The primacy of anti‐blackness

Abstract

This paper contributes to conversations in Black Geographies by reflecting on the nature of anti-Black oppression. Much work within Black Geographies has (understandably and importantly) drawn out the ways in which race and class intersect with one another. This paper acknowledges the necessity of such an approach yet argues that scholars must be careful not to conflate anti-Black oppression with class-based oppression, as anti-Blackness is its own logic of oppression that eclipses class. I draw on three 20th-century examples of the displacement of middle-class Black communities in the USA to highlight how the logic of anti-Blackness leads to the spatial marginalisation of Blackness, regardless of class status. Specifically, I examine how 20th century infrastructure building entailed the routine destruction of Black middle-class neighbourhoods and commercial districts, a process made possible through the assumed a-spatiality of Black populations. I argue that while race and class do frequently intersect, examples such as those in this paper highlight the need to analyse Blackness ontologically. A scholarly commitment to rigour and political commitment to social justice demand that Black Geographies attend to the logics that structure anti-Blackness, as this is an important step toward acknowledging the struggles of all sections of the African Diaspora. K E Y W O R D S anti-Blackness, Black Geographies, class, displacement, infrastructure 1 | INTRODUCTION Over the past 20 years, the subfield of Black Geographies has become an increasingly important focal point for the wider discipline of Geography. Some of the most salient texts within the subfield have offered thorough interrogations of the intersections of Blackness and class by examining how anti-Blackness and the dictates of capitalism work together to structurally oppress working-class and un(der)employed Blacks. Nonetheless, there is a need for more geographical work that acknowledges how anti-Blacknessas a societal logic which assumes the inhumanity and thus spatial illegitimacy of Black populationsremains the purview of, and has concrete effects for, Black populations, regardless of their class status. As I show, approaching anti-Blackness as a logic applying to Black populations generally both identifies a central, structuring principle of society and helps add analytical clarity to past and present spatial formations. This paper first engages the work of Clyde Woods, Bobby Wilson, and Ruth Gilmore to reflect on how prominent conversations within Black Geographies explicate linkages between anti-Black racism and class struggle. Next, I discuss theories that unpack anti-Blackness as an underlying societal logic which has ontological and concrete spatial ramifications. I then turn to an examination of 20th-century displacements of Black middle-class communities to reflect on the ways in which anti-Blackness eclipses class position. Specifically, I examine displacements due to infrastructurea phenomenon

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