Joshua Myers – Of Black Study
What does Joshua Myers mean by “Black Study
A collective practice of thinking and creating grounded in Black life, not just a formal school subject.
What key concept from Du Bois influences Myers’s understanding of Black thought?
Double consciousness.
What does Wilderson mean by “The Ruse of Analogy
Analogies trick us into treating other oppressions as the same as anti-Blackness, hiding its uniqueness.
What is one key difference between Myers and Wilderson’s approaches to Black existence?
Myers emphasizes creative study and possibility; Wilderson emphasizes structural impossibility and social death.
What modern debates reflect the “limits of analogy”?
Arguments that equate Black Lives Matter with every other rights movement as if the histories and structures are the same.
How does Myers connect “hesitance” to the act of studying Black life?
Hesitance is a pause or refusal to rush into dominant frameworks so we can rethink how we study Black life.
How does “double consciousness” relate to hesitance?
It produces a pause between how Black people see themselves and how the world sees them, creating space for reflection and critique.
Why does Wilderson critique analogies between Black suffering and other struggles?
They flatten real differences and let others claim sameness while erasing Black people’s specific position.
Which author offers more hope for collective liberation?
Joshua Myers.
How can social media misrepresent Black struggle through analogy?
By using quick hashtags and infographics that say “same struggle” and erase the specific history of anti-Black violence.
What critique does Myers make of traditional academic institutions?
They discipline and contain Black thought, turning it into an object of study instead of a liberatory practice.
Why is Du Bois important to modern Black Studies?
He linked history, sociology, and lived Black experience, laying a foundation for Black Studies as serious intellectual work.
How does Afropessimism define “social death”?
Black people are structurally positioned as non-human, excluded from full social and political life no matter their class.
How does “hesitance” contrast with “pessimism” in these texts?
Hesitance is a strategic pause to imagine other futures; pessimism is a claim that the structure itself cannot truly change.
Give an example of “Black Study” in modern protest or art.
Community reading groups on abolition, Black-led podcasts, or protest art that studies and reimagines Black life together.
How does Myers’s vision of “Black Study” differ from mainstream scholarship?
It centers community and everyday Black life and is aimed at collective freedom, not just academic careers.
How do Myers and Du Bois both challenge Western academic norms?
They insist that Black life itself produces theory and use interdisciplinary, politically engaged writing.
What is Wilderson’s critique of multicultural solidarity movements?
They assume everyone shares the same position in the system and build coalitions on false equivalence, often using Black suffering symbolically.
How do both authors critique Western epistemology?
They show that Western knowledge is organized around anti-Blackness and excludes or distorts Black ways of knowing.
How can students apply “hesitance” in their own academic practices?
Pause before accepting texts as neutral, question syllabi, and seek out Black voices and community-based knowledge.
How can “hesitance” be a political or liberatory act, according to Myers?
By choosing not to move the way the world demands, we refuse harmful expectations and open space for new possibilities.
How might Du Bois’s legacy complicate the modern idea of “Black Study
He worked inside elite institutions and state projects, so his work both inspires radical critique and shows limits of working within the system.
How does Wilderson’s argument challenge optimistic liberation narratives?
He suggests the world is built on anti-Blackness, so reform or feel-good coalition politics can’t fully undo it.
Which thinker best reflects reclaiming intellectual autonomy for Black people?
Myers, because “Black Study” centers Black communities deciding what counts as knowledge.
What does this discussion teach us about solidarity across movements?
Solidarity should respect differences and not rely on shallow analogies; it needs specific listening, accountability, and attention to anti-Blackness.