The Art Of Anti-Racism

Leading scholars grounded in a range of disciplines examine the intersection of anti-racist activism, aesthetics, and contemporary political theory.

The Art of Anti-Racism offers a sustained theoretical examination of the aesthetic dimensions of anti-racist struggle. It argues that political theory itself can be understood as an art―a dynamic process of claim-making and critically analyzing and expanding our ethical, moral and strategic visions. Politics, likewise, is the art of assembling messages, narratives, symbols, emotions, and affects in public and through collective institutions and structures. Art, in turn, can serve as a critique of existing political realities while gesturing toward a horizon beyond, reimagining the boundaries of the politically possible. Through its expressive capacity, art dramatizes subjectivity, experience, and aspirations, embodying the contestation that is central to democratic politics. Given these intersections, contemporary political theory offers invaluable resources for engaging with the aesthetics of anti-racist political thought, practice, and culture. The contributors to this volume explore the following questions: How might various accounts of power and resistance be brought to bear on evaluating the often-unquantifiable political effects of creative anti-racist interventions? What insights can political theory provide to strengthen ties between anti-racist art and broader movement aims? How might art itself be reimagined and reconstructed to align with anti-racist praxis?

Alix L. Olson is Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality at Emory University (Oxford College) as well as an internationally recognized spoken word artist. Her most recent book is The Ends of Resistance: Making and Unmaking Democracy. Alex Zamalin is Professor of Africana Studies and Political Science at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. He is the author of numerous books, including Counterculture: The Story of America from Bohemia to Hip-Hop.