Professor Juliet Hooker “Why Erica Garner Also Couldn’t Breathe: Maternal Grief and Black Politics”

What are the costs of black activism? Which citizens are asked to perform the necessary democratic labor to redress racial injustice? This talk, which is drawn from a larger book project, Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss (Princeton University Press, 2023), explores the key role that political mourning has historically played in Black politics, of which the contemporary M4BL is the latest iteration. The talk highlights the history of black maternal grieving to explore the costs and injustices that accompany the instrumentalization of black mourning as a democratic resource.

Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building, Room A17