Revisioning Rhetorical Violence in the Afterlife
Abstract
Abstract In this essay, we attend to the rhetorical and spatio-temporal contours of how the urgency to recognize Black life and aid in struggle is detached from a recognition of the deep structural and ontological nature of antiblackness. We center on two seemingly disparate case studies to unpack these phenomena. First, we look at the state lynching of Breonna Taylor and the multiracial coalition that emerged around #sayhername, and second, we turn to the politics and rhetorics of DEI initiatives on college campuses. Guided by scholars writing on Black life, our project asks how we imagine the physicality of violence in this moment in ways that interrupt common frames of both the physical and the moment. We write at the intersection of two larger rhetorical conversations on racialized violence: stoppage and suffocation, and their respective interests in theories of racialized time. We argue that the variants of anti-Black stoppage and suffocation operate on multiple temporal registers of recognition that perform recognition even as they profit from antiblackness. For rhetorical scholars invested in studies of racial violence, the urgency of the moment should serve as a reminder that possibility lies in the inventional, an inventional that requires a disciplined, intentional, and persistent practice and commitment.
- Journal
- Rhetoric & Public Affairs
- Published
- 2022-09-01
- DOI
- 10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.3.0025
- CompPile
- Open Access
- Closed
- Topics
-
- Export
- BibTeX RIS
Citation context
Cited by in this index (2)
-
Kelly (2026)Rhetoric Society Quarterly
-
Izaguirre (2023)Philosophy & Rhetoric
References (0)
No references on file for this article.
Related articles
-
Communication Design Quarterly Mar 2026Review of "Transnational Assemblages: Social Justice and Crisis Communication During Disaster by Sweta Baniya," Baniya, S. (2024). Transnational assemblages: Social justice and crisis communication during disaster. National Council of Teachers of English. ↗Reliance Chekwubechukwu Enwerem
-
Res Rhetorica Jan 2026Review/Recenzja: Nancy Organ. 2024. Data Visualization for People of All Ages. Oxon: CRC Press; and Jen Christiansen. 2023. Building Science Graphics: An Illustrated Guide to Communicating Science Through Diagrams and Visualizations. Oxon: CRC Press ↗Ewa Modrzejewska
-
Pedagogy Oct 2025modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy advanced composition creative writing writing across the curriculum graduate education two-year college service learning teacher development technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions archival research multimodality artificial intelligence literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies literary studies editorial matter
-
Philosophy & Rhetoric Apr 2025Nirvana Tanoukhi; Nicholas Dunn
-
Pedagogy Apr 2025modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism african american rhetorics cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing graduate education two-year college teacher development writing centers technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions digital rhetoric multimodality social media literacy studies race and writing gender and writing community literacy literary studies editorial matter