Is the World a Captivity
Anti-Blackness, Death, and Freedom in Two Distant Strangers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30962/e-comps.3278Keywords:
Anti-blackness, Black social death, Racial hatred, Images of anti-blacknessAbstract
This essay produces a reflection on the concept of anti-blackness, from the philosophical perspective of Afropessimism. In view of the images of police violence and death presented in the short film Two Distant Strangers, we highlight how anti-black racial hatred produces regimes of representation that contribute to the naturalization of the view of racial violence. We identified a parallel between the scenes in the film, the images of George Floyd's death in 2020, and other cases of racial hatred with widespread media coverage (images of anti-blackness), indicating the existence of power dynamics based on Black social death as an existential condition, thus forging a conception of the world as a great contemporary captivity.
Downloads
References
BBC NEWS. Caso George Floyd: morte de homem negro filmado com policial branco com joelhos em seu pescoço causa indignação nos EUA. G1, on-line, 27 maio 2020. Disponível em: https://g1.globo.com/mundo/noticia/2020/05/27/caso-george-floyd-morte-de-homem-negro-filmado-com-policial-branco-com-joelhos-em-seu-pescoco-causa-indignacao-nos-eua.ghtml. Acesso em: 15 set. 2025.
BRASILEIRO, C. V. Quando o sol aqui não mais brilhar: a falência da negritude. São Paulo: n-1 edições, 2022.
DU BOUIS, W. E. B.; HARTMAN, S. O cometa + O fim da supremacia branca. Tradução de André Capilé e Floresta. São Paulo: Fósforo, 2021.
FANON, F. Pele negra, máscaras brancas. Tradução de Renato da Silveira. Salvador: EDUFBA, 2008.
FERREIRA, F. A. S. MAAFA: Políticas de morte no contexto da guerra racial de alta intensidade na Bahia contemporânea. 2020. 352 f. Tese (Doutorado) – Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, 2020.
G1; GLOBO NEWS. Ação de policial que pisou no pescoço de mulher negra não faz parte de procedimento, diz PM. G1, on-line, 13 jul. 2020. Disponível em: https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2020/07/13/acao-de-policial-que-pisou-no-pescoco-de-mulher-negra-nao-faz-parte-de-procedimento-diz-pm.ghtml. Acesso em: 15 set. 2025.
HALL, S. Cultura e representação. Tradução de Daniel Miranda e William Oliveira. Rio de Janeiro: Editora PUC-Rio; Apicuri, 2016.
HARTMAN, S. O fim da supremacia branca. In: DU BOIS, W. E. B.; HARTMAN, S. O cometa + O fim da supremacia branca. Tradução de André Capilé e Floresta. São Paulo: Fósforo, 2021. p. 44-81.
KILOMBA, G. Memórias da plantação: episódios de racismo cotidiano. Tradução de Jess Oliveira. Rio de Janeiro: Cobogó, 2019.
MBEMBE, A. Crítica da razão negra. Tradução de Marta Lança. Lisboa: Antígona, 2014.
MBEMBE, A. Necropolítica. Artes & Ensaios, Rio de Janeiro [on-line], n. 32, p. 122-151, 2016. Disponível em: https://revistas.ufrj.br/index.php/ae/article/view/8993/7169. Acesso em: 24 jan. 2024.
MOMBAÇA, J. Não vão nos matar agora. Rio de Janeiro: Cobogó, 2021.
MORAIS, E. Homem negro morre após ser imobilizado por agentes de segurança do metrô. Correio 24 Horas, on-line, 19 jan. 2024. Disponível em: https://www.correio24horas.com.br/minha-bahia/homem-negro-morre-apos-ser-imobilizado-por-agentes-da-ccr- metro-0124. Acesso em: 15 set. 2025.
SEXTON, J. The Social Life of the Social Death: On Afro Pessimism and Black Optimism. InTensions, Toronto, n. 5, p. 1-47, 2011. Disponível em: https://intensions.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/intensions/article/view/37359. Acesso em: 24 jan. 2024.
SEXTON, J. Afropessimism: The Unclear Word. Rhizomes, on-line, v. 29, n. 1, p. 1-21, 2016. Disponível em: https://rhizomes.net/issue29/pdf/sexton.pdf. Acesso em: 5 jan. 2026.
SILVA, D. F. A dívida impagável. Tradução de Mariana dos Santos e Nicolau Gayão. São Paulo: Casa do Povo, 2019.
TWO STRANGERS [Dois Estranhos]. Direção de Travon Free e Martin Desmond Roe. Roteiro de Travon Free. Reino Unido: New Art Productions, 2021. (29 min.).
VARGAS, J. H. C. Racismo não dá conta: antinegritude, a dinâmica ontológica e social definidora da modernidade. Em Pauta – Teoria Social e Realidade Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro, v. 18, n. 45, p. 16-26, 2020. Disponível em: https://www.e-publicacoes.uerj.br/revistaempauta/article/view/47201. Acesso em: 24 jan. 2024.
WEST, C. Questão de raça. Tradução de Laura Teixeira Motta. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1994.
WILDERSON III, F. B. Afropessimismo. Tradução de Rogério W. Galindo e Rosiane Correia de Freitas. São Paulo: Todavia, 2021.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Julio César Sanches
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The submission of originals to this journal implies the transfer, by the authors, of the printed and digital publication rights. The copyrights for the published articles belong to the author, with the rights of the journal over the first publication. The authors can only use the same results in other publications, clearly indicating this journal as the source of the original publication. Because we are an open-access journal, the free-of-charge,educational, scientific, and non-commercial use of the papers is allowed, as long as the source is cited.
Authorship
Any person who has effectively participated in the conception of the study, the development of the experimental part, the analysis and interpretation of data and the final wording, is considered as an author. By submitting an article for publication in E-Compós Journal, the author agrees with the following terms: 1. The author keeps the rights on the article, but its publication in the journal automatically implies the full and exclusive disposal of the copyright rights for the first edition, without payment. 2. The ideas and opinions expressed in the article are the sole responsibility of the author, not necessarily reflecting the views of the journal. 3. After the first publication, the author is authorized to take additional contracts, independent of the journal, for the dissemination of the paper by other means (e.g. when publishing in the institutional repository or as a book chapter), provided that the complete citation of the original publication. 4. The author of a published article is allowed and is stimulated to distribute his work online, always with the proper citation of the first edition.
Conflicts of interest and research ethics
If the developed research or the publication of the article may raise doubts as to potential conflicts of interest, the author should declare, in a final note, that no links to funding bodies have been omitted, as well as to commercial or political institutions. Similarly, the institution to which the author is bound should be mentioned, as well as others that may have collaborated in the execution of the study, evidencing that there are no conflicts of interest with the result already presented. It is also necessary to inform that the interviews and experiences involving human beings have obeyed the established ethical procedures for scientific research. The names and addresses informed in this journal will be used exclusively for the services provided by this publication, not made available for other purposes or to third parties. The copyrights belong exclusively to the authors. The licensing rights used by the journal consist in the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license: sharing (copying and distribution of the material in any media or format) and adaptation (remix, transformation and creation of material from licensed content for any purposes, including commercial) are permitted.
