
Black Paper: Writing in a Dark Time (Berlin Family Lectures)

Chapter 1 of Ways of Seeing by John Berger
ways-of-seeing.com
There is a photograph coming at you every few seconds, and hype is the lingua franca. It has become hard to stand still, wrapped in the glory of a single image, as the original viewers of old paintings used to do. The flood of images has increased our access to wonders and at the same time lessened our sense of wonder.
Teju Cole • Known and Strange Things
At this moment, we are unequivocally confronted with the need to reimagine our humanity and what it means to be living organisms sharing the planet with many other organisms, some living, some not. This is nothing new.
However, at this moment, we can plainly see how black, brown, queer and disabled bodies are devalued; how people who threaten the co
... See moreStephanie Dinkins • Afro-Now-Ism
But what one “means” is neither important nor relevant. It is not necessary that you believe that the officer who choked Eric Garner set out that day to destroy a body. All you need to understand is that the officer carries with him the power of the American state and the weight of an American legacy, and they necessitate that of the bodies destroy
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