Abstract

Black affective networks form in evanescent moments when two or more Black people in a white space cluster around a Black feeling and other things. This article is a feminist narrative inquiry into Black affective networks in classrooms on the campuses of Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) in the United States. Authors inhabit dual roles as researchers and study participants in an investigation of affects that percolated in two classrooms, catalyzing the constitution of Black affective networks in those contexts. In the lineage of contemporary Black feminism, authors use beautiful writing as a method with which to narrate stories illustrating the formation of these assemblages. The stories show that these constellations served as locations for the production of counter-hegemonic knowledge of Blackness—that is, perceptual spaces where knowledge of Blackness not as abject but rather as a wellspring of Black excitement, pride, love, and joy was transacted. Ergo, Black affective networks provided Black faculty and students with pathways for temporary escape from the anti-Black violence built into PWIs. Authors pivot from this inquiry on the im/possibility of classrooms in PWIs functioning as safe spaces for Black faculty and students to echo calls for a turn to Black affect theory and to trouble diversity and inclusion discourses in US higher education.

摘要

当两个或更多黑人在白色空间中聚集在黑人情感和其他事物周围时，黑人情感网络就会形成。本文是对美国主要白人机构 (PWI) 校园教室中黑人情感网络的女权主义叙事调查。作者扮演着研究人员和研究参与者的双重角色，参与调查渗透在两个教室中的情感，在这些背景下促进黑人情感网络的构成。在当代黑人女权主义的谱系中，作者使用优美的写作作为叙述这些组合形成的故事的方法。这些故事表明，这些星座是产生反霸权黑暗知识的场所——也就是说，感性的空间，在这里，对黑人的了解不是卑鄙的，而是黑人兴奋、骄傲、爱和喜悦的源泉。因此，黑人情感网络为黑人教师和学生提供了暂时逃离 PWI 中内置的反黑人暴力的途径。作者围绕 PWI 中的教室作为黑人教职员工和学生的安全空间的不可能性/可能性进行了调查，以回应要求转向黑人影响理论并在美国高等教育中扰乱多样性和包容性话语的呼声。