Black Parallax: The Imperative of Negative Dialectics, Contradiction, and Destruction in Black Studies
2024-07-24
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Black Parallax: The Imperative of Negative Dialectics, Contradiction, and Destruction in Black Studies
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2024-07-24
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For my UROP project (Summer 2024), I authored an original research paper entitled "Black Parallax: The Imperative of Negative Dialectics, Contradiction, and Destruction in Black Studies." A meandering journey of rigorous scholarship and poignant introspection, my research, ultimately, yielded a thesis that perfectly inverted my proposal. Where I suggested initially an attempt to unify Afropessimism and Black Optimism—the two leading, divergent strands of contemporary Black studies—my final paper ended up celebrating, rather than resolving, the role of contradiction and paradox in Black thought. From a reading of the great Martinican revolutionary Frantz Fanon's book Black Skin, White Masks, I unveil the paramount importance that this seminal thinker of antiracism perceived in the philosophical act of negation. Namely, I investigate Fanon's radical belief that the true antiracist must not only negate the liberal project of colorblindness, of ultimately a white-washed assimilation ideal, but also must negate Blackness itself. This radical ontological destruction led me to an analysis of Frank B. Wilderson III's Afropessimism. In my critical study of this text, I drew from the revolutionary dialectical reasoning of Slavoj Zizek, the Frankfurt School, and other Black thinkers, such as Jared Sexton. From this synthesis, I articulated a hope in the political potentiality to be drawn from Wilderson's radical statements about Black nonbeing, suffering, and its constitutive incompatibilities with non-Black humanity. To conclude my text, I celebrated Marvin X's calls for a destruction of an antiblack world order in his poem, "BURN, BABY, BURN."
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- Citation style: Chicago (Notes-Bibliography)
- Word count: 5,384 (excluding title page, footnotes, and bibliography)
- Page count: 22 (excluding title page and bibliography)
- Format: Times New Roman, 12 point font, double-spaced
Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank Professor Cesare Casarino. Professor Casarino has been a trusted mentor, inspiration, and friend since my introduction to him in the spring of 2023. During the spring of 2024, he graciously accepted to be my faculty advisor for this UROP project. Through a series of preliminary meetings, biweekly discussions of readings and ideas, and constant support, he aided me in producing this paper.
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This research was supported by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). On April 22, 2024, the UROP awarded my proposal with a grant for $1,800.
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Stidman, Peter. (2024). Black Parallax: The Imperative of Negative Dialectics, Contradiction, and Destruction in Black Studies. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/264384.
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