Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss

Hooker (political science, Brown Univ.; Theorizing Race in the Americas) looks at political loss through the lens of racial issues in the United States. She argues that white people are not only used to winning but also unaccustomed to accepting political loss and act out through grievance and domination when they experience it. In contrast, Black people are expected to bear the majority of political losses and tend to channel their grief through activism. Using the Obama and Trump presidencies as key examples, the book explores the ways in which white grievance has manifested violence and how the struggles and suffering of Black people are often negatively portrayed in the media. The author asserts that Black grief seemingly must be expressed within specific parameters for it to be deemed acceptable. Hooker’s analysis effectively engages with many theorists and figures, and she argues that all people should learn to live with losses, especially in the United States, where that civic capacity is unequally distributed.