Black Lives Matter and the Return of the Political?
Alejandro De Coss-Corzo |
TEDxBathUniversity
• November 2020
Dr. Alejandro De Coss-Corzo wants to ask whether we can understand the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement as an instance of the ‘return’ of the political – albeit not the only one. By emphasising the profound challenge that the movement poses to histories of nationhood, colonialism, and their present discontents, he wants to argue that Black Lives Matter is a social movement that suggests how collective, profound, and radical politics might be put forward.
The notion of the post-political has been used to represent a historical juncture where liberal democracy, coupled with free market capitalism, are presented as offering the best of all possible economic and political systems. In the post-political moment, neoliberalism is recognised as flawed and problematic, yet change does not materialise. Whilst there is an appearance of dissent and politicisation, dialogue is often carried out in non-committal ways, without serious conflict or division. In the post-political moment, opportunities for collective claims are less and less. All demands, whether related to racism, employment or access to public services are administered in an individual manner. In such a space, theorists of the post-political argue dissent only appears in sudden bursts of violence, without any claim to a meaningful and progressive politics.