To Build a Black Future: The Radical Politics of Joy, Pain, and Care

To Build a Black Future explores the spirit and significance of the Black Lives Matter movement, offering a revelatory account of a new political culture responsive to pain, suffused with joy, and premised on care.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 12 September 2023
Publisher: Princeton University Press

When #BlackLivesMatter emerged in 2013, it sparked the most significant Black-led mobilization since the civil rights and Black power eras. Today, the hashtag that started as a rallying cry has become just one manifestation of a radical shift in Black politics, protest, and political thought.

To Build a Black Future delves into the essence and significance of this insurgency, providing a revealing account of a new political culture that is responsive to pain, filled with joy, and grounded in care. This transformative political culture emerges from the centuries-long arc of Black rebellion, a tradition that traces back to the Black slave.

Author and activist Christopher Paul Harris takes readers on a journey inside the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) to chart the dynamic trajectory of Black politics and thought from the Middle Passage to the present historical moment. With meticulous attention to the social forces that fuel Black struggle and the contradictions that arise within it, Harris illustrates how M4BL gives voice to an abolitionist praxis that spans past, present, and future, outlining a political project that is both inwardly focused on the Black community and outwardly challenging the world.

This visionary and provocative book is a must-read for our times, as it reveals how the radical politics of joy, pain, and care, in stark contrast to liberal political thought, can create a Black future that transcends ideology and expands the boundaries of our political imagination.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691219066