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THE WHITE ALBUM

THE WHITE ALBUM Abstract In an interview with Mavis Nicholson in 1987, James Baldwin said: “Black people need witnesses in this hostile world, which thinks everything is white.” Baldwin’s statement invokes the witness as one who bears a responsibility to the violence that renders Black life vulnerable to premature death. But what is it to bear witness in a world structured by anti-Blackness? This paper charts a relation between the 1992 beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers and the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, asking why such mediated witnessing of such moments of racialized state violence regularly fail to provoke an ethico-juridical crisis for the state. Against the idea that the ubiquity of mobile media – from smartphones and platform media to police dash-cams and body-cams – produce greater levels of police oversight and accountability, the paper argues that the scene of witnessing is structured by a racialized perception of the human which creates a situation in which artefacts of witnessing are challenged and contested. Drawing on Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s notion of “the crisis state” and Judith Butler’s articulation of a “racially saturated field of visibility,” the paper explores the limits of the figure of the witness and offers a critique of techno-fixes to state-sanctioned anti-Blackness such as body-worn cameras. Against the presumption of the witness as an objective conduit of truth, the paper reads the work of the artist Arthur Jafa, whose video works Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death and The White Album stage a confrontation with a visual field structured by racism and suggest an articulation of the human in excess of liberal subjectivity. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities Taylor & Francis

THE WHITE ALBUM

Brooks, Andrew
Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities , Volume 27 (2): 13 – Mar 4, 2022
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THE WHITE ALBUM

Abstract

Abstract In an interview with Mavis Nicholson in 1987, James Baldwin said: “Black people need witnesses in this hostile world, which thinks everything is white.” Baldwin’s statement invokes the witness as one who bears a responsibility to the violence that renders Black life vulnerable to premature death. But what is it to bear witness in a world structured by anti-Blackness? This paper charts a relation between the 1992 beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles Police...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
ISSN
1469-2899
eISSN
0969-725X
DOI
10.1080/0969725X.2022.2046373
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract In an interview with Mavis Nicholson in 1987, James Baldwin said: “Black people need witnesses in this hostile world, which thinks everything is white.” Baldwin’s statement invokes the witness as one who bears a responsibility to the violence that renders Black life vulnerable to premature death. But what is it to bear witness in a world structured by anti-Blackness? This paper charts a relation between the 1992 beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers and the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, asking why such mediated witnessing of such moments of racialized state violence regularly fail to provoke an ethico-juridical crisis for the state. Against the idea that the ubiquity of mobile media – from smartphones and platform media to police dash-cams and body-cams – produce greater levels of police oversight and accountability, the paper argues that the scene of witnessing is structured by a racialized perception of the human which creates a situation in which artefacts of witnessing are challenged and contested. Drawing on Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s notion of “the crisis state” and Judith Butler’s articulation of a “racially saturated field of visibility,” the paper explores the limits of the figure of the witness and offers a critique of techno-fixes to state-sanctioned anti-Blackness such as body-worn cameras. Against the presumption of the witness as an objective conduit of truth, the paper reads the work of the artist Arthur Jafa, whose video works Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death and The White Album stage a confrontation with a visual field structured by racism and suggest an articulation of the human in excess of liberal subjectivity.

Journal

Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities – Taylor & Francis

Published: Mar 4, 2022

Keywords: Black witnessing; witnessing racialized violence; witnessing before the human; Arthur Jafa; abolition

References

  • Axon Body 3
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  • The Jury in the Murder Trial of Derek Chauvin has been Seated
  • George Floyd Arrest Breached Minneapolis Police Policy, Chief Says in Derek Chauvin Murder Trial
  • Axon Rolls Out the Next Level of Police Technology: Live-Streaming Body Cameras
  • Hope is a Discipline: Mariame Kaba on Dismantling the Carceral State
  • Dreams of Accountability, Guaranteed Surveillance: The Promises and Costs of Body-Worn Cameras
  • ‘No Humans Involved’: An Open Letter to My Colleagues