To Exist is to Resist

Hardcover, 272 pages

Published June 14, 2019 by Pluto Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-7453-3948-1

This book brings together activists, artists and scholars of colour to show how Black feminism and Afrofeminism are being practiced in Europe today, exploring their differing social positions in various countries, and how they organise and mobilise to imagine a Black feminist Europe.

Deeply aware that they are constructed as 'Others' living in a racialised and hierarchical continent, the contibutors explore gender, class, sexuality and legal status to show that they are both invisible - presumed to be absent from and irrelevant to European societies - and hyper-visible - assumed to be passive and sexualised, angry and irrational.

Through imagining a future outside the neocolonial frames and practices of contemporary Europe, this book explores a variety of critical spaces including motherhood and the home, friendships and intimate relationships, activism and community, and literature, dance and film.

This book brings together activists, artists and scholars of colour to show how Black feminism and Afrofeminism are being practiced in Europe today, exploring their differing social positions in various countries, and how they organise and mobilise to imagine a Black feminist Europe.

Deeply aware that they are constructed as 'Others' living in a racialised and hierarchical continent, the contibutors explore gender, class, sexuality and legal status to show that they are both invisible - presumed to be absent from and irrelevant to European societies - and hyper-visible - assumed to be passive and sexualised, angry and irrational.

Through imagining a future outside the neocolonial frames and practices of contemporary Europe, this book explores a variety of critical spaces including motherhood and the home, friendships and intimate relationships, activism and community, and literature, dance and film.

2 editions

kab reviewed To Exist is to Resist by Akwugo Emejulu

To Exist is to Resist

4 stars

Highlights:

"Those Who Fight For Us Without Us Are Against Us: Afrofeminist Activism in France" by Cyn Awori Othieno and Annette Davis on behalf of Mwasi Collectif In France self-labelled antiracist organisations along with the status quo cry 'reverse racism' not just when trying to shut down Black feminist events but anytime experiences of racism are publicly discussed, anytime whiteness is not invisibilised as 'normal,' when we do not tiptoe around centuries of violent history swept under the carpet

"Cruel Ironies: The Afterlife of Black Womxn’s Intervention" by Cruel Ironies Collective Confronting the appropriation of Black feminist thought while non-Black women of colour and dominant groups silence Black women in academia

"Creating a Space Within the German Academy" by Melody Howse Speaking up against and excavating anthropology's colonialist roots

"A Manifesto for Survival" by Sadiah Qureshi Surviving and transforming academia

"But Some of Us Are …

Highlights:

"Those Who Fight For Us Without Us Are Against Us: Afrofeminist Activism in France" by Cyn Awori Othieno and Annette Davis on behalf of Mwasi Collectif In France self-labelled antiracist organisations along with the status quo cry 'reverse racism' not just when trying to shut down Black feminist events but anytime experiences of racism are publicly discussed, anytime whiteness is not invisibilised as 'normal,' when we do not tiptoe around centuries of violent history swept under the carpet

"Cruel Ironies: The Afterlife of Black Womxn’s Intervention" by Cruel Ironies Collective Confronting the appropriation of Black feminist thought while non-Black women of colour and dominant groups silence Black women in academia

"Creating a Space Within the German Academy" by Melody Howse Speaking up against and excavating anthropology's colonialist roots

"A Manifesto for Survival" by Sadiah Qureshi Surviving and transforming academia

"But Some of Us Are Tired: Black Women’s ‘Personal Feminist Essays’ in the Digital Sphere" by Kesiena Boom The commodification of Black women's pain in white-controlled publishing

Note: Claire Heuchan (Sister Outrider) is anti-trans