NEW ESSAY: Black Lives Matter: But to Whom?

We're thrilled to share an extraordinary new work from our Global Senior Fellow Bayo Akomolafe. In many ways, Bayo's piece defies any simple description or summary, but at its most basic, this two-part essay seeks to explore the limits of the Black Lives Matter frame in advancing justice and the possibility for reimagining identities altogether. Bayo does so by asking a number of questions, all of which have no simple answers: Are there limitations to representation, risks to becoming recognized, and troubling impasses with the project of speaking truth to power? Is representation – being given access to spaces of power and enjoying systemic privileges that come along equity – mediated by forces beyond its grammar? In naming Black lives the way we do, what is surfaced and what is lost?
 
By asking these questions, Bayo grasps at an entirely new premise: not just if or how Black lives matter, but how does black matter live?

You can read Part 1 and Part 2 of the essay on our website.