Transistor (https://transistor.fm) https://feeds.transistor.fm/black-existentialism Podcasted process pieces from my course Black Existentialism. The course introduces one of the most important and potent mid-century intellectual movements - the existentialist movement - through a series of black Atlantic thinkers. Our keystone will be Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, which is arguably the most important work of Black existentialism from this period. Across the semester we will see why existentialism, with its focus on the ambiguities and ambivalences of lived-experience, had such a deep impact on Black thinkers across the diaspora. We will see these existentialist insights register in literature, philosophy, and film. Old and new. © 2025 John E. Drabinski 7ddd0ac5-8f73-573a-94fe-d18f3a65b741 no en Fri, 09 Feb 2024 12:06:35 -0800 Tue, 02 Dec 2025 17:25:23 -0800 https://img.transistor.fm/NXSOaeTq8LFbGccdsIJtq_i70XNwsVLMAVqLvEVOFPc/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzM4Mzg2LzE2NzUy/ODQwODMtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.jpg episodic John E. Drabinski Podcasted process pieces from my course Black Existentialism. The course introduces one of the most important and potent mid-century intellectual movements - the existentialist movement - through a series of black Atlantic thinkers. Our keystone will be Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, which is arguably the most important work of Black existentialism from this period. Across the semester we will see why existentialism, with its focus on the ambiguities and ambivalences of lived-experience, had such a deep impact on Black thinkers across the diaspora. We will see these existentialist insights register in literature, philosophy, and film. Old and new. Podcasted process pieces from my course Black Existentialism. existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature John E. Drabinski No No 22 22 Jenkins on Masculinity, Touch, and Vulnerability full eef251b1-0377-4452-a8ef-07b33721e5cb https://share.transistor.fm/s/f44e059b A discussion of Barry Jenkins' 2016 film Moonlight, with particular focus on the question of masculinity and race. How do touch, vulnerability, and beauty change the way we think about masculine identification? What does it mean to put this vision of masculinity in conversation with Richard Wright's rendering of re-masculation as violence, domination, and the capacity to injure and end life? What other world is possible?

]]> A discussion of Barry Jenkins' 2016 film Moonlight, with particular focus on the question of masculinity and race. How do touch, vulnerability, and beauty change the way we think about masculine identification? What does it mean to put this vision of masculinity in conversation with Richard Wright's rendering of re-masculation as violence, domination, and the capacity to injure and end life? What other world is possible?

]]> Thu, 27 Apr 2023 13:18:53 -0700 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1358 A discussion of Barry Jenkins' 2016 film Moonlight, with particular focus on the question of masculinity and race. How do touch, vulnerability, and beauty change the way we think about masculine identification? What does it mean to put this vision of masculinity in conversation with Richard Wright's rendering of re-masculation as violence, domination, and the capacity to injure and end life? What other world is possible?

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 21 21 Wright on Guns, Masculinity, and Violence full b503e065-c3f8-45be-8b45-14587becd1df https://share.transistor.fm/s/5fbb19ca A treatment of Richard Wright's short story "The Man Who Was Almost A Man," which examines the place of violence, guns, and respect in radicalized formations of masculinity. How does the main character Dave Saunders reimagine his masculinity in a world of emasculation? And how does the gun function as a phallic symbol that is indispensable for imagining manhood, respect, and dignity?

]]> A treatment of Richard Wright's short story "The Man Who Was Almost A Man," which examines the place of violence, guns, and respect in radicalized formations of masculinity. How does the main character Dave Saunders reimagine his masculinity in a world of emasculation? And how does the gun function as a phallic symbol that is indispensable for imagining manhood, respect, and dignity?

]]> Wed, 26 Apr 2023 13:52:03 -0700 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1316 A treatment of Richard Wright's short story "The Man Who Was Almost A Man," which examines the place of violence, guns, and respect in radicalized formations of masculinity. How does the main character Dave Saunders reimagine his masculinity in a world of emasculation? And how does the gun function as a phallic symbol that is indispensable for imagining manhood, respect, and dignity?

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 20 20 Wright on Antiblackness, Guilt, and Death in Native Son full 4e3514ab-6c19-4efa-aae3-97212c001144 https://share.transistor.fm/s/668c2e83 A discussion of the 1951 film adaptation of Richard Wright's novel Native Son. I am particularly interested in the theme of race and guilt, a theme that is consistent across Wright's work and illuminates his existential themes of condemnation to death and the sociological construction of racial identity in the social relation.

]]> A discussion of the 1951 film adaptation of Richard Wright's novel Native Son. I am particularly interested in the theme of race and guilt, a theme that is consistent across Wright's work and illuminates his existential themes of condemnation to death and the sociological construction of racial identity in the social relation.

]]> Wed, 26 Apr 2023 13:25:51 -0700 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1321 A discussion of the 1951 film adaptation of Richard Wright's novel Native Son. I am particularly interested in the theme of race and guilt, a theme that is consistent across Wright's work and illuminates his existential themes of condemnation to death and the sociological construction of racial identity in the social relation.

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 19 19 Wright on Visibility, Death, and the Possibility of Black Life full ec74515c-1261-47af-a81d-33d9e903c3f5 https://share.transistor.fm/s/7de8dadc A discussion of Richard Wright's short story "The Man Who Lived Underground," which explores themes of visibility, invisibility, life, freedom, and death. In this process piece, I think through the meaning of the underground as invisibility and freedom - with reference to Ralph Ellison's treatment of invisibility in Invisible Man - and the above ground as visibility, exposure to antiblack racism, and death.

]]> A discussion of Richard Wright's short story "The Man Who Lived Underground," which explores themes of visibility, invisibility, life, freedom, and death. In this process piece, I think through the meaning of the underground as invisibility and freedom - with reference to Ralph Ellison's treatment of invisibility in Invisible Man - and the above ground as visibility, exposure to antiblack racism, and death.

]]> Wed, 26 Apr 2023 12:38:16 -0700 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1196 A discussion of Richard Wright's short story "The Man Who Lived Underground," which explores themes of visibility, invisibility, life, freedom, and death. In this process piece, I think through the meaning of the underground as invisibility and freedom - with reference to Ralph Ellison's treatment of invisibility in Invisible Man - and the above ground as visibility, exposure to antiblack racism, and death.

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 18 18 Burnett on Despair, Abandonment, and Pessimism in Killer of Sheep full 5908321a-b6f5-4d9c-b6e1-e072487571b5 https://share.transistor.fm/s/ffefd72a A discussion of Charles Burnett's 1978 film Killer of Sheep, with particular focus on the nihilistic, despairing pessimism of the film. Stan, the main character, has been worn down into an affectless figure whose sense of joy and human contact is all but eliminated. What space is there for joy and pleasure? Is escape possible? Is another sense of self and affect possible? Or does abandonment mean that the possibility of a confrontation and negation, as described by Angela Davis in her "Lecture on Liberation," requires deliberate leaving of the space of the neighborhood in search of the oppressor?

]]> A discussion of Charles Burnett's 1978 film Killer of Sheep, with particular focus on the nihilistic, despairing pessimism of the film. Stan, the main character, has been worn down into an affectless figure whose sense of joy and human contact is all but eliminated. What space is there for joy and pleasure? Is escape possible? Is another sense of self and affect possible? Or does abandonment mean that the possibility of a confrontation and negation, as described by Angela Davis in her "Lecture on Liberation," requires deliberate leaving of the space of the neighborhood in search of the oppressor?

]]> Wed, 26 Apr 2023 09:52:13 -0700 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1247 A discussion of Charles Burnett's 1978 film Killer of Sheep, with particular focus on the nihilistic, despairing pessimism of the film. Stan, the main character, has been worn down into an affectless figure whose sense of joy and human contact is all but eliminated. What space is there for joy and pleasure? Is escape possible? Is another sense of self and affect possible? Or does abandonment mean that the possibility of a confrontation and negation, as described by Angela Davis in her "Lecture on Liberation," requires deliberate leaving of the space of the neighborhood in search of the oppressor?

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 17 17 Davis on Negation, Liberation, and Formation of Self full 12bd0028-9772-47db-ad61-20df24ba2490 https://share.transistor.fm/s/0f9e6506 A discussion of Angela Davis' essay "Lecture on Liberation," which examines the structure of self and collective liberation. In particular, I am interested here in how she takes Frederick Douglass' description of his fight with Covey as exemplary of the structure of negation, a structure that tells a story about how to retrieve a sense of authentic self and self- and collective-transformation of an antiblack world. The insight from this is that struggle is the crucial component to our sense of transformation, not simply a change in beliefs or broad social arguments and disputes. Confrontation, violent in so many ways, is critical to becoming who and what we are at our best, against who and what we are at our worst.

]]> A discussion of Angela Davis' essay "Lecture on Liberation," which examines the structure of self and collective liberation. In particular, I am interested here in how she takes Frederick Douglass' description of his fight with Covey as exemplary of the structure of negation, a structure that tells a story about how to retrieve a sense of authentic self and self- and collective-transformation of an antiblack world. The insight from this is that struggle is the crucial component to our sense of transformation, not simply a change in beliefs or broad social arguments and disputes. Confrontation, violent in so many ways, is critical to becoming who and what we are at our best, against who and what we are at our worst.

]]> Wed, 26 Apr 2023 09:18:59 -0700 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1185 A discussion of Angela Davis' essay "Lecture on Liberation," which examines the structure of self and collective liberation. In particular, I am interested here in how she takes Frederick Douglass' description of his fight with Covey as exemplary of the structure of negation, a structure that tells a story about how to retrieve a sense of authentic self and self- and collective-transformation of an antiblack world. The insight from this is that struggle is the crucial component to our sense of transformation, not simply a change in beliefs or broad social arguments and disputes. Confrontation, violent in so many ways, is critical to becoming who and what we are at our best, against who and what we are at our worst.

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 16 16 Walcott on History, Race, and Identity full d1595aac-3fb1-40ae-b409-2d7665699905 https://share.transistor.fm/s/32f5af68 A discussion of Derek Walcott's 1974 essay "The Muse of History," focusing on how his repudiation of "paternity" impacts the question of identity in the black Americas. What is a black American? What is that identity's relationship to European and African ancestry, and the overwhelming frame of empire's history? What other identity stories can be told?

]]> A discussion of Derek Walcott's 1974 essay "The Muse of History," focusing on how his repudiation of "paternity" impacts the question of identity in the black Americas. What is a black American? What is that identity's relationship to European and African ancestry, and the overwhelming frame of empire's history? What other identity stories can be told?

]]> Mon, 24 Apr 2023 10:02:05 -0700 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1447 A discussion of Derek Walcott's 1974 essay "The Muse of History," focusing on how his repudiation of "paternity" impacts the question of identity in the black Americas. What is a black American? What is that identity's relationship to European and African ancestry, and the overwhelming frame of empire's history? What other identity stories can be told?

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 15 15 Ellison on Sound, Invisibility, and World-Making full 834097da-4334-43d8-9781-d6522ffe866e https://share.transistor.fm/s/dba58de7 A discussion of the Prologue to Ralph Ellison's 1952 novel Invisible Man, with particular interest in his treatment of Louis Armstrong's song "Black and Blue" and its resonance across the Prologue, as well as the larger relation of the song and its sonic strategies to ideas of poetry, poiesis, and world-making.

]]> A discussion of the Prologue to Ralph Ellison's 1952 novel Invisible Man, with particular interest in his treatment of Louis Armstrong's song "Black and Blue" and its resonance across the Prologue, as well as the larger relation of the song and its sonic strategies to ideas of poetry, poiesis, and world-making.

]]> Fri, 21 Apr 2023 09:55:23 -0700 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1157 A discussion of the Prologue to Ralph Ellison's 1952 novel Invisible Man, with particular interest in his treatment of Louis Armstrong's song "Black and Blue" and its resonance across the Prologue, as well as the larger relation of the song and its sonic strategies to ideas of poetry, poiesis, and world-making.

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 14 14 Hurston on Black Expressive Life and World-Making full bf3e9da2-ceeb-45fd-bb77-abe11e11c728 https://share.transistor.fm/s/40f81e95 A comment on Zora Neale Hurston's essay "Characteristics of Negro Expression," with particular emphasis on how those characteristics - angularity, adornment - capture forms of resistance and world-making in an anti-black world. How does expressive life embody a sense of living in its fullest sense, rather than simply surviving regimes of white supremacy? 

]]> A comment on Zora Neale Hurston's essay "Characteristics of Negro Expression," with particular emphasis on how those characteristics - angularity, adornment - capture forms of resistance and world-making in an anti-black world. How does expressive life embody a sense of living in its fullest sense, rather than simply surviving regimes of white supremacy? 

]]> Tue, 18 Apr 2023 14:40:12 -0700 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1228 A comment on Zora Neale Hurston's essay "Characteristics of Negro Expression," with particular emphasis on how those characteristics - angularity, adornment - capture forms of resistance and world-making in an anti-black world. How does expressive life embody a sense of living in its fullest sense, rather than simply surviving regimes of white supremacy? 

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 13 13 Lamming on Writing, Race, and the Human Condition full be37156b-a945-4fc9-82a4-f9c3ebd475d1 https://share.transistor.fm/s/6058034b A treatment of George Lamming's 1956 essay "The Negro Writer and His World," with particular emphasis on the task of the colonized writer in creating a literary and readerly tradition, as well as the phases the writer moves through, from the singularity of the call of writing to the social relation of the writer to the highest form of literary composition: the universal human condition.

]]> A treatment of George Lamming's 1956 essay "The Negro Writer and His World," with particular emphasis on the task of the colonized writer in creating a literary and readerly tradition, as well as the phases the writer moves through, from the singularity of the call of writing to the social relation of the writer to the highest form of literary composition: the universal human condition.

]]> Thu, 13 Apr 2023 11:45:28 -0700 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 946 A treatment of George Lamming's 1956 essay "The Negro Writer and His World," with particular emphasis on the task of the colonized writer in creating a literary and readerly tradition, as well as the phases the writer moves through, from the singularity of the call of writing to the social relation of the writer to the highest form of literary composition: the universal human condition.

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 12 12 Sartre on Blackness, Liberation, and Dialectics full e2416fe3-3f63-4cf2-91c4-a9e29cb13756 https://share.transistor.fm/s/0b0b0b1e A discussion of Jean-Paul Sartre's introductory piece to a collection of Négritude poetry. The essay "Black Orpheus" describes the revolutionary power of Black consciousness and its capacity to transform how we understand collective identity. However, Sartre concludes the essay by calling for an eventual surpassing of that consciousness and movement toward a vision of the global proletariat. How are we to understand this transition, in terms of both its possibilities and its limits?

]]> A discussion of Jean-Paul Sartre's introductory piece to a collection of Négritude poetry. The essay "Black Orpheus" describes the revolutionary power of Black consciousness and its capacity to transform how we understand collective identity. However, Sartre concludes the essay by calling for an eventual surpassing of that consciousness and movement toward a vision of the global proletariat. How are we to understand this transition, in terms of both its possibilities and its limits?

]]> Thu, 13 Apr 2023 11:43:41 -0700 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1123 A discussion of Jean-Paul Sartre's introductory piece to a collection of Négritude poetry. The essay "Black Orpheus" describes the revolutionary power of Black consciousness and its capacity to transform how we understand collective identity. However, Sartre concludes the essay by calling for an eventual surpassing of that consciousness and movement toward a vision of the global proletariat. How are we to understand this transition, in terms of both its possibilities and its limits?

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 11 11 Césaire on Diaspora, Culture, and Colonization full a2b565d8-7297-4067-b7f4-69a96c428c08 https://share.transistor.fm/s/ee67fd37 A discussion of Aimé Césaire's 1956 essay "Culture and Colonization," with specific emphasis on the distinction between culture and civilization, and how that distinction generates his conception of diaspora.

]]> A discussion of Aimé Césaire's 1956 essay "Culture and Colonization," with specific emphasis on the distinction between culture and civilization, and how that distinction generates his conception of diaspora.

]]> Thu, 13 Apr 2023 11:41:02 -0700 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1322 A discussion of Aimé Césaire's 1956 essay "Culture and Colonization," with specific emphasis on the distinction between culture and civilization, and how that distinction generates his conception of diaspora.

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 10 10 Fanon on Racism, Culture, and Social Reproduction full 8c9f1c7b-8c0a-4b75-8f33-4efc9f51872f https://share.transistor.fm/s/0d23d5ea A discussion of Frantz Fanon's 1956 essay "Racism and Culture," which argues for the entanglement of racism and culture - both as a feature of culture and a condition of all cultural production. In particular, I am interested here in how arguments about culture function, per Fanon's insight, as deep political engagement: the reproduction of society is at stake in cultural change and conservation. So, what does this mean for revolutionary practice? It means embracing cultural struggle as a foundational struggle. 

]]> A discussion of Frantz Fanon's 1956 essay "Racism and Culture," which argues for the entanglement of racism and culture - both as a feature of culture and a condition of all cultural production. In particular, I am interested here in how arguments about culture function, per Fanon's insight, as deep political engagement: the reproduction of society is at stake in cultural change and conservation. So, what does this mean for revolutionary practice? It means embracing cultural struggle as a foundational struggle. 

]]> Mon, 06 Mar 2023 08:15:23 -0800 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1527 A discussion of Frantz Fanon's 1956 essay "Racism and Culture," which argues for the entanglement of racism and culture - both as a feature of culture and a condition of all cultural production. In particular, I am interested here in how arguments about culture function, per Fanon's insight, as deep political engagement: the reproduction of society is at stake in cultural change and conservation. So, what does this mean for revolutionary practice? It means embracing cultural struggle as a foundational struggle. 

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 9 9 Fanon on Race, Ethnicity, and the Future of Identity full cb50bf8e-febf-4741-91d9-e5dc093bcd66 https://share.transistor.fm/s/388fe380 Discussion of Fanon’s essay “West Indians and Africans,” with particular attention to his discussion of race and ethnicity. Fanon argues against the idea of racial identity as a generalized bond across the Atlantic world. Combined with his reflection on how the fall of France in World War Two, Fanon prepares the grounds to revisit the zone of non-being as full of revolutionary possibility - an opening to a new sense of being and knowing.

]]> Discussion of Fanon’s essay “West Indians and Africans,” with particular attention to his discussion of race and ethnicity. Fanon argues against the idea of racial identity as a generalized bond across the Atlantic world. Combined with his reflection on how the fall of France in World War Two, Fanon prepares the grounds to revisit the zone of non-being as full of revolutionary possibility - an opening to a new sense of being and knowing.

]]> Fri, 03 Mar 2023 14:28:37 -0800 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1318 Discussion of Fanon’s essay “West Indians and Africans,” with particular attention to his discussion of race and ethnicity. Fanon argues against the idea of racial identity as a generalized bond across the Atlantic world. Combined with his reflection on how the fall of France in World War Two, Fanon prepares the grounds to revisit the zone of non-being as full of revolutionary possibility - an opening to a new sense of being and knowing.

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 8 8 Fanon on Resistance, Humanism, and Futurity full e0938b6c-995b-4bff-90cd-28ce410b7248 https://share.transistor.fm/s/174f1e95 Closing out our work on Black Skin, White Masks, this podcasted note explores how the dialectic in Chapter 7 and transition to Chapter 8 tie together Fanon's reflections on the zone of non-being and the white gaze. In particular, I focus on how the question of comparison and recognition bears within it the colonial terms of the struggle to be seen as human, but also the indicator of what would comprise revolutionary struggle and recognition. Recognition must be re-thought, here in terms of a new conception of the human, in order for recognition to be liberatory. Never recognition on the terms of white humanity. Only recognition on the terms of a new sense of the human. And that sense lies in the future, not the past or present - which is why Fanon evokes the idea, rather than describing what a new humanism looks like.

]]> Closing out our work on Black Skin, White Masks, this podcasted note explores how the dialectic in Chapter 7 and transition to Chapter 8 tie together Fanon's reflections on the zone of non-being and the white gaze. In particular, I focus on how the question of comparison and recognition bears within it the colonial terms of the struggle to be seen as human, but also the indicator of what would comprise revolutionary struggle and recognition. Recognition must be re-thought, here in terms of a new conception of the human, in order for recognition to be liberatory. Never recognition on the terms of white humanity. Only recognition on the terms of a new sense of the human. And that sense lies in the future, not the past or present - which is why Fanon evokes the idea, rather than describing what a new humanism looks like.

]]> Fri, 24 Feb 2023 10:00:49 -0800 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1321 Closing out our work on Black Skin, White Masks, this podcasted note explores how the dialectic in Chapter 7 and transition to Chapter 8 tie together Fanon's reflections on the zone of non-being and the white gaze. In particular, I focus on how the question of comparison and recognition bears within it the colonial terms of the struggle to be seen as human, but also the indicator of what would comprise revolutionary struggle and recognition. Recognition must be re-thought, here in terms of a new conception of the human, in order for recognition to be liberatory. Never recognition on the terms of white humanity. Only recognition on the terms of a new sense of the human. And that sense lies in the future, not the past or present - which is why Fanon evokes the idea, rather than describing what a new humanism looks like.

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 7 7 Fanon on the Gaze, Antiblackness, and Lived-Experience full ee8a2b75-c4a8-406e-ba05-63952d3c2b74 https://share.transistor.fm/s/348b661a A discussion of Chapter Five from Black Skin, White Masks, with attention to how the white gaze both structures lived-experience in an antiblack world and is a primary site of the reproduction of an antiblack world. Fanon's claim that the white person (child, in his example) naming his raced body - "Look, a Negro!" - is the equivalent of shouting a racial slur underscores the proximity of everyday language to the racist structure of the interracial world. That racist structure flows through, and is dependent upon, the power of the white gaze to organize the epidermal structure of lived-experience - we are embodied in our relation to one another - around terms of hate, subjugation, and abjection. In other words, the power of the gaze to see and reproduce the location of the Black body in the zone of non-being.

]]> A discussion of Chapter Five from Black Skin, White Masks, with attention to how the white gaze both structures lived-experience in an antiblack world and is a primary site of the reproduction of an antiblack world. Fanon's claim that the white person (child, in his example) naming his raced body - "Look, a Negro!" - is the equivalent of shouting a racial slur underscores the proximity of everyday language to the racist structure of the interracial world. That racist structure flows through, and is dependent upon, the power of the white gaze to organize the epidermal structure of lived-experience - we are embodied in our relation to one another - around terms of hate, subjugation, and abjection. In other words, the power of the gaze to see and reproduce the location of the Black body in the zone of non-being.

]]> Fri, 24 Feb 2023 05:14:15 -0800 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1314 A discussion of Chapter Five from Black Skin, White Masks, with attention to how the white gaze both structures lived-experience in an antiblack world and is a primary site of the reproduction of an antiblack world. Fanon's claim that the white person (child, in his example) naming his raced body - "Look, a Negro!" - is the equivalent of shouting a racial slur underscores the proximity of everyday language to the racist structure of the interracial world. That racist structure flows through, and is dependent upon, the power of the white gaze to organize the epidermal structure of lived-experience - we are embodied in our relation to one another - around terms of hate, subjugation, and abjection. In other words, the power of the gaze to see and reproduce the location of the Black body in the zone of non-being.

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 6 6 Fanon on Language, Antiblackness, and Interracial Desire full 05299561-eadc-4678-bf11-ac551c3649f4 https://share.transistor.fm/s/5b7fd2b8 Summary and interpretations of themes in the first two chapters of Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks. I am interested in two aspects of the text. First, how Fanon understands linguistic practice - speaking, diction, grammar, expression - as irreducibly colonial, bearing the marks of colonial racism, and how and why creole language formations are, for him, not sites of resistance or alternative paths for expressive life. Second, why Fanon sees interracial desire as pathological and bearing all the markers of antiblackness: the desire of the Black woman to exit colonial relations through the white man, the failure of such desires, and the recurrence of antiblackness in the most intimate aspects of life.

]]> Summary and interpretations of themes in the first two chapters of Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks. I am interested in two aspects of the text. First, how Fanon understands linguistic practice - speaking, diction, grammar, expression - as irreducibly colonial, bearing the marks of colonial racism, and how and why creole language formations are, for him, not sites of resistance or alternative paths for expressive life. Second, why Fanon sees interracial desire as pathological and bearing all the markers of antiblackness: the desire of the Black woman to exit colonial relations through the white man, the failure of such desires, and the recurrence of antiblackness in the most intimate aspects of life.

]]> Fri, 17 Feb 2023 11:44:15 -0800 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1308 Summary and interpretations of themes in the first two chapters of Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks. I am interested in two aspects of the text. First, how Fanon understands linguistic practice - speaking, diction, grammar, expression - as irreducibly colonial, bearing the marks of colonial racism, and how and why creole language formations are, for him, not sites of resistance or alternative paths for expressive life. Second, why Fanon sees interracial desire as pathological and bearing all the markers of antiblackness: the desire of the Black woman to exit colonial relations through the white man, the failure of such desires, and the recurrence of antiblackness in the most intimate aspects of life.

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 5 5 Fanon on Non-Being, Language, and Colonialism as a Total Project full 9df63dd2-9902-4027-bfe9-9da65438d26e https://share.transistor.fm/s/24f66aab A discussion of the Introduction and opening chapter to Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks, with particular attention to the relation between language and the zone of non-being. Fanon ties language and being together with such intimacy that the colonial command and control of language - its capacity to sustain culture, world, and civilization - is the cornerstone of antiblackness. Proper diction is no liberation, because racism works through our embodied presence to one another; race is epidermal, not biological or predetermined. But the epidermal builds a decisive, alienating exception into speaking: one is always black or white, no matter one's relation to diction, and that disjunct means everything in sustaining an antiblack world.

]]> A discussion of the Introduction and opening chapter to Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks, with particular attention to the relation between language and the zone of non-being. Fanon ties language and being together with such intimacy that the colonial command and control of language - its capacity to sustain culture, world, and civilization - is the cornerstone of antiblackness. Proper diction is no liberation, because racism works through our embodied presence to one another; race is epidermal, not biological or predetermined. But the epidermal builds a decisive, alienating exception into speaking: one is always black or white, no matter one's relation to diction, and that disjunct means everything in sustaining an antiblack world.

]]> Tue, 14 Feb 2023 12:59:39 -0800 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1694 A discussion of the Introduction and opening chapter to Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks, with particular attention to the relation between language and the zone of non-being. Fanon ties language and being together with such intimacy that the colonial command and control of language - its capacity to sustain culture, world, and civilization - is the cornerstone of antiblackness. Proper diction is no liberation, because racism works through our embodied presence to one another; race is epidermal, not biological or predetermined. But the epidermal builds a decisive, alienating exception into speaking: one is always black or white, no matter one's relation to diction, and that disjunct means everything in sustaining an antiblack world.

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 4 4 Sartre on the Jew, Situatedness, and Responsibility full 7c68698a-eb21-436f-ba1d-b6718a1d5d5c https://share.transistor.fm/s/384104e1 A discussion of the second half of Jean-Paul Sartre's Antisemite and Jew, exploring the relationship between the gaze, situatedness, and freedom and responsibility. Sartre is trying to maintain a balance between individual and institutional accounts of racism - that antisemitism is part of the antisemite's belief structure and also part of the infrastructure of the world - while not compromising his absolutism about freedom and responsibility. And so Sartre argues that we are not responsible for our situation, but rather for our relationship to it. No matter our role in forming that situation, we can configure and reconfigure our subjectivity in relation to institutions of hate and racism - resistance, complicity, indifference, and so on. His argument about responsibility is not moralistic, but instead existential: how we relate to our situatedness is constitutive of who and what we are as subjects, and our capacity to adopt a subjectivity of critique and resistance pushes our sense of self toward a transformation, rather than reification, of the world as we know it.

]]> A discussion of the second half of Jean-Paul Sartre's Antisemite and Jew, exploring the relationship between the gaze, situatedness, and freedom and responsibility. Sartre is trying to maintain a balance between individual and institutional accounts of racism - that antisemitism is part of the antisemite's belief structure and also part of the infrastructure of the world - while not compromising his absolutism about freedom and responsibility. And so Sartre argues that we are not responsible for our situation, but rather for our relationship to it. No matter our role in forming that situation, we can configure and reconfigure our subjectivity in relation to institutions of hate and racism - resistance, complicity, indifference, and so on. His argument about responsibility is not moralistic, but instead existential: how we relate to our situatedness is constitutive of who and what we are as subjects, and our capacity to adopt a subjectivity of critique and resistance pushes our sense of self toward a transformation, rather than reification, of the world as we know it.

]]> Mon, 13 Feb 2023 11:18:42 -0800 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1812 A discussion of the second half of Jean-Paul Sartre's Antisemite and Jew, exploring the relationship between the gaze, situatedness, and freedom and responsibility. Sartre is trying to maintain a balance between individual and institutional accounts of racism - that antisemitism is part of the antisemite's belief structure and also part of the infrastructure of the world - while not compromising his absolutism about freedom and responsibility. And so Sartre argues that we are not responsible for our situation, but rather for our relationship to it. No matter our role in forming that situation, we can configure and reconfigure our subjectivity in relation to institutions of hate and racism - resistance, complicity, indifference, and so on. His argument about responsibility is not moralistic, but instead existential: how we relate to our situatedness is constitutive of who and what we are as subjects, and our capacity to adopt a subjectivity of critique and resistance pushes our sense of self toward a transformation, rather than reification, of the world as we know it.

]]> existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 3 3 Sartre, Existentialism, Antisemitism, and the Democrat full a3c39bfe-9e4e-477c-bb47-9a820a91f23f https://share.transistor.fm/s/79510a67 An exploration of the first half of Jean-Paul Sartre's Antisemite and Jew, with attention to the context of the book, how Sartre conceives the existential structure of antisemitic subjectivity, and the limits of "the democrat" or liberal humanism for addressing hate. I am interested here in how Sartre tried to shift European philosophy toward questions of racism and the racial construction of subjectivity, but failed, and yet underscored how little European thought found urgent in such questions. I then turn to the text and outline the meaning of the phrase "if the Jew did not exist, the antisemite would create him." Why is the Jew so important to the antisemite, and to Christian Europe more broadly? And why is the liberal humanist - "the democrat," in Sartre's vocabulary - a failed strategy of redress and critique, ending up, tragically, a reiteration of the same antisemitic values as those embodied in the explicitly antisemitic subject? 

]]> An exploration of the first half of Jean-Paul Sartre's Antisemite and Jew, with attention to the context of the book, how Sartre conceives the existential structure of antisemitic subjectivity, and the limits of "the democrat" or liberal humanism for addressing hate. I am interested here in how Sartre tried to shift European philosophy toward questions of racism and the racial construction of subjectivity, but failed, and yet underscored how little European thought found urgent in such questions. I then turn to the text and outline the meaning of the phrase "if the Jew did not exist, the antisemite would create him." Why is the Jew so important to the antisemite, and to Christian Europe more broadly? And why is the liberal humanist - "the democrat," in Sartre's vocabulary - a failed strategy of redress and critique, ending up, tragically, a reiteration of the same antisemitic values as those embodied in the explicitly antisemitic subject? 

]]> Tue, 07 Feb 2023 14:44:32 -0800 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1623 An exploration of the first half of Jean-Paul Sartre's Antisemite and Jew, with attention to the context of the book, how Sartre conceives the existential structure of antisemitic subjectivity, and the limits of "the democrat" or liberal humanism for addressing hate. An exploration of the first half of Jean-Paul Sartre's Antisemite and Jew, with attention to the context of the book, how Sartre conceives the existential structure of antisemitic subjectivity, and the limits of "the democrat" or liberal humanism for addr existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 2 2 Framing Du Bois as an Existentialist full 8bbe6743-cf3b-45d5-8ca1-8611220fc247 https://share.transistor.fm/s/7a81bf65 Discussion of the first chapter of W.E.B. Du Bois' Souls of Black Folk, framing his work in that chapter as an existential characterization of and response to Black subjectivity in an antiblack world. In particular, I am interested in how we understand critical concepts like "the veil," "double consciousness," and "the color line" emerge from the everyday lived-experience of Black embodied presence to the world - living as the hyphen in "African-American." Du Bois deploys a series of anecdotes that move away from autobiography and toward a full accounting for the structure of Black subjectivity and being as alienated, resistant, and full of beleaguered but also resilient forms of self-assertion. This roots his thinking in existentialist insight and thinking.

]]> Discussion of the first chapter of W.E.B. Du Bois' Souls of Black Folk, framing his work in that chapter as an existential characterization of and response to Black subjectivity in an antiblack world. In particular, I am interested in how we understand critical concepts like "the veil," "double consciousness," and "the color line" emerge from the everyday lived-experience of Black embodied presence to the world - living as the hyphen in "African-American." Du Bois deploys a series of anecdotes that move away from autobiography and toward a full accounting for the structure of Black subjectivity and being as alienated, resistant, and full of beleaguered but also resilient forms of self-assertion. This roots his thinking in existentialist insight and thinking.

]]> Thu, 02 Feb 2023 10:15:18 -0800 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1486 Discussion of the first chapter of W.E.B. Du Bois' Souls of Black Folk, framing his work in that chapter as an existential characterization of and response to Black subjectivity in an antiblack world. Discussion of the first chapter of W.E.B. Du Bois' Souls of Black Folk, framing his work in that chapter as an existential characterization of and response to Black subjectivity in an antiblack world. existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No 1 1 What is Existentialism? And Why "Black" Existentialism? full 76ac8d29-f42c-4f2a-93c4-af862e959916 https://share.transistor.fm/s/e04f2958 What is existentialism? And why append the qualifier "Black" to the title "Black Existentialism"? This first piece sets out the agenda for the course, a formal framework for thinking about the material and its sensibility. The existentialist emphasis on lived-experience and embodied presence to the world introduces, unwittingly for so many European innovators, questions of race, gender, and sexuality into the meaning of existentialist thinking. I try to outline how and why this is the case, making an argument along the way for the salience of existentialism for thinking about the Black experience in its unity and also its diversity.

]]> What is existentialism? And why append the qualifier "Black" to the title "Black Existentialism"? This first piece sets out the agenda for the course, a formal framework for thinking about the material and its sensibility. The existentialist emphasis on lived-experience and embodied presence to the world introduces, unwittingly for so many European innovators, questions of race, gender, and sexuality into the meaning of existentialist thinking. I try to outline how and why this is the case, making an argument along the way for the salience of existentialism for thinking about the Black experience in its unity and also its diversity.

]]> Wed, 01 Feb 2023 12:46:28 -0800 John E. Drabinski John E. Drabinski 1994 A first attempt at a definition of existentialism and why the qualifier "Black" is both necessarily and helpful for understanding the trajectory of the course, the content of the thinking, and the character of philosophy that emerges from Black existentialism. A first attempt at a definition of existentialism and why the qualifier "Black" is both necessarily and helpful for understanding the trajectory of the course, the content of the thinking, and the character of philosophy that emerges from Black existentia existentialism, African American philosophy, Black existentialism, Caribbean philosophy, existentialism in film, existential literature No