Annual Lecture on Social & Racial Justice, Relational Repair: Black Life Beyond Injury

In our political present, shaped by the insurgent recognition of the consequences of antiblackness following the murder of George Floyd, but whose influence is quickly expiring, this talk examines the possibilities for African American reparations. Thinking from what I identify as our reparative conjuncture, the talk addresses the societal and ethical limitations of what kind of reparations this moment can produce. Recognizing that the harms against African Americans and Black life in the Americas are generally harms against Black relations, the talk advances a relational framework of reparation. In doing so, the talk resists Blackness' conception primarily through studying antiblack violence and its related practices of resistance to offer a formula for repair beyond the terms of Black injury.