Index
Abbott, Susan, 166
Africa Writes Back to Self (Mwangi), 32, 159–60
Afrofuturism, 187n10
Against Race (Gilroy), 61
agency, Black, 5, 47, 59, 66–67, 70–72, 79, 87–88, 104, 116–19, 154
Aidoo, Ama Ata, 113, 126–31, 135–36, 139–40, 172
Alpers, Edward, 141
Althusser, Louis, 118
Andrade, Danilo de, 133
Another Country (Baldwin), 138
Arianism, 170–71
Arius, 171
arrow of time, use of term, 28, 75–76
Atlantic Program (Johns Hopkins University), 141–42
Australia: forced migration to, 148–49; indigeneity and Blackness in, 150–52
Bakhtin, Mikhail, 20–21
Baldwin, James, 30–31, 107, 132; on alienation, 122–23; on dehumanization of Blacks, 118–19; on homosexuality, 137–38; interpellation of Blackness, 113–14, 133, 136; interpellation of women, 114; multidimensional blackness of, 109, 111–12; quantum moment of, 109, 110–11; use of spacetime, 120–22; on Wright, 115. See also specific works
“Barack Obama and the Politics of Blackness” (Walters), 62–63
Barrow, Isaac, 39
Bayes’s Theorem, 171–72
being. See knowing vs. being
Beloved (Morrison), 77
bisexual Blacks. See LGBTTQ Blacks
Black Atlantic, The (Gilroy), 6, 27, 51, 54, 56–61, 65
Black Atlantic studies, 141–43, 148–50, 161
Black Bodies and Quantum Cats (Ouellette), 38–39
Black Founders (Pybus), 150–51
Black Nationalism, 63
Blackness: authentic, 64–65, 95–96; and black body, 1–2; constructs of, 2, 4, 11–12, 14; definitions of, 1, 3, 5, 6–9, 35; diversity of, 17, 25, 142–43, 154; four grandparents rule, 67–70; globality of, 114; and identity, 3; and indigeneity, 150–51; interpellation of, 27–28, 111, 113, 119, 121, 124, 147–48; Middle Passage, 10, 11–12, 17–19, 66–68, 106, 123, 147, 150–51; multidimensional, 109, 111–13, 118, 146, 154, 166; political, 64, 68; post-Blackness, use of term, 16, 113; poststructuralist theories, 5–6;
postwar, 72; and spacetime, 15–20, 74; as subaltern, 66; use of term, 181–82n52. See also agency, Black; identity, Black
Black Skin, White Masks (Fanon), 124
Black women: descriptive terminology, 32; educators, 48–49; exclusion in narratives, 52–53; interpellation of, 27, 37, 114; as marked, 78–79, 82–83; masculinization of, 80–81; postcolonial roles, 127; World War II activities, 145, 157, 161–64
Bousquet, Ben, 161–62
Braziel, Jana Evans, 6–7
Bujra, Janet M., 164–68
Burke, Edmund, 59
Bush, Barbara, 166
bush, use of term, 130, 139–40
Butler, Octavia, 28, 74, 84–88
Carby, Hazel, 52–53
Carmen Jones (Preminger film), 114
Carretta, Vincent, 23
cause-and-effect framework, 26, 37–38, 50, 60–61, 76, 85, 115–16
Chakrabarty, Dipesh, 77
choice, 117–20
Clinton, Bill, 62
Cohen, William A., 138
collective identity. See under identity, Black
Collins, Patricia Hill, 58
“Colorblind” (Dickerson), 9, 62
Color Purple, The (Walker), 55
Condé, Maryse, 29, 88–91, 96–97, 128–29
Crib Disinformation, theory of, 111
Crimean War (1853–1856), 45
Crouch, Stanley, 62–63
“Cultural Identity and Diaspora” (Hall), 7–8
culture, use of term, 177n4
Dadié, Bernard, 31, 113, 123–26
Damas, Léon, 159
Dandridge, Dorothy, 114
Davis, Angela, 58
Descartes, René, 39
Diacritics (journal), 77
Diaspora, Black, 5, 6, 26, 65, 157, 159
Diaspora, Francophone, 159
Dickerson, Debra J., 9, 11, 27, 62–69
Dictionary of Afro-American Slang (Major), 55
Diedrich, Maria, 17
directions, concept of, 113
Douglass, Colin, 161–62
Dreams from My Father (Obama), 62–63
Dubey, Madhu, 85–86
Du Bois, W. E. B., 27, 49, 51, 53, 134
Eiffel Tower (Paris) as metaphor, 120, 124, 135–37, 138, 140
“Encounter on the Seine” (Baldwin), 31, 107, 120–23, 124, 132, 133, 136–37, 138. See also Notes of a Native Son (Baldwin)
entrepreneur, use of term, 164–66
Epiphenomenal time, 17, 30, 31, 47, 127, 139, 163–64; and Black Atlantic history, 150; as critique, 97–98; defined, 4–5; and existence, 139; model of, 160; and now moment, 41–42, 71, 97, 116, 121–22, 145, 172; and particle/quantum physics, 25–26, 117–18; and phenomenology, 41, 145; and return narrative, 93. See also spacetime
epistemology: postwar, 5, 20; and progress, 49. See also Middle Passage epistemology
“Equal in Paris” (Baldwin), 133. See also Notes of a Native Son (Baldwin)
equality and connection, 34
Eschenberg, Myron, 159
ethnicity: as fixed, 82; use of term, 177n4
“Everybody’s Protest Novel” (Baldwin), 137. See also Notes of a Native Son (Baldwin)
Fabric of the Cosmos, The (Greene), 15, 41, 42
Fatal Shore, The (Hughes), 148–49
Feeling Backward (Love), 42
feminism, 49, 55, 56, 58, 91–92, 138
First Fleet settlers, 149
Forjwuor, Bernard, 163–64, 169
For Space (Massey), 143
Foucault, Michel, 143
Frank, Adam, 24
free will, 117
From Eternity to Here (Carroll), 28
Gadamer, Hans Georg, 22
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., 17, 27, 51, 54–56, 60–61, 65, 66–70
gay Blacks. See LGBTTQ Blacks
gender roles, 53, 55, 58, 81–82, 127
Gifts of Power (Jackson), 56
Gilroy, Paul, 6, 10, 27, 48, 51, 56–61, 65
Giovanni’s Room (Baldwin), 138
Gordon, Avery, 77–78
Grand Unified Theory (GUT), 17, 110–11
GUT. See Grand Unified Theory
Haggard, Rider, 99
Hamilton, Ruth Simms, 148–49
Hartman, Saidiya, 28, 29, 75, 77–78, 93–98
haunting, 77–78
Hegel, G. W. F., 40, 87, 184n40
Henderson, Mae G., 22
Heremakhonon (Condé), 29, 74, 88–91, 96–97, 128–29
heteropatriarchy, 42–43, 44, 92, 129, 131, 182n16
hierarchy. See verticality
Holt, Thomas, 2
Holy Fool trope, 79
horizontality, 11, 21, 30, 42, 50, 74, 113–14, 133–34
Hughes, Robert, 149–50
identity, Black: collective, 3, 7, 22, 43, 86–87, 148; compared with white, 30; diasporic, 14, 28, 58; double consciousness in, 48; fixed, myth of, 33–34; hyphenated, 5; markers of, 82–83; narratives, 13; as performance, 34, 95–96; of slaves, 21; social, 16–17, 19
immigration, African, 9
indigeneity, 150–51
In Search of Time (Falk), 15, 39
Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, The, 22–23
interpellation: of Blackness, 27–28, 111, 113, 119, 121, 124, 147–48; dichotomous, 143; hierarchical, 129–30; and now moment, 97, 116, 119, 155; of return, 90–91, 93; vertical/horizontal, 157, 160–61
interraciality, 151–52
“Isaac Newton, Heretic” (Snobelen), 170
Islam, in Nairobi, 167–68
Jackson, Jesse, 62
Jackson, Rebecca Cox, 56
Jacobs, Harriet, 53
James Baldwin (Kaplan/Schwarz), 109, 111–12
Jameson, Fredric, 143
Jaynes, Chris, 106
Johns Hopkins University Atlantic Program, 141
Johnson, E. Patrick, 3
Johnson, Mat, 28, 30, 74, 97–108
Kant, Emmanuel, 40
Kindred (Butler), 29, 74, 84–88, 103–4
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 53
knowing vs. being, 32–33
Kum’a Ndumbe, III, 156
LaPlace, Pierre Simon, 171
“Legacy of the Atlantic Program, The” (Mintz), 141–42
lesbian Blacks. See LGBTTQ Blacks
LGBTTQ Blacks, 12, 25, 130–31, 139
Liberia, establishment of, 151
linear progress narrative: and act of return, 72, 73, 83–84, 90–91; antiracist, 158, 179n26; on contradictory interpellations, 145–48; diasporic, examples of, 26–27, 32, 37–38, 40, 43–47, 70–71
Lionnet, François, 88
Lose Your Mother (Hartman), 28, 29, 74, 93–98
Love, Heather, 42
Major, Clarence, 55
Malcolm X, 53
“Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe” (Spillers), 28–29, 74, 77–82, 84, 87, 92–93
“Many Thousands Gone” (Baldwin), 118–19. See also Notes of a Native Son (Baldwin)
marginalization, 13–14, 44–45, 138
Massaquoi, Hans-Jürgen, 188n16
master-slave dialectic, 87–88
McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch, 171
memory: collective, 80; and history, 9; maternal, 49–50
Middle Passage Blackness, 10, 11–12, 17–19, 66–68, 106, 123, 147, 150–51
Middle Passage epistemology, 5, 7–8, 17, 19–20, 25, 27; on agency, 66–67; on culpability, 85; and experience of racism, 147; and historical fact, 43; on interpellation of return, 90–91, 93; and marginalization, 44–45; and origins, 54, 86–87; as representation of Blackness, 37, 59–60, 66–67; use of term, 47–48
Miller, James, 138
Mintz, Sidney, 141–42
modernity, 56–57, 59–61, 133, 134–35
Morgenrath, Birgit, 156. See also Unsere Opfer Zählen Nicht (anthology)
Moynihan Report, 80–81
mulatto, origin of term, 184n40
multidimensionality, theory of, 110. See also under Blackness
multiverse theory, 30
Münchhausen Trilemma, 106–7
Mwangi, Evan, 32, 143, 159–61, 163
Nairobi, women entrepreneurs in, 164–68
Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, The (Poe), 30, 98–106
Native Son (Wright), 113–15
negotiations, history of, 38, 71
Nègre à Paris, Un (Dadié), 31, 113, 123–26
New Left Review, The (journal), 143
Newton, Isaac, 14–15, 26, 39, 40, 170, 172
Newtonian laws, 14–15, 17, 25–26, 37–39, 74, 110, 169–70
New York Times (newspaper), 10, 27, 67, 71, 74
Nigger of the Narcissist, The (Andrade), 88
No Sweetness Here (Aidoo), 131
Notebook of a Return to My Native Land (Césaire), 95
Notes of a Native Son (Baldwin), 30–31, 107, 110–11, 113–15, 118–19, 123, 133–34, 136–38. See also specific essays
now moment, 16, 20, 32, 143–44, 172; and Black identity, 71, 111; and interpellation, 97, 116, 119, 155; multidimensiality of, 122–23; possibilities in, 24; and process, 41
Obama, Barack, 1, 9–12, 11, 12, 27, 61–64
Obama, Barack, Sr., 11
Once You Go Black (Reid-Pharr), 2
One Drop Rule, 68–69
“On the Discovery of What It Means to Be an American” (Baldwin), 138
Other African Americans, The (anthology), 8
Otherness, 124
Ouellette, Jennifer, 38–39
Our Sister Killjoy (Aidoo), 126–31, 135–36, 138, 139–40
outsider status, 93–98
Pan-Africanism, 63
Parks, Rosa, 53
particle physics, 16, 19, 24, 25–26, 105, 110, 117–18
Pedersen, Carl, 17
perception, 11
Peters, Carl, 99
Playing in the Dark (Morrison), 98, 99
“Politics and Space/Time” (Massey), 143
post-Blackness, use of term, 16, 113
poststructuralist theories, 5–6
predictions, 33
Preminger, Otto, 114
“Preservation of Innocence” (Baldwin), 138
Prickard, Terry, 40
Prince, Mary, 45
progress narrative. See linear progress narrative
Provincializing Europe (Chakrabarty), 77
Pybus, Cassandra, 141, 147, 148–51
Pym (Johnson), 28, 29, 30, 74, 97–108
qualitative collapse, use of term, 32
quantum mechanics, 25–26, 109, 110, 117
queer Blacks. See LGBTTQ Blacks
Race and the Foundations of Knowledge (anthology), 6
Race Men (Carby), 52–53
racism: as antiprogressive, 77; and Blackness term, 43; and Black progress narrative, 38, 43–44, 146–48; as human problem, 118–19; and identity, 3; in Middle Passage epistemology, 50–51
Randall, Lisa, 19, 30, 110, 111, 113, 117–18, 120
rape, prevalence of, 85
Reid-Pharr, Robert, 2
return, act of. See under linear progress narrative
Rössel, Karl, 156. See also Unsere Opfer Zählen Nicht (anthology)
Routes of Passage (Hamilton), 148–49
Sacramento, Astrogildo, 133
segregation, spatiotemporal, 77
Senghor, Léopold, 159
Sharpton, Al, 62
Signifying Monkey, The (Gates), 27, 51, 54–56, 60–61, 65
slave trade, 1, 7–8, 18, 21, 38, 82, 85–86, 148, 179n13
Snobelen, Stephen, 170
Souls of Black Folk, The (Du Bois), 27, 49, 51–54, 60–61, 65, 134
spacetime: and agency, 117–18; Epiphenomenal, 5, 17, 22, 30, 41, 49, 109, 117–18, 122, 143–45, 166; linear, 14, 15–16, 19, 37, 38, 40–41, 47, 50, 74, 109, 113, 145–46; multiple, 77; Newtonian, 17, 73–74; and objective reality, 40; postwar, 20–21; use of term, 4–5, 15. See also Epiphenomenal time
“Speaking in Tongues” (Henderson), 22
“Speculative Fictions of Slavery” (Dubey), 85–86
Spillers, Hortense, 28–29, 74, 77–82, 84, 87
Stolberg, Sheryl Gay, 10
Stonewall Rebellion (1969), 12
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 114
“Stranger in the Village” (Baldwin), 133–34. See also Notes of a Native Son (Baldwin)
“Subversive Anti-Stalinism” (Murphy), 137–38
superiority, 34
superposition, principle of, 24
Talented Tenth, 54
Theory That Would Not Die, The (McGrayne), 171
“There’s Saltwater in Our Blood” (Henry), 27, 48–51
Thomas, Clarence, 64
time: entropy in, 28; linear, 38–41, 76, 121–22, 145; travel to past, 75–77. See also Epiphenomenal time; spacetime
transgender/transsexual Blacks. See LGBTTQ Blacks
trickster monkey narrative, 55
Truth, Sojourner, 53
Tubman, Harriet, 53
Turner, Nat, 53
Tuskegee Institute, 54
Tutu, Desmond, 1
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe), 114
Unsere Opfer Zählen Nicht (anthology), 113, 132–33, 136, 156
Urdang, Stephanie, 166
Vassa, Gustavus. See Equiano, Olaudah
verticality, 11, 21, 30, 31–32, 42, 50, 74, 80, 92–97, 113–14, 133–34, 169
Walker, Alice, 55
Warped Passages (Randall), 19, 111, 117–18
West Indian Women at War (Bousquet/Douglass), 161–62
“Whatcha Gonna Do?” (Spillers), 82
“What Does It Mean to Be an American?” (Miller), 138
Wheeler, John, which path experiment, 16, 41
White, Walter, 53
whiteness, 10, 38, 42, 105, 116
Williams, Raymond, 59
“Windrush” narrative, 154–55
women, Black. See Black women
“Women ‘Entrepreneurs’ of Early Nairobi” (Bujra), 164–68
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands (Seacole), 45
“World Is All of One Piece, The” (Pybus), 148–50
World War II (1939–1945), 145, 152–63
Woubshet, Dagmawi, 57–58
X, Malcolm. See Malcolm X
Young, Iris Marion, 58
Young, Joseph, 6–7