A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None

paperback, 130 pages

Published Nov. 2, 2018 by Univ Of Minnesota Press.

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(3 reviews)

No geology is neutral, writes Kathryn Yusoff. Tracing the color line of the Anthropocene, A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None examines how the grammar of geology is foundational to establishing the extractive economies of subjective life and the earth under colonialism and slavery. Yusoff initiates a transdisciplinary conversation between black feminist theory, geography, and the earth sciences, addressing the politics of the Anthropocene within the context of race, materiality, deep time, and the afterlives of geology.

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An attempt at beginning a deeply complex story

Deciding when the anthropocene started is something that social theorists mulled over for many years before eventually deciding on the early 1600s. Kathryn Yusoff offers a new way to consider this beginning, by considering beginnings more deeply. Each chapter proffers another start-point for colonial violence, and each time it is both valid and invalid. The book draws from different theorists, prominently Moten and Harney, in a well considered and short study of colonial violence toward nonwhite people. Brilliantly written, compelling, and very sad.

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