Summary
In Matthew Abraham’s chapter, the common condition in which the African American and Palestinian subject positions meet — precariousness, premature death and the constant surveillance of their targeted bodies (Recognizing and Saving Black Lives, Recognizing and Saving Palestinian Lives: The Power of Transnational Rhetorics in Locating the Commonality of Liberation Struggles, PDF p.2 / printed p.78).
Details
- Abraham asks how to teach the precarious lives of Walter Scott and Abdul Fattah al-Sharif as subjects targeted for extrajudicial killing by agents of the state because of their race/ethnicity, and describes Black Lives Matter as a movement documenting the challenges associated with and the precariousness of Black lives (PDF p.6-7 / printed p.82-83).
- The conclusion rests on the coincidence between rising interest in both states of precarity, of African American populations in the United States and Palestinians in the Middle East, as forcing recognition of the convergence of the two struggles (PDF p.10-11 / printed p.86-87).
- The precarity of Black lives is set against the patriotism narrative in the anthem controversy: not standing during the national anthem is read as disrespecting soldiers, while displays of solidarity with those racially profiled are understandable in light of lives cut short by state violence (PDF p.10 / printed p.86).
Related pages
Recognizing and Saving Black Lives, Recognizing and Saving Palestinian Lives: The Power of Transnational Rhetorics in Locating the Commonality of Liberation Struggles, Black–Palestinian solidarity, Biopolitics