THE CYBORG AND THE SLAVE: GEOGRAPHIES OF DEATH AND POLITICAL IMAGINATION IN THE BLACK DIASPORA
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Abstract
In order to explore ways in which we can address anti-black hatred, a foundation of modern sociability, in this article I analyze two ideal types of black diasporic and trans-temporal political experience: the cyborg and the slave. These ideal types are analytical references with which we can interpret the black worlds of life and death: their geographies, their political projects, and their horizons of desires. While the cyborg refuses the abjection of black people and struggles to improve the social world, the slave considers this world fundamentally and hopelessly anti-black, and therefore seeks escape and refuge. The cyborg fights tirelessly against racism and sees (and hopes for) a redeemed social world in which black people are unquestionably part of it. With its multiracial political bloc, the cyborg demands the reform of society; he believes in the promise of multiracial democracy. The slave fights against anti-blackness, and therefore wants the destruction of the world and its protocols of sociability and ontology.
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