Blackness as a Universal Claim: Holocaust Heritage, Noncitizen Futures, and Black Power in Berlin (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520382190)

In this bold and provocative book, Damani J. Partridge examines the possibilities and limits of a universalized Black politics. Young people in Germany of Turkish, Arab, and African descent use claims of Blackness to hold states and other institutions accountable for their everyday struggle. Partridge tracks how these youth invoke the expressions of Black Power, acting out the medal-podium salute from the 1968 Olympics, proclaiming "I am Malcolm X," expressing mutual struggle with Muhammad Ali and Spike Lee, and standing with raised and clenched fists next to Angela Davis. Partridge also documents the demands by public-school teachers, federal-program leaders, and politicians that young immigrants account for the global persistence of anti-Semitism as part of the German state's commitment to antigenocidal education. He uses these stories to interrogate the relationships among European Enlightenment, Holocaust memory, and Black futures, showing how noncitizens work to reshape their everyday lives. In doing so, he demonstrates how the concept of Blackness energizes, inspires, and makes possible participation beyond national belonging for immigrants, refugees, Black people, and other People of Color.


Author: Damani J. Partridge
ISBN-10: 0520382196
ISBN-13: 9780520382190
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 12/06/2022
Pages: 238
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 07/01/2023