Precarity is a word we don’t use enough. It is defined as a state of insecurity or persistent uncertainty. It is usually used in reference to income insecurity and economic inequality.
But social scientists also talk about social precarity
But social scientists also talk about social precarity
Judith Butler wrote, “Precarity designates that politically induced condition in which certain populations suffer from failing social and economic networks of support and become differentially exposed to injury, violence, and death.”
Social scientists do tend to drain their words of urgency.
But think of that phrase "differentially exposed to injury, violence, and death.”
To be Black in America is to be in a precarious position, to be “differentially exposed to injury, violence, or death.”
To be Black in America is to be in a precarious position, to be “differentially exposed to injury, violence, or death.”
This is social precarity, a marginalization of Black lives, an assumption that they are less “grievable” to borrow another idea from Butler who said
“Precisely because a living being may die, it is necessary to care for that being so that it may live. Only under conditions in which the loss would matter does the value of the life appear. Thus, grievability is a presupposition for the life that matters.”
So, do Black Lives Matter when people pose on Facebook recreating George’s Floyd’s murder with a knee to the neck or when Zimmerman can sell the gun he murdered Trayvon Martin with for $250,000. Are their lives grievable?
Why didn't all of America grieve Elijah McClain or Tamir Rice? Why aren't we all grieving Breonna Taylor?
If we cannot grieve the grievous loss of innocents murdered with impunity are we still human?
If we cannot grieve the grievous loss of innocents murdered with impunity are we still human?
I would be interested in thoughts on this idea of the precarity of Blackness in America. There is so much research on precarity, trauma, and PTSD - and on failed environments which is what any honest person would assess our country.
Most of the research is on economic precarity or the precarity of war and survival as refugees. But here in this country, we have a large sector of our citizenry who know, no matter how rich or famous or successful they may be, they still are at risk when encountering police.
Isn't this a "failed environment" and isn't Blackness precarious in an environment where structural and cultural racism keeps them always at risk?
