Never Meant to Survive: Genocide and Utopias in Black Diaspora Communities

Description

Never Meant to Survive presents a historical, political, and social assessment of anti-black genocide and liberatory struggles that arose to resist it. Based on fine-grained accounts of community life at the street level, Costa Vargas's work presents crucial examples of political resistance and community activism. By examining two cities linked by common experiences of Blackness, Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro, this book identifies a prevailing genocidal force that organizes individuals and groups across society. The 1965 and 1992 riots in Los Angeles, the work of the Black Panther Party and favela activists in Brazil, and police brutality in struggles between black communities and the state in both L.A. and Rio de Janeiro all figure importantly in Costa Vargas's compelling account. What emerges from this analysis is a call for the destruction of the conditions that foster the marginalization of black communities and a halt to the internal conflicts between black social groups themselves.--Faye V. Harrison, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Transformative Politics Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Preface A Note on the Text Acknowledgments Introduction - The Urgency Imperative of Genocide 1 - Genocide in the African Diaspora United States, Brazil, and the Imperatives of Holistic Analysis and Political Method WHY 1951? WHY NOW? SCHOLARSHIP ON GENOCIDE: SILENCE AROUND ANTI-BLACK RACISM IN WHITE SOCIETIES THE “GENOCIDAL CONTINUUM” MULTIPLE FACETS OF THE CONTEMPORARY ANTI-BLACK GENOCIDE CONTINUUM IN THE UNITED STATES BLACK GENOCIDE IN BRAZIL: A SYNOPSIS A PARADOX FOR OUR TIME: GENOCIDE AND BLACK RENAISSANCE 2 - The Inner City and the Favela Transnational Black Politics CHALLENGING THE CHURCH, THE STATE, AND DRUG DEALERS: FAVELA ORGANIZING AND THE STRUGGLE FOR AUTONOMY AND CITIZENSHIP THE COALITION AGAINST POLICE ABUSE (CAPA) THE COMMUNITY IN SUPPORT OF THE GANG TRUCE (CSGT) AS SERIOUS AS THEIR LIVES: JACAREZINHO’S NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION AND THE ZINZUN CENTER THE POPULAR MOVEMENT OF THE FAVELAS THE BLACK RADICAL TRADITION IN TRANSNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE 3 - Hypersegregation and Revolt The Los Angeles Black Ghetto in Historical Perspective INDUSTRIALIZATION, FRAGMENTATION, AND MIDWESTERN VALUES: OPEN SHOPS AND SUBURBS IN THE 1930s BETWEEN AND AMONG FRAGMENTS: THE MATURING OF THE GHETTO, 1940-1950 FRACTURES IN THE (IMAGINED) BLACK COMMUNITY POLICE BRUTALITY IN A SHIFTING COMMUNITY: THE 1965 WATTS REBELLION FAMILIAR BUT DISTANT: THE RIOTERS IN THE BLACK PRESS THE POLITICS OF VIOLENCE AND ITS MISREPRESENTATIONS 4 - The Los Angeles Times’ Coverage of the 1992 Rebellion Still Burning Matters of Race and Justice WHY THE TIMES?: MONOPOLY, HEGEMONY, AND RACE POLITICS THE FIRE THIS TIME: DEFINING TENSIONS IRRATIONALITY, BLACKNESS, AND THE “RIOT” RACIAL HARMONY AT RISK DEPOLITICIZING VIOLENCE, DEFINING POLITICS SKETCHES IN BLACK AND WHITE THE NECESSARY PEACE, LAW-AND-ORDER RHETORIC: THE DEPOLITICIZATION OF JUSTICE THE MULTIRACIAL REEMERGENCE AND SOCIAL ORDER NORMALIZED DIFFERENCES THE TIMES’ DIAGNOSTICS AND THE RETURN OF SHARP CONTRASTS: BLACKENING THE “RIOT” WEEDING AND SEEDING: TRANSFORMING SOCIAL PROBLEMS INTO POLICE MATTERS THE TIMES’ CONCEPT OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION: COMMUNITY, POLITICS, AND LIMITED SOCIAL JUSTICE MANAGERIAL LIBERALISM 5 - Hyperconsciousness of Race and Its Negation The Dialectic of White Supremacy in Brazil THE PERSISTENCE OF THE RACIAL DEMOCRACY MYTH HYPERCONSCIOUSNESS OF COLOR EQUALS HYPERCONSCIOUSNESS OF RACE IN THE BOWELS OF THE BEAST: WHEN “RACISM IS EVERYWHERE” YET ABSENT URBAN SPACE AND FAVELAS: WHEN THEY BECOME CODES FOR RACE POLICE KIDNAPPERS CHAMELEONIC RACISM AND BLACK GENOCIDE IN TIMES OF LULA: WHAT IS TO BE DONE? 6 - When a Favela Dared to Become a Condominium Challenging Brazilian Apartheid THE FAVELA-CONDOMINIUM GATES, CAMERAS, DRUG DEALERS CRIMINALIZING THE PEOPLE OF THE FAVELA RACE, URBAN SPACE, BRAZIL, UNITED STATES 7 - Black Radical Becoming The Revolution Imperative of Genocide RACIALIZED TRUTHS: NECESSARY, BUT PARTIAL POLITICS OF TRANSFIGURATION, THE ENGINEER, AND THE NEW HOUSE A LOVE SUPREME AND THE METHODOLOGY OF THE OPPRESSED: BLACK RADICAL BECOMING AFRODIASPORIC POLITICS OF LIBERATION FROM IDENTITY POLITICS TO A POLITICS OF IDENTIFICATION THE NECESSARILY UNSTABLE CHARACTER OF BLACK LIBERATION PROCESSES Notes Bibliography Index About the Author