This article examines self-defense as an inherently spatial phenomenon that evidences an assumed right to the individual self and the creation and occupation of space. I argue that self-defense and its claims to space are conceptually and historically denied to Black diasporic populations, as gratuitous violence and the assumption of Black aspatiality void Black claims to self and space. I draw on U.S. laws and legal decisions from the antebellum era through the present to show how anti-Blackness has manifested itself in the legal realm through repeated legal denials of Black self-defense. I argue that at the core of this prohibition of Black self-defense is a societal need to preserve gratuitous violence and aspatiality as tenets of modern humanity. I further argue that, despite this long-standing prohibition, organized Black self-defense has remained important to Black social and political movements throughout the history of the United States. Examining Black movements from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, I show how different movements have used self-defense to realize larger goals and establish and protect spaces in which Black life is fostered.

本文将自卫视为一种固有的空间现象，它证明了对个人自我的假定权利以及对空间的创造和占用。我认为，自卫及其对空间的主张在概念上和历史上都被黑人散居人口所否认，因为无端的暴力和对黑人非空间性的假设使黑人对自我和空间的主张无效。我借鉴了从战前时代到现在的美国法律和法律决定，以展示反黑人是如何通过反复合法地否认黑人自卫而在法律领域表现出来的。我认为，这种禁止黑人自卫的核心是社会需要将无端暴力和非空间化作为现代人性的信条。我进一步争辩说，尽管有这个长期的禁令，在整个美国历史上，有组织的黑人自卫对黑人社会和政治运动仍然很重要。通过审视 19 世纪和 20 世纪的黑人运动，我展示了不同的运动如何利用自卫来实现更大的目标，并建立和保护培养黑人生活的空间。