Topics in Political Science

3 units

This course examines the theoretical underpinnings of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Through close engagement with primary documents such as the Movement for Black Lives’s (M4BL) policy platform, we will trace how BLM builds on, reconfigures, and merges various traditions of critique to diagnose and dismantle contemporary structures of anti-Black violence. Since its emergence, BLM and the larger M4BL coalition have articulated an intersectional analysis of anti-Black violence, pointing to the specific ways white supremacy, patriarchy, and racial capitalism (among other structures) affect the United States and the world more generally. By situating BLM’s analyses in the context of Black radical thought and politics, ranging from Black queer feminism to abolition and Black Marxism(s), we will surface the rich historical and political terrain that BLM draws on and contributes to.