“Haunted Me The Most,” Black Feminist Hauntology and the Black Lives Matter Movement

• In Event: Hauntings

Abstract

This paper uses Black feminist hauntology to explore how Black people of marginalized genders (Black MaGes) engage in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and are informed by hauntings shaped by unresolved historical traumas and racial violence. Drawing on 20 semi-structured interviews with Black MaGes who protested between 2017 and 2021, I analyze how the refusal to forget is a key practice for Black MaGes, expressed in three distinct ways: refusal to forget violence, refusal to forget personal encounters, and refusal to forget community. I find that these hauntings drive protest participation beyond immediate grievances, but also linger long after protest participation.

Author

• Jalia L. Joseph, James Madison University