abrief tussle at the car window An audio track played was during the hearings from a followed, causing Wilson to shoot twice: one of these was on thewas spot of the encounter at the car, estimated with his friend Dorian Johnson. car The almost hit Brown, Glide video text made by a local person at the time of Base atBase the request of the Department of Justice, and the Louis medical County examiner. second The carried was investigated that minute’s of action, worth taking place single shot followed a second later by five shots; a pause seconds, meaning that the entire conflict lasted about shots may have fatally wounded Brown. Awitness, who slight from Michael Brown, walking who was in the road org/ferguson-project/audio.html. lasting three seconds; and asecond set of firing in which about by an Air Force pathologist from Dover Air Force on the body of Michael Brown. first The is by the local St. over yards sixty of narrow roadway, for three months. one shot followed was by three. aftertwo the first at carthe two consisting bursts, in a of consistent with his running yards. atto sixty fifty most onds to get out of the car after Michael began running, causing him to push back at the car door Wilson as tried put his car sharply into reverse after areal or imagined 157
Police radio transcript, St. Louis Public Radio, http://apps.stlpublicradio. Radio, Public St. Louis transcript, radio Police The Death BrownThe Michael of 157 The grand hearing The jury - “the close-range“the gunshot wound to Brown’s hand estab York specialist and Fox News contributor, commissioned 116). Estimates by the pathologists ranged from to two 159). the As answer “yes,” was third by was Dr. Michael Baden, an eighty-year-old New twelve inches. Department The of that Justice asserted the devastating impact of the bullets. the resulting damage. wounds The were all to his upper the precise dimension of the holes in Brown’s body, and forensic pathologist displayed photographs fifty-nine of with soot (although Dr. Baden did not agree) suggest were mentioned by the pathologist, prosecutor Alizadeh jumped in with an absurd diversionary remark: “I’m not a Darren Wilson Darren
2015. Hereafter cited as DoJ in the text. in the DoJ as cited 2015. Hereafter ing that it inflicted was at relatively close range (vol. III: ing and fifty-two after afurther its removal (vol. III). His six to eight “entrance wounds,” one “tangential” wound, shot through the brain, questions followed whether as by the Brown family. Put together, it is possible to create major wound other than the one incurred when he was body, mostly on the right-hand side. soon they As as his wounds (not released) prior to removing his cloth lish[es] that Brown’s arms or torso were inside the SUV.” into the Shooting Death of Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri Police Officer Officer Police by Brown Ferguson, Missouri into of Michael theDeath Shooting carried by Darren Wilson (vol. 109). XX: St. The Louis and one “graze” from the Sig Sauer P229.40 weapon an alternative narrative of what happened to that of the a person “could mobile be for awhile?” (vol. III: 144, 150, doctor but (vol. I play one on TV” III: 122). And with each discussion concentrated on the trajectory of the bullets, police. thanIn less one minute, Michael Brown suffered 158
Department of Justice Report Regarding the Criminal Investigation the Criminal Regarding Report of Justice Department One wound to his right hand said was to marked be (Washington, DC: Department of Justice), 7. Department DC: (Washington, 4, Dated March the prosecutor minimized 158 - - -
151 Nicholas Mirzoeff 152 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter The varying distance varying The estimates show that this an was 143, 147; Autopsy report). Both wounds would have been Johnson described the scene at the car, he said that the took Darren Wilson’sstatement first noted that Wilson the accumulating blood in the cavity chest immobiliz from the chest area.from Ferguson the The chest police sergeant who from losing consciousness, and then life. Dorian When the to leading attention, medical immediate absent fatal first first shot Big“struck Mike in the chest” (vol.IV: 106).He was standingwas right next to Brown and says he saw blood victim passing out within ten to fifteen seconds,because ward through the forehead, out of the eye, and into the wound, areentry was caused by abullet traveling down what happened. weapon. physical The evidence alone cannot determine
it unlikely was to have been inside Wilson’s car. If it was interpretation, not a fact. If Brown’s hand a foot was away, shoulder. In the other instance, the lung punctured was had been hit in the Michael chest, Brown seconds was ral cavity (about cups) two so at one of least the wounds by his eighth rib, causing ahalf-centimeter hole (vol. III: hole. Both external medical examiners concurred that this his lung punctured was directly, causing atwo-centimeter might have been the Wilson chest. later changed his story, ach (vol. V: 33). no As shot did in fact hit the stomach, this also believed that his first shotstruckBrown stomin the occurred some time before death (Autopsy). Once he autopsy found four hundred milliliters of blood in his pleu and the es the heart victim cannot draw breath. The go? Two bullets hit him in the right lung. In one instance, gun in adefensive gesture when he saw Wilson deploy the also possible that Brown stuck his hand out toward the closeas inches, two as perhaps it inside was the car. It is Where did that bullet that hit him in the hand then - - - -
the back of their arm positioned to the front (vol. III: 99). from the front and have the bullet through pass the back fired Brownon frombehind, compared to five who said
From acommon-sense point of view, either the bullet in the back of his upper arm, which suggested to all three stretching the bounds of reasonable to the assertion scenarios in which aperson moving forward could have saying he did not know where Brown hit. was Brown So hands raised high enough that he could have been shot behind. the When St. Louis pathologist mentioned this, moment he had seconds to live. may have in been struck at the chest the car, from which cannot excluded. be Fifteen witnesses said that Wilson of the arm. prosecution The denied both possibilities, external medical examiners that he had been shot from point where if anything could have happened, then it throughpassed Brown’s arm from behind, or he had his prosecutor Alizadeh immediately acted out avariety of No shots were found in Brown’s back, but one was 4.04
153 Nicholas Mirzoeff 154 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter The “step”The toward Wilson that Johnson saw (vol. IV: 124) VI: 167). Six witnesses this supported overall, but five VIII: 119) or even “slow motion” (vol. 29), X: but it became XXIII: 66).XXIII: witnesses The were wrong only in that just towards him slow, curled up” (vol. VI: 20). this effect: “I guess the guy did get hiscause he turned the salvo of five shots, suggesting thatWilson was nota the majority: interpret “I that being as from behind” (vol. was thewas first witness to in persontestify Wilsonafter (vol. describedwas by many witnesses “staggering” as (vol. jerked and that’s when he stopped running. He just kind
Brown stops and turns is perhaps when he realized that upper arm. Johnson described how: [Brown]“he kind of imminently fatal. Many witnesses said something to sensed he in his the chest, wounds were catastrophic, staggered back the way he had come perhaps afew feet, IV: 120). moment The that all agreed took place, where ness, who happenedness, to white be and did not know the or evenness died, he fell into a second volley of shots. resumed his “charge” in that pause. he As lost conscious severelyhe was injured. Perhaps too, if he had beenstruck he’s face-to-face with the officer, but so not close” (vol. been intensely painful it as shattered the bone in his he did not. In the of case this shot, Dr. Baden supported community (vol. VI: 191), also used the term “charge” and “charge”a a pause of three seconds. According to Wilson, Brown a maximum of twenty-five.The audio track indicates arm broken. Heturned around, raised the uninjured hand, around back towards facing the cop, kinda walking back of stopped and turned around at the officer. And now one bullet fired frombehind passed through his body in particularly good shot. However, that wound would have Brown by was now seriously wounded with one in the policeman’s eyes (vol. V: 109). One wit - - “at the time shot he was his right side of his chin of the jaw (vol. VIII: 168). Wilson mistook adying man for aphantom testified to the grandthat jury Brown hit twicehim with the fatal shot, there is no other explanation to as why he the shoulder, unlikely avery pose while running or even fatal” (vol. V: 216). In his initial to report St. Louis County was hitwas there, other than that he had already fallen, aview sixwas feet, five inchestall, so even bending if he was walking. have must He out. passed Another person, in againstwas the collar bone near the midline” (vol. XXIII:
Hogan that he notoriously evoked in his testimony. Afinal in aconscious posture. Although this designated was shots that Brown no was longer amoving target. second volley of shots rang out, all of which likely struck shared by Dorian Johnson (vol. IV: 125). shot hit Brown in the top of the that head—remember he him, by suggesting comparison with theround first of become entirely still, which is what the police call compli request to go to the Emergency Room (vol. V: 248). He hospital, Wilson said no. However, after speaking with the 62). It means that his head resting was completely on already falling, dead, dying, or unconscious. Abullet ance. he When did not, after a pause of three seconds, a did not. Wilson expected the multiply wounded youth to a “full swing”a “full (vol. V: 213) and felt that third “the could be attorney provided by the Fraternal Order of Police, he did over in a“charge,” the shot would have been impossible of his imagination, the demonic black alter-ego of Hulk one of the cars parked on the street “just saw him drop” and puncturing the right lung again. Dr. As Baden put it: of his eye and entered his shoulder, breaking the clavicle passed atpassed adownward angle through his forehead, out Indeed, by the three last shots Michael Brown was By contrast,By whenasked first if he wanted to go the -
155 Nicholas Mirzoeff 156 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter There were no cuts or even broken blood vessels. In the Wilson in the use of the force triangle specified how it Wilson also claimed that while the blows were raining in, Wilson in the face several times with aclosed fist” that would dictate his response. officer The who trained too hard with his hands or by an arm rubbing against his the photograph that he selected, Wilson is pink all over his the picture that Wilson himself says depicts his best the first shots hadbeen fired, when (the right-handed) face. It hot, was in he was trouble, angry. he was has He face (vol. 95). 88, XXII: prescribed was He the equivalent would normally become highly visible in this time. The 14, http://int.nyt.com/newsgraphics/2014/11/24/ferguson-evidence/assets/
Brown’s hands had no bruising, broken blood vessels or Brown had already been wounded in the right hand. Police, it claimed was that “Brown P.O. struck Darren not so strong) and calmly reviewed the “force triangle” he held offBrown with his hand left (who was suddenly ballpoint in its pocket when examined (vol. p. VIII, 199). his redness might have been caused by rubbing his face it’sries, hard very to look at his face and see the impact damage or tears to Wilson’s which shirt, still had his of Aleve two in response to his claim to in be pain. of any kind, even discoloration, can seen be in the twenty at 6:30 am, so they may have been caused by tiredness. circles under his eyes, but he had begun work that day cuts that one might expect to caused be by punching. In of or more two punches from a person of Brown’s size. physician’s assistant who attended Wilson noted that pictures. Contusions (such those as caused by apunch) photographs of him taken a few days later, no damage reports/14-43984-care-main.pdf. 159
Saint Louis County Police Department Investigative Report 14-43984, 14-43984, Investigative Report Department Police County Saint Louis However violent this encounter it was, caused no after 159 inju In In -
Wilson had mace but concerned was that it would get the grand hearings jury had begun. African Americans. African few seconds. frame, this “review” cannot have lasted for more than a United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Rights Civil of Justice StatesUnited Department works: suspect is “the who decides what happens.” Even was hittingwas me in the face” (vol. V: 232). Given the time Police Department were found to habitual be and exces in his eyes. said He he had no Taser, although Ferguson sive users of the device by the Department of Justice. Indeed, percent 90 of involving cases Tasers were against In trying toIn trying determine the production in of “truth” these not moving is considered noncompliance (vol. 34). XXII: hearings, it to is first best consider how the supposedly not possible to sure be whether he had aTaser that day yetbeen—and it somehow ended up in the trunk of his evidence to St. Louis police—where the Taser would have decisive physical evidence deployed. was ADNA technical already being presented adeadly as force option while he gun, or, to use his carefully tutored phrasing: gun “My was could not use his flashlight or baton.So he went for the or not. To return to the scene, Wilson claimed that he car until September 12, 2014, when he returned it after case-of-darren-wilsons-mysterious-disappearing-duty-belt. As Speri notes, Speri As I case-of-darren-wilsons-mysterious-disappearing-duty-belt. Duty Belt,” Vice, January 28, 2015, 28, https://news.vice.com/article/the-strange- January Belt,” Vice, Duty worked with her on this piece. on her with worked 161 160
Alice Speri, “The Strange Case of Darren Wilson’s Mysterious Disappearing Disappearing Wilson’s of Darren Mysterious Case Strange “The Speri, Alice Department of Justice, of Justice, Department 160 Truth Lies and Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department: Wilson turned in his belt duty as 161 In other words, it is ,
March 4, March
2015, 28. 2015, -
157 Nicholas Mirzoeff 158 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Justice the section report, likely most to read be by jour (DoJ: 21). That different is avery way of expressing the Wilson’s defense. Wilson. However, in the of summary the Department of trace of Darren Wilson’s DNA could found be on the back the human population of six billion, so this is arather low than 173). someone else (XIX: While this may sound con ty-eight times more likely that this Darren was Wilson tified that DNA testing of MichaelBrown’s palm produced figure.Other instances in case the were of the order of was notwas conclusive to as whether Brown had touched 2.1 octillion, or thirty-four sextillion times, more likely to Brown’s DNA to alegalistic nuance that it could not be issue—from a declarative statement of the presence of in response to the technician’s agreement, “it could not struggle and repeated technician punching.struggle The sug not excluded be found was on Michael Brown’s palm” left reads: “[a] DNA mixture from which Wilson’s DNA could nalists, it is stated that “Wilson’s DNA [was] on Brown’s have been there at all?” (vol. 196). XIX: the DNA In short, hand obscuring was the trace. Or, agrand as juror asked abe mix of Brown and Wilson 181, (XIX: 188). Further, no ratios are drawn against all other possible matches in mixed with that of another person. It deemed was nine leader from the St. Louis Police County Department tes ed him,ed requiring him to defend himself, is the key to excluded. This is not trivial detail: that Brown assault carefula reader notice that the full report Department gested that might because be all the blood on Brown’s of Brown’s hands, despite of the aprolonged assertion clusive to a layperson, the technician noted that these an “inconclusive” punched and grabbed Wilson” (DoJ: 6). Only later would palm,” cited “corroborat[ing]” as the claim that “Brown… result, in which Brown’s own DNA was ------
(vol. V: 172). Although not he was questioned on this point, Wilson fired his shot,first he had Brown’s blood on his tested for DNA to test the claim that Wilson had grabbed testified to grabbingBrown’s arm and fending off blows fingerprinted, only which tested forDNA, was found from was usedwas this to support contention. However, after with his hands. Despite the claim that he grabbed the gun, whether it spilled from Brown’s body on to the gun. The fired,was whether cameit off Wilson’s hand, or indeed St. Louis police did not secure the gun in a normal “take
Brown supposedly grabbing Wilson’s gun. DNA evidence Brown’s fingerprints were not found Wilson’son belt duty subsequent shots were fired by Wilson withBrown’s blood station unaccompanied (vol. V: 29). washed He all the same applies to Brown’s sweat, because Wilson himself Incredibly, Wilson drove himself back to Ferguson police have been Brown’s blood, because Wilson had no cuts hands (vol. V: 224). Although this is not specified, it must he presumably meant that he expected Brown’s blood to because he feared that Brown’s blood a“biohazard” was blood off his hands,carefully cleaning even his cuticles, relied upon to confirm Wilson’sstory, unless assumeyou him there. none of In the short, physical evidence can be his blood (vol. XI: 131). Brown’s neck and were chest not on his hand, we cannot know whether Brown’s blood atobserved the hospital (vol. V: 176). Given that twelve cers, and should have been photographed (vol. V: 90-91). down” procedure, which involves no fewer than three offi evidence collected sloppily was and inappropriately. The a priori that it is true. or other equipment (vol. XI: 125). gun The itself not was got on to the gun because he touching was it when it Perhaps because of this assumption, the physical In this context, much emphasis placed was on - -
159 Nicholas Mirzoeff 160 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Wilson testified that he did not reenter his vehicle after Wilson sitting in his car (vol. V: 25). Later that day, Darren that Brown said, “you’re too much of apussy to fight me” that he wore during the crime to and from the hospital, false. Wilson then put the gun, not in aplastic evidence first first shot hadbeen fired, when he turned around (vol. V: first testified on tape aboutstatement the Wilson gave finally surrendering them at the policestation only on his while they were struggling with the gun in the car, after whether by accident or design. When the same sergeant itwas turned over (vol. III: 31-2). kept He on the trousers just remembered it. Wilson himself, however, testified 34). sergeant The said he had no notes on this and had
Brown. At the grand hearing, jury he claimed that Wilson Ferguson police sergeant arrived at the August on scene ization of Brown acriminal as or even a “thug” some cigarillos from the local store. All of the character them on (vol.seen III: 27-8). second stop there, despite the fact that blood had been he changed to as his whether aware he story was of the even true, be against that of other police officers. Further, before ashot fired. was Wilson’s word presumed was to he had warned of his intention to shoot (vol. V: 214), but had told him that Brown uttered the phrase after the much of apussy to fight me,” later attributed to Michael him, he did not mention the provocative phrase “you’re too blood into altered the car then, otherwise or things killing Brown (vol. V: 235). might He have brought Brown’s kept with him and later took to the hospital. Only then infectedbe with disease, which the autopsy proved to be 9, 2014, to take control. testified He that he found Darren earlier incident in which Brown alleged was to have stolen envelope, but in astandard manila envelope, which he Police testimony similarly was contradictory. A depends - ,
“I think“I you don’t have much as of agood vision you as say” (vol. IV: 110). Eyewitnesses were minutely questioned Wilson: “do you think that if there are additional details this by prosecutors, the sergeant noted that Wilson had the Ferguson police sergeant, “[h]e did not know anything ting so much thought into what happened?” (vol. V: 273). that you may not give initially, do you think that’s because the grand jury, in remarks that are all but identical, the Alizadeh dealt with all these issues by suggesting to you’re just now remembering them because you are put from “people talking (vol. about it” XII: 138). they Or were who spent that fatal morning with Michael Brown, 202). In fact, the call had identified a man wearing awhite Unsurprisingly, account consistent not every was with
Louis detective, who later that day conducted the pre Brown: How far did each person go? In what compass But Wilson’s version of events not was questioned in any shirt. By the time By shirt. Wilson testified to FBI the and later to suspect—to wit, black (vol. brown shirt, shorts V: and 99 In what order? How high were Michael Brown’s hands? now claimed to have heard the “stealing in progress” call, robbery was the was keyrobbery to the whole incident. Prosecutor liminary “cursory interview” (also without notes), Wilson complete with adescription of the clothing worn by the confirmed this (vol. 58).V: However, according to the St. about the stealing call” (vol. V: 52). Questioned about on this alleged crime. Wilson When petty first spoke to direction were they heading? How many shots were fired? about seconds the thirty-six in which Wilson pursued grand juror opined to the key eyewitness Dorian Johnson, asked: “you didn’t just make this up today?” (vol. XII:146). A thatoption. suggested their was It testimony had come depth, despite all glaring these contradictions. For local witnesses, that latitude never was an - -
161 Nicholas Mirzoeff 162 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter XXIII: 94-5).XXIII: St. The Louis police shows report that the As sheAs must have known, that enough was to have his A second tactic to was impeach witnesses by association witnesses. possibility The of “impeaching,” which is to with criminal or protest activity. Prosecutor Sheila Whirley what later was discovered, but there aconsistent was 19, 2014, http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/ferguson-missouri/. 27,000 dollars. jority acrossjority each against question Wilson’s account. Ferguson, where the Municipal heard 12,018 Court cases under-recognized distortion of the criminal justice system in 2013 in asuburb of 21,000 people. in the era of incarceration. mass Canfield Green is 95 ing incidents where henot was charged (vol. IV: 171–76). Quartz Media, August 28, 2014, 28, http://qz.com/257042/these-seven-charts- August Media, Quartz sic pathologist, noted that witness canvassing needs to say, discrediting, witnesses due to prior convictions is an be donebe in hours the first forty-eight be to effective (vol. hearings, Dr. Baden, the experienced Brown family foren have had convictions, prior especially in arrest-happy him fully detail all his interactions with the police, includ re Witness Statements Tell Statements Shooting?,”Witness Brown Michael the Us about crediting his evidence (DoJ: 47), well as those as of other of Justice later cited his convictions grounds as for dis evidence discounted by the jury. Indeed, the Department drew out aremark from Johnson referring to his police percent African American, with amedian income below explain-how-ferguson-and-many-other-us-cities-wring-revenue-from-black- Many Other US cities—Wring Revenue from Black People and the Poor,” the and People Black from Revenue US cities—Wring Many Other 25, 2014,November http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/newly-released- witness-testimony-tell-us-michael-brown-shooting/. people-and-the-poor/. cord that had been discussed in the media in order to have 164 163 162
Ben Casselman, “The Poorest Corner of Town,” Corner August FiveThirtyEight, Poorest “The Casselman, Ben Laura Santhanam and Vanessa Dennis, “What Do the Newly Released Released Newly the Do “What Dennis, Vanessa and Santhanam Laura Gwynn Guilford, “These Seven Charts Explain how Ferguson—and Ferguson—and how Explain Charts Seven “These Guilford, Gwynn 163 It is likely then that many residents may 164 Very late in the PBS Newshour PBS ma 162 - - - - ,
“we “we ‘kind of “fair probability”‘kind of which “fair on reasonable and prudent Wilson. Probable cause become, has in effect,“beyond the events. None of these failings were ever mentioned to sustain aconviction,” they interpreted that to mean that admissible “the evidence will to believe that Darren Wilson did not use lawful force 1090 (U.S.,1090 2014). Supreme Court ruledSupreme in 2014: Court “Probable cause, we have [people,] not legal technicians, act.’” Criminal hinge cases on the question of reason: Is the Michael Brown has disappeared. It’s all about Darren unsuccessful in contacting residents. Interviews were were Interviews residents. contacting in unsuccessful in the intensive questioning of witnesses. in making (vol. an arrest” XXIV, p. 141). In this framing, issue proved beyond areasonable doubt? Is the defendant still further. Although the statute they cited requires only being conducted late as October, as months two after bar to indict on the afternoon: last “You must find prob mentally fit standto trial? Did she or he have a reason to lawful self-defense, and you must find probablecause certainty,less just of the probable assertion cause. The attempted canvas on the day of the shooting often was a reasonable doubt.” Department The of Justice went able cause to believe that Darren Wilson did not act in cutor Alizadeh set out what appeared to aformidable be often told litigants, is not ahigh bar: It requires only the commit the alleged crime? Indictment requires much 165 must
Fagan and Harcourt, “Fact Sheet” quoting Kaley v. U.S., 134 S. Ct. Ct. S. v. Kaley quoting U.S., 134 Sheet” “Fact Fagan Harcourt, and prove the charges beyond reasonable a doubt” Fear Reason and probably 165 However, prose be sufficient sufficient be - -
163 Nicholas Mirzoeff 164 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “massive dose” (vol. 63), XIX: equivalent to a“hallucinogen” Traffic Safety Administration notes: “peak plasma concen (vol. 64) XIX: that might induce “paranoia and psychotic (DoJ: my 4, emphasis). Indeed, “reasonable” often was XXIV: 64).XXIV: “reefer These madness” allegations are very trations of 100–200 ng/ml are routinely encountered.… that the marijuana “could have potentially caused aloss ticketed for DUI. Although Dr. Baden tried to refute this for it to was blame his being high. for DUI impairment.” DUI for violent or psychotic episode. toxicologist The noted that thatwas smoking marijuana caused Brown to have a
He was measured was He at twelve nanograms per milliliter of unusual. Colorado’s limit is set to a level “that affects the in Colorado, drivers with blood aTHC level of 0.05 can be stretched beyond reason to mean aplace where no con marijuana’sbecause effects, different people metabo blood, alevel that the toxicologist claimed represented a had levels of in THC his blood indicating marijuana use. lize it in different ways.However, the National Highway of perception of space and time and there also was the day of the hearings the St. Louis detective County stated doesn’t make (vol. people go crazy” 79), XXIII: on the last claim by saying that it a“relative was small amount [that] (vol.episodes” 67). XIX: Remarkably, the suggestion advanced. closest The prosecutors came to accounting changes the meaning of the term. ceivable doubt could entertained, be apossibility that person to the possibility that there could have hallucinations” been (vol. pieces of “physical” evidence that was Michael Brown colorado-drugged-driving 166
“Colorado Driving,” Drugged http://norml.org/legal/item/ Norml, No reasonNo why Brown attacked Wilson ever was slightest degree slightest 166 It is very hard It is very to precise be about which fails to meet the level One of the most-cited - - - “reason” why Wilson shot Brown: fear. In the hearings, “known for gangs, violence, and guns” (vol. V: 186). At this (vol. V: 224) who lived in adangerous neighborhood. Wilson also saw him a“Hulk as Hogan,” acartoon-like to become psychotic. these were in that fact the parts rang true. most In his following even asingle puff or hit of a marijuana ciga wounded. Wilson did not even to take try apulse after wrestler-entertainer (vol. V: 212). all Of Wilson’s testimony, Significant THC concentrations (7 to 18 ng/ml) are noted
Michael Brown reduced was to the stereotype of the “dan Early in hearings, a juror characterized the Canfield Green Brown collapsed, call or for an ambulance. emergency No Darren Wilson characterized him looking as “like a demon” unable to comprehend that the young man mortally was in an SUV, not an ambulance, and only after crowd protest rette.” referred to the person under investigation for murder as had prevented police from placing it in the trunk of acar. medicine offered was at the scene. His body was removed he called a “grunting, like aggravated sound” alwayshas been interfaced with the fear of black force narrow world, church and television formed the imaginary even routine “highs” unlikely and very to have caused him come from one puff.The level of far was THC of short early point, on the day fifth of hearings, the juror already area of Ferguson, where Brown lived and died, being as only “see” Michael Brown nonhuman, as speaking in what and masculinity, so it may well very that be Wilson could gerous black youth.” highlighted As in the media reports, possibilities. overweening The belief in white supremacy 167 http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/research/job185drugs/cannabis.htm. Against this imprecision clear set was the very 167 The level found in The Michael Brown might have (vol. V: 228), - -
165 Nicholas Mirzoeff 166 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “Darren.” Later that day, Wilson careful was to refer to the (white) police officer beenhad set upon ina bad (African ty yearsty old (vol. XII: 163.) racist The term without passed American man, of whatever age, it follows that any police American) of town, part feared for his life, and responded went to the shop recalled his conversation with Brown, he workman who had spoken with Michael Brown before he next question fromvery agrand juror whether was “the witness testified that “racial slurs” had allegedlybeen white supremacy is perhaps the only convincing of part with judicious use of deadly force. It is anarrative that has 207). That is to say, Black anger makes it reasonable to
used against him (all redacted from the transcript), the society to reasonable be to afraid be of alarge African both theserved old and the new Jim Crow well in many he his testimony, the only time that his own voice seems to neighborhood “an as antipolice area for sure” (vol. V: 238), question, unlike the long discussion of supposed characterized himself calling as him “boy,” even though assume danger and fear rational. becomes awhite When grand jury. the On sixth day of hearings, after awhite coward, upheld but for acting according to reason. officer who claims to have feltfear is castigated not asa defense? Because it is presumed in awhite supremacist come through. Can a racist worldview admissible be a as and entertainment, mass fundamentalism, Christian of itas stands might allow this self-defense: as Wilson did citing the presence of gangs, drugs, guns, and violence. police officer’s lifewas potentially in jeopardy?” (vol. VI: perhaps fear for his safety, if not his life. This combination places at many times. double The bind here is that the law also said that he thought Brown twenty-five was to thir This thinking clearly registered with some of the Even by this early stage, a narrative set: was a verbal verbal - VII: 196-98), long blamed for causing “outside agitation” 193), aline of questioning that she repeated from then on, XVII: 215).XVII: One woman described their tactics when they XV: 60); or simply, “Ferguson police, I’m scared y’all” (vol. then drew the line of questioning toward the NAACP (vol. that Friday night (vol. XIII: 101). Young people describe friend remembered that neither of them had any money 32). Witness after witness testifies to police violence and
Often people givingOften evidence testified beingto nervous Ferguson police do some really awful things” (vol. XVII: short- and scarce are Jobs apart. live children and Parents in the South. In this frame, protest and resistance are if they had attended the protests in Ferguson (vol. VII: she threatened: was “we search your name, you probably substantiat held to “unreasonable” be and therefore invalidate all have atraffic ticket”XVII: (vol. 35). By which the police harassment (vol. XIII: 182); that the police are “bullies” bouncing from house to house, doing they best as can. lack of health care provision day. every Ferguson emerges lived. Many witnesses need medication but can’t afford it. living and in fear poverty under police rule emerges, as ifas this would somehow invalidate the testimony. She a witness whose account Wilson cast the as aggressor attacks on white people. Prosecutor Alizadeh aske arrived at her house. Even though she had called them, apolice-dominatedas white supremacy: “I’ve seen the area, where people struggle against and their poverty and scared. This is not simply the “bad” neighborhood of on despite the intent of the prosecutors, which later was testimony. other police low-employment description, low-serviced, but a Ferguson Police Department. Michael Brown’s best At the same time, a picture of Ferguson residents ed by the Department of Justice report (vol. (vol. d
167 Nicholas Mirzoeff 168 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter (see Chapter Two). During the hearings, prosecutors 4–5. that, that, As peopleAs look back on the hearings, the matter has fines. As has As fines. has nowbeen widely documented in the media, was afraidwas of him, and he had good reason to be. jurors felt unafraid to express their opinions, knowing Ferguson and other St. Louis municipalities County used such finesas a major source of revenue. he did of the formed part protest movement that followed, raise his hands in surrender or not? local The belief that become reduced to a single question: Did Michael Brown real Michael reason Brown resisted Darren Wilson: he racial bias… [including] FPD’s use of force.” abenchbe warrant for her arrest and multiple accrued meant that if the ticket not has been paid, there would ly implying that it did not happen. This idea electrified from-poverty/. conservative opinion. April In 2015 controversial a play by culminating in the Department of Justice strong report especially through the chant “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” approach to law enforcement both reflects and reinforces circumstances, one wonders if the three African American pushed back against this idea hard as they as could, com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/09/03/how-st-louis-county-missouri-profits- Poverty,” Poverty,” 169 168 Department of Justice, Justice, of Department Radley Balko, “How Municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., Profit from from Profit Mo., County, in St. Louis Municipalities Balko, Radley “How to quote the Department of Justice, “ Washington Post ,
September 3, 2014, 3, http://www.washingtonpost.September Investigation of Department the Ferguson Police Hands Up Hands 168 Under these 169 Ferguson’s This is the the is This - ,
“high in the air,” aposition that would have been impossible (vol. IV: 22). Yes, “hands up,” but no, not above his head tion of Brown’s hands, in order to establish that his hands testified to this pose (vol.XI: 149–50), although some did time Big Mike’s hands up, was but not so much up in the the moment when Brown turned to face Wilson: “at that for Brown, in order to discredit “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot.” website whose editor, Stephen Bannon, is now aWhite were not above his head, even though Dorian Johnson had
House advisor to Donald Trump. Long cross-examination of witnesses sought doubt to cast Even the meaning of “hands up” now was revised to mean Statements Tell Statements Shooting?” Brown Michael the Us about using selected portions of the grand testimony jury to important some of this gesturing has been” (vol. VIII: 116). injuries. Recall that his right broken arm was near the said just that. For the as prosecutor says, “you know how shoulder and his right hand bleeding was severely. The sentative statement from the majority of witnesses) about Irish filmmaker PhelimMcAleer opened Losin Angeles, he went on to write for Breitbart News, the extreme-right raised enough money to stage it in Ferguson. not. Interminable questions were asked about the posi majority of witnesses (sixteen out of twenty-nine) because he could not have lifted them so high, due to his alized what the play involved, McAleer claimed to have of the original of thirteen cast walked out when they re claim that Brown did not raise his hands. Although nine air because he had already been struck in this region” Motives,” Motives,” 172 171 170 Matt Pearce, “Actors Quit L.A. ‘Ferguson’ Play, ‘Ferguson’ Writer’s Question “Actors Pearce, Quit Matt L.A. Phelim McAleer, “Ferguson: The Play,” Indiegogo, fergusontheplay.com. Santhanam and Dennis, “What Do the Newly Released Witness Witness Released Newly the Do “What Dennis, and Santhanam By contrast, DorianBy Johnson testified a (as repre Los Angeles Times Angeles Los , April 23, 2015. 23, , April 171 Instead, Instead, 172 also also 170 - - -
169 Nicholas Mirzoeff 170 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Washington Post the Ferguson prosecutors breaks down. They claimed through his arm. the only positions two in which it is reasonable (meaning they had seen in regard to Michael Brown’s hands. This At this crucial poin Washington Post withdrew on the stand an earlier statement about what
Department of Justice,Department the were witnesses “inconsistent” up, especially if his hands’ position had not featured in sion of disbelief created by the staging generated by supportable, albeit unspoken, that assertion (in he was sume that he got shot in the upper arm. Department The shoot’ sionist articles headlined (in his case): “‘Hands up, don’t his hands up leads to a crucial inconsistency: these are likely or probable, rather than technically possible) to as effect) effect) not shot at all: a bullet unaccountably just passed of Justice thus articulated the Ferguson prosecutors un claim that Brown neither was shot from behind nor had do with the indictment of Darren Wilson. However, the of discrediting “Hands Up.” It certainly had nothing to evidence apparently was presented solely for the purpose grounds that one witness called by Ferguson prosecutors and thus could not relied be on (DoJ: 8). other statements they had made (vol. XII: 135–38). For the on those who testified that in court Brown’s hands were 173 Jonathan Capehart, “‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’ was Built on aLie,” on Built was Shoot’ Up, Don’t “‘Hands Capehart, Jonathan This judicial hypercaution led to journalists like the was builtwas on alie.” , March 16,, March 2015. ’s publishing Jonathan revi Capehart t Keep Looking — and many other many and 173 This built was assertion on the s — the suspen - - - - to show a sharp-edged, 3-D presentation 3-D anchored by to show sharp-edged, a these tens of thousands of words, designed to prevent too familiar, and shockingly than Less aminute. short. the cop unloads afinal barrage. Banal in the sense of all As weAs know, that video not does exist. Instead, we have us from seeing that simple sequence, but revealing so shots at awounded teen over minor altercation. What shots. teen The turns around, stumbles and staggers and bone— physicalbone— evidence, by definition.The force of the much more in the process. Keep looking. resists, the cop fires his shufflinggun. A short, run. More ment on, he’s in deep trouble. cop The grabs at him, he but acell-phone video of the kind we have seen all too comes irresistiblycomes to mind here is not amotion picture curred, let alone to why fire it necessary was ten more any reason that might want to how ask the injury oc opening opening car often since Ferguson. It is all too to easy imagine. Apolice police’s “reasonable” fear of the Black youth overcomes throughpassed Michael Brown’s arm, shattering the precise data. But they cannot account for how abullet pushes the door back, hitting the officer. From this mo reverses up to an African American teenager. The door comes so close to the young man that he - -
171 Nicholas Mirzoeff 172 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter Afterword
173 Nicholas Mirzoeff 174 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “black” in relation to F.Thomas performance, DeFrantz January 20, 2017, Donald J. Trump ended it from his new thetics… This black is action: action engaged to enlarge the Black Lives Matter movement about the meaning of to insist on the presence and value of Black people. they are visibly Black. To say “Black Lives is Matter” to takes on urgent saying form. By that Black Lives Matter, tion.” to people of African descent in key ways. In response, Africanist histories… I view black adialogic as imagina Anita Gonzalez argued: “If black identity is constructed forms of blackness (to use Gonzalez and de Frantz’s lower formances of blackness are created in response to these
Black Lives Matter is adialogic formation: Black people uneven encounter of those identifying Black as and their is in counterpoint to the self-evident fact that the people imagined identities well as to as cultural retentions and sharp white background.” In said: feel “I colored most when Iam thrown against a spaces of appearance are made visible in which the hear it affirmation, as while for non-Black people it is an reopen the dialogue about blackness, while taking action being killed by the police and others are targeted because described black manifestation “the as of Africanist aes others can take place. This making visible of Blackness case). In the slogan “Black Lives Matter,” that dialogue and articulated by those outside of the ‘race’ then per capacity, confirm presence, to dare.” Black here is tied enjoinder and reminder. Zora As Neale Hurston famously position President as of the United States. His inaugural NC: Duke University Press, 2014), Press, University Duke NC: 5–6. in Performance,’” to ‘Black Experiment’ 174
Thomas De Frantz and Anita Gonzalez, eds., “Introduction: From ‘Negro From ‘Negro “Introduction: eds., Gonzalez, Anita Frantz and De Thomas 174 What happens if there is no dialogue to had? be On Black is here in dialogue with the constructed a conversation a that preceded Black Performance Theory Theory Performance Black (Durham, - - -
175 Nicholas Mirzoeff 176 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter The visaThe ban initiated within days of Trump taking power ture of feeling. wall The is whiteness. It forms aspace of this anti-Semitic policy, wrote in a from 1939: “it is time to turn from our quarrels and to build fascism. pilot The Charles Lindbergh, who advocated for felons also find it extremely difficult to getwork. Even favorite dystopia. alluding further was He to the number was combinedwas with a disparaging reference to so-called ofwas apiece with this concept of protecting “America”
Barred from public housing, welfare, education or voting, with theFirst” “American carnage” Mexico border, so he is not complaining about the lack imagined to coextensive be with the physical boundaries neighborhoods in Chicago have such ahigh population black-on-black crime, especially in Chicago, Trump’s rampant within the country. This dog-whistle phrase by keeping nonwhite people out. Now the space of non nonappearance in which, once again, people are dying. building awall, this is what he means. There already are hoped to keep the United States out of the war against living in these neighborhoods constitutes a potential legal scholar Michele Alexander shown has how Black offensebecause felons are not supposed associateto of felons that mainstream social life is extremely difficult. of the so-called “Ferguson effect.” In of police allegedly being killed by Black people aresult as of the republic. appearance for those not designated “white/American” is of physical barrier. wall The is not abarrier. It is astruc over seven-hundred miles of wall or fence on the US- our White again.” ramparts Trump When speaks about erenced the 1930s era white supremacy movement that address upheld his belief in “America first.”Here he ref In his inaugural address, Trump contrasted “America Reader’s Digest that is supposedly The New Jim Crow, article article - - -
tain and extend the space of nonappearance across the the “American carnage” in Chicago? fashion infashion February. when 80 perwhen cent 80 of the adult Black male workforce fall with each other, something that can scarcely done be was shotwas after knocking loudly on adoor, while unarmed States during January 2017 and 139 more died in this News-Capital
Barnhill, twenty-three years old, from Jackson, Tennessee, Nicholson, twenty-eight-year-old a man, was homeless into the category. the into in Atlanta, apparently because he was smoking marijua smoking was he because apparently Atlanta, in shot while holding ascrewdriver in Queens. shot after atraffic stop Oklahoma, in for no apparent saw Black thirty-two deaths. Deaundre Phillips shot was reason. na in his car. one-dead-in-kiowa-officer-involved-shooting/article_af628ae0-e717-11e6- jefferson/mentally-ill-man-fatally-shot-after-charging-at-police/392077868. country. 104 people were killed by police in the United old, killed was while holding kitchen knives. died in January were African American, while February a073-37d55a5b7721.html. com/story/34359129/police-investigate-shooting-in-atlanta. Lengthy Standoff,” 4WWL, January 2017,24, January Standoff,”Lengthy 4WWL, http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/ 2017, 26, January byhttp://www.cbs46. Officer,” Atlanta Police CBS46, Killed in-Queens-NYPD-410718035.html. in-Queens-NYPD-410718035.html. 14, York, 2017, NYPD,” 4New in Queens: January http://www.nbcnewyork.com/ news/local/Cops-Shoot-Kill-Man-Who-Threatened-Mom-With-Screwdriver- 180 179 178 177 176 175
Rana Novini, “Cops Shoot, Kill Man who Threatened Mom with Screwdriver Screwdriver with Mom Threatened who Man Kill Shoot, “Cops Novini, Rana James Beaty, “One Dead in Kiowa Officer-Involved Shooting,” Officer-Involved in Kiowa Dead Beaty, “One James Vince Sims, “Demonstration Forms at Scene Where Man was Shot and and Shot was Man Where at Forms Scene “Demonstration Sims, Vince Killed by 2017, Police Killed http://www.killedbypolice.net/. Alexander, “Armed Man with Mental Illness Shot, Killed by Kenner Police after after by Police Kenner Killed Shot, Illness Mental “Armed with Man The resultThe of the regime change been has to sus 178 Mentally-ill Armond Brown, twenty-five years , January 30, 2017, 30, , January http://www.mcalesternews.com/news/ The New Jim Crow Jim New The 177 Fifty-year-old Marvin Washington Marvin was Fifty-year-old 175 176 Who, then, is truly responsible for At twenty-two of least those who , 188. , 180 179 Darrion Darrion Jahlire McAlester - -
177 Nicholas Mirzoeff 178 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “suspect” in“suspect” one offense or another.None of these deaths Zero to create legislative change in order to end police Jackson Sun Williams, thirty-eight years old, shot was in Phoenix while fleeing from police after the driver carof a in which he was violence. ten-point Their agenda includes community differentvery sets of solutions to the problems of white were filmed or, no at videoleast, been has released. In killedwas in Chicago by multiple gunshot wounds after
Lives Matter alliedhas with Standing Rock and with the involvement, police use of body cameras, and independent is likely future to its be best direction. involved or pointed at them, or that the a deceased was Chase,” 9, January 2017, http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix- supremacy. Deray Mckesson and Elie, Johnetta among may come undone. For the movement has generated mal movement known collectively Black as Lives Matter movement against the travel ban. This decolonial alliance resentation with white supremacy is again overt. Black others, have formed apressure group called Campaign even in their localities. equation The of the space of rep any event, these deaths have largely passed unremarked, 911a call. offender. a passenger arrested was for failure to register a sex as and with outstanding warrants for failure to appear. county/96436130/. crime/2017/01/11/tbi-investigates-fatal-officer-involved-shooting-henderson- phoenix-police-shooting-35th-avenue-dunlap/96369682/ breaking/2017/01/09/phoenix-police-shooting-35th-avenue-dunlap/96369682/. 183 182 181
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix-breaking/2017/01/09/ Miranda Faris, “Man Killed in Officer-Involved Shooting in Reagan, in Shooting in Officer-Involved Killed “Man Faris, Miranda Yihyun Jeong, “Phoenix Police: Officers Fatally Shoot Man during Foot Foot during Man Shoot Fatally Police: Officers “Phoenix Jeong, Yihyun Under the new regime, the alliance within the infor 182 , January 11,, January 2017, http://www.jacksonsun.com/story/news/ 183 Unarmed seventeen-year-old Trevon Johnson In the other police cases, allege agun was 181 JR JR - -
“liberation.” “visionary organizing” from her vantage point in Detroit. the chapters thirty-six of the formal Black Lives Matter to attain under the pro-police, law-and-order regime now to local schools and struggles to defend blocks against the classic revolution of the industrial working class was tend in different directions. wholesale abandonment and subsequent takeover by States. Detroit The movement in which she so was
Network, theirNetwork, proposals are directed instead toward Many of the police killings that engendered Black Lives Haiti and Reconstruction. It makes an urban commons Having witnessed the decline of the auto along industry in office. The Movement for Black Lives, by contrast, has itself recognizes, such goals are going difficult to be very investigations into police misconduct. is clearly in the lineage of the antislavery revolutions of itself survive. This work been has based on what might influential insteadcalls for (r)evolution, a different wayof side the onset of climate change, Boggs realized that by fifty Blackby organizations fifty working together, including would adoptneither proposals. its major Compiled party be calledbe microactivism, ranging from urban farming no longer aviable form for social change in the United org/#vision. org/#vision. living our lives so that the habitat in which we live might compiled what it calls a“visionary agenda,” knowing that are underway in cities like Buffalo, Chicago, and Houston. out of largely abandoned urban space. Similar projects corporations gentrification. or This grounded (r)evolution can form related threads in the braid of resistance, but 185 184
See See The Movement for Black Lives for Black Movement The Activist Grace Boggs Lee had long called for Campaign Zero Campaign 185 Electoralism and liberation movements for more details: https://www.joincampaignzero. details: more for : https://policy.m4bl.org/about/. 184 As the As campaign -
179 Nicholas Mirzoeff 180 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter “no,” or at “only best, once we have everything we need.” These changesThese are indicative of asystemic collapse in 2016The presidential election underscored was by the that they do not accept people of color and indigenous the hegemonic concept postwar of the social, mirrored want aspace in which to appear—whether an institution (r)evolution. permanent a constitute would visionary organizing attempts to render the temporary States and and the UK, significant minorities of whites
Matter have taken place in such urban margins. What unspoken question: do Black Lives Matter? result Its re itself “in the wake,” to use the literary scholar Christina in other Western countries no longer accept the anti so it. be It is where we are now. Against that violence, I space of appearance created in Black Lives Matter race. “Race” is now being deployed to mean anation of racist formation of the social. That is apoliter way to say by the ongoing implosion of social democratic parties genocide. What would that like? look expropriated labor, there isn’t extinction, and there isn’t acy, that doesn’t represent a prison, in which there isn’t publicor space—that reproduce doesn’t white suprem coherence in everyday life. If that sounds like fascism, accept the need for strong leadership the as means of culturally and ethnically homogenous individuals, who attempted to displace the concept of society with that of across the West. Majorities of white people in the United affirmed that for the white majority, the answer remains actions sustainable, even permanent. That permanence populations belonging as to their society, so they have Certainly, we feel far from that condition now. Under the Trump regime, Black Lives Matter finds - - -
Trump voters it takes the form of a“whitelash,” meaning the union. wake The continues. Stay woke. Sharpe’s trenchant phrase. trenchant Sharpe’s its supporters, theits supporters, recoil comes in learning how much ing wake for Black Lives Matter, in the sense of memo intended course and seeking direction. There is an ongo recoil, one of the well-known less meanings of “wake.” rial, a remembering of its intentions and energies with now “in the wake” of Black Lives Matter, adrift from its racism and racial hatred remains in the peculiar state of a rejection of what Black Lives Matter stands for. For a determination that its goals not lost. be And there is a Duke University Press, 2016). Press, University Duke 186
Christina Sharpe, Sharpe, Christina In the Wake: On Blackness and Being and the Wake:In Blackness On 186 We are, in different ways, (Durham, NC: For For - -
181 Nicholas Mirzoeff 182 The Appearance of Black Lives Matter
183 Nicholas Mirzoeff The Apperance of Black Lives Matter to Visual Culture to Visual discipline of visual culture in books like Mirzoeff is considered one of the founders of the academic aNewwas Scientist Top Ten Book of the Year for 2015. (2016). It been has translated into seven languages and by Pelican in the UK (2015) and by Basic Books in the US recentmost book global/digital His and culture. visual politics of intersection Mirzoeff Nicholas Times, the Guardian, Time and New The Republic. York New the bloggerin and writer, his work appeared has Visual Culture at Middlesex University, frequent London. A from 2011-2016. From 2013-17, Visiting he was Professor of Director of the International Association for Visual Culture Cinema and Media Studies in 2013. Mirzoeff Deputy was Award for Innovative Scholarship from the Society of of Visuality Counterhistory Reader (1998/2002/2012). His book (1999/2009) and How To The World See is avisual activist, working at the (2011) won the Anne Friedberg The Right to Look: A The Visual Culture Visual The An Introduction Introduction An was published was
185 Nicholas Mirzoeff The Appearance of Nicholas Mirzoeff Black Lives Matter
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