Module: ENGL1855 Race, Writing and Decolonization.
‘Slavery’s legacies are alive in the present.’
Christina Sharpe, The Wake
It is an indisputable fact that slavery’s legacies are prevalent in the present.
Specifically, the legacy of slavery seems to uphold racism and inequality that coexists
in modern society. I will argue that slavery has cultivated the ideology legitimises the
subjugation of Black ethic minority groups by white supremacists. This oppression was
witnessed in 2015, in America; Walter Scott, a Black American, was shot five times in
the back by a white police officer. Moreover, it is possible to argue that the history of
slavery has perpetuated and upheld an unconscious bias towards white people and
white privilege, cementing institutionalised racism firmly in American culture. As
Christina Sharpe argues, ‘living in the wake means living the history and present of
terror, from slavery to the present’.1
In her novel, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being, Sharpe employs the extended
metaphor of ‘the wake’ to pinpoint the repercussive effects of slavery which still persist
in the present (Sharpe, p1). Through using the ‘multiple registers of the wake’ – the
wake of a ship, a funeral wake, coming into consciousness – Sharpe illustrates the
deep-rooted effects of slavery and exposes the prejudice that still lingers, akin to that of
a ‘wake’ (Sharpe, p.20). Sharpe promulgates the idea that ‘in the wake, the past that is
not past reappears, always, to rupture the present’ (Sharpe, p.9). Sharpe is pointing to
the inescapable consequences of slavery which plague the lives of ethnic minorities
who are unable to integrate into society. This links to Sharpe’s idea of ‘Blackness’
which puts forward the idea that ‘Blackness’ cannot be restricted to its historical legacy
but can be seen as a state of being instead (Sharpe, p2).
Moreover, Sharpe seems to draw on her own personal anecdotes to reveal the
oppression and first-hand suffering of Black people as a result of the discriminatory
beliefs instilled by slavery. Arguably, as a piece of autotheory, Sharpe intertwines
theory and philosophy with an autobiographical approach to highlight the anti-
blackness mindset of society and the subsequent overarching feeling of white
supremacy. In particular, the reference to her older brother, Stephen, suffering from
‘malignant mesothelioma’ presents this issue (Sharpe, p.9). Sharpe addresses these
1
Christina Sharpe, ‘The Wake’, in In the Wake: On Blackness and Being, (Duke University Press, 2016).
1
‘Slavery’s legacies are alive in the present.’
Christina Sharpe, The Wake
It is an indisputable fact that slavery’s legacies are prevalent in the present.
Specifically, the legacy of slavery seems to uphold racism and inequality that coexists
in modern society. I will argue that slavery has cultivated the ideology legitimises the
subjugation of Black ethic minority groups by white supremacists. This oppression was
witnessed in 2015, in America; Walter Scott, a Black American, was shot five times in
the back by a white police officer. Moreover, it is possible to argue that the history of
slavery has perpetuated and upheld an unconscious bias towards white people and
white privilege, cementing institutionalised racism firmly in American culture. As
Christina Sharpe argues, ‘living in the wake means living the history and present of
terror, from slavery to the present’.1
In her novel, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being, Sharpe employs the extended
metaphor of ‘the wake’ to pinpoint the repercussive effects of slavery which still persist
in the present (Sharpe, p1). Through using the ‘multiple registers of the wake’ – the
wake of a ship, a funeral wake, coming into consciousness – Sharpe illustrates the
deep-rooted effects of slavery and exposes the prejudice that still lingers, akin to that of
a ‘wake’ (Sharpe, p.20). Sharpe promulgates the idea that ‘in the wake, the past that is
not past reappears, always, to rupture the present’ (Sharpe, p.9). Sharpe is pointing to
the inescapable consequences of slavery which plague the lives of ethnic minorities
who are unable to integrate into society. This links to Sharpe’s idea of ‘Blackness’
which puts forward the idea that ‘Blackness’ cannot be restricted to its historical legacy
but can be seen as a state of being instead (Sharpe, p2).
Moreover, Sharpe seems to draw on her own personal anecdotes to reveal the
oppression and first-hand suffering of Black people as a result of the discriminatory
beliefs instilled by slavery. Arguably, as a piece of autotheory, Sharpe intertwines
theory and philosophy with an autobiographical approach to highlight the anti-
blackness mindset of society and the subsequent overarching feeling of white
supremacy. In particular, the reference to her older brother, Stephen, suffering from
‘malignant mesothelioma’ presents this issue (Sharpe, p.9). Sharpe addresses these
1
Christina Sharpe, ‘The Wake’, in In the Wake: On Blackness and Being, (Duke University Press, 2016).
1
