(Re-)Documenting the Black Body in America

In this essay, I will look at the (un)documentation of gestures of black resistance in Congressional Record, and what the absence of that documentation means for the future of acknowledging black bodies in America. On December 1, 2014, Representatives Hakeem Jeffries, Sheila Jackson Lee, Yvette Clarke, and Al Green performed the gesture “hands up, don’t shoot” on the floor of the US House of Representatives. Not just for a line on a CV, but for Antwon Rose, Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, and the sons of so many mothers that fight like hell to protect their children. [...]we reach a place of compassion for the black body and the experiences that plague disenfranchised communities, no one is safe.