Selected Publications

Trayvon Revisited: Race, Fear, and Affect in the Death of Trayvon Martin

Sociological Forum

This theoretical project intervenes in the debates surrounding the death of Trayvon Martin by starting with fear, the center of Martin's encounter with his killer, George Zimmerman. We deploy the work of Sara Ahmed in order to argue that fear, rather than residing positively in an individual, works as an affective economy that opens up past histories of association. Ahmed's work allows us to move beyond the question of whether or not Zimmerman was consciously racist and instead consider how fear is animated by racist histories of association. We argue that the affective charge of these racist histories accomplishes three interrelated things. First, it allows Zimmerman to frame Martin as dangerous as he calls 911 to report Martin's suspicious presence, an act that comes to constitute Zimmerman's fear. Second, it allows for Martin to be seized epistemologically and ontologically by Zimmerman and killed. Last, it makes Martin's death a functional necessity of Zimmerman's defense, making it challenging to leverage any claim for the injustice of Martin's death.

We Can't Breathe!

Friends Journal

"The history of racism and its contemporary manifestations routinely remind me of just how cheap Black life is in this country and how little protection the boys’ good grades and athletic accolades could afford them should they get pulled over. Too often, in the face of a state-sponsored murder of a Black American, we point to the victim’s college aspirations, recent promotion at work, or community involvement, as if these accomplishments could somehow give just appraisal of the value of their lives, only to have their killers go unindicted. “No crime,” says the grand jury. The idea of losing any one of these three boys to the thresher of White supremacy at the hands of law enforcement was soul-shattering."

Doing The Work: Anti-Racist Teaching and Community Building in the Era of Black Lives Matter

Westtown School ABAR Blog

"Social media has made us all ambassadors of our own personal brands, curating expertly tailored feeds to project an ideal self to the world. Some of us retweet passages from Ibram X. Kendi and post pictures of 'ACAB' graffiti onto Instagram in an effort—conscious or not—to drive traffic to and generate interactions with our profiles. The clout chase is both real and intoxicating. And yet posting a black square does not an anti-racist make. Ending racism will require a radical transformation of our material conditions, and in this regard social media on its own is a woefully insufficient tool. Robust and lasting advancements in anti-racist work happen in the frictive interstices where communities are built and sustained. This demands more of all of us than a really punchy meme."