Becoming Human: Matter and Meaning in an Antiblack World

The normative definitions of human (and humanity) and animal (and animality) are most often linked to and underscored by Western philosophical and scientific views. Zakiyyah Iman Jack son’s Becoming Human: Mat ter and Meaning in an Antiblack World centralizes the question of these views, emphasizing that a rupture of these foundations might be the way forward in understanding the larger fields of humanity and animality, as well as their links to the fields of black studies, ecopolitics and biopolitics, posthumanism, animal studies, material culture, and gender and sexuality studies. Jackson takes the reader through arguments relating to these fields, illustrating how the understandings of these fields are based on antiblackness. This illustration is especially highlighted with regard to the animalization of black(ened) people, where Jackson shows that the animalization then is reliant on notions like black female flesh.1 Jackson’s aims for this book are high and the scope of the book is extremely wide, covering cultural production from the African diaspora across continents and time frames. Through this wide reach, Jackson manages to make extremely nuanced and complicated arguments regarding bestialization, animalization, and the idea of humanity and its links to black(ened) society. Ultimately, this monograph expresses foundational thoughts in novel ways, questioning their ontologies, and conveying the way forward through which to think about these ideas.