The Black Atlantic

Synopsis

British historian, sociologist, and cultural studies scholar Paul Gilroy, one of the preeminent theorists of race and racism in the world today, revisits the key themes he explored in his acclaimed 1993 book The Black Atlantic: Modernity & Double Consciousness, a landmark work in the study of diasporas and Black cultural identity.

In the film, Gilroy argues against both essentialist and anti-essentialist views of blackness, rejecting ethnocentrism and nationalism on the one hand and ahistorical postmodernism on the other. In their place, he offers the transnational concept of the "Black Atlantic" – a fusion of Black cultures that transcends nationality and ethnicity while remaining deeply rooted in experience and memory. The result is a vision of modern Black cultural identity that’s never simply African, American, British, or Caribbean alone, but instead the hybrid and highly contingent product of a shared diasporic history – a history that begins with the slave trade, develops into a distinctly modern transatlantic culture, and is shaped as much by the "routes" Black people travelled and endured as the geographical "roots" they inhabited.

Seamlessly ranging from history and geography to aesthetics, pop culture, and beyond, Gilroy showcases the groundbreaking music, art, and ideas that simultaneously forged and disseminated Black transatlantic culture, from the artistry of Jimi Hendrix performances and the genre-busting innovations of reggae, rap, and grime, to the discipline-defying intellectual work of W. E. B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, Stuart Hall, bell hooks, and others. As he riffs on themes he first developed decades ago, Gilroy not only challenges essentialist and absolutist ideas about race, ethnicity, nation, and modernity. He also speaks directly to the culture wars roiling today’s political and academic scene, casting fresh light on contemporary debates around issues of race, racism, ethnocentrism, ethno-nationalism, postcolonialism, intersectionality, cultural appropriation, humanism, modernism, and more.

Richly illustrated and culled from incisive interviews with Gilroy conducted by cultural studies scholar and MEF Executive Director Sut Jhally, The Black Atlantic is a highly accessible yet thought-provoking introduction to Gilroy’s transformative work, invaluable for courses in cultural studies, sociology, history, philosophy, Black studies, ethnomusicology, critical geography, anthropology, literary studies, and more.

Release Date:2024

Duration:40 min.

ISBN:978-1-944024-93-2

Subtitles:English

Trailers

Watch the trailer

Filmmaker Credits

Director

Sut Jhally

Camera & Sound

Sut Jhally

Editors

Sut Jhally & Jason Young

Transcription

Sahara Razani

Media Collection

Jason Young

Research

Nii Kotei Nikoi

Filmmaker Biographies

Paul Gilroy

Creator

Paul Gilroy is one of the foremost theorists of race and racism working and teaching in the world today. He is Professor of Humanities and founding Director of the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation at University College London (UCL), and the author of foundational and highly influential books such as There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack (1987), The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (1993), Against Race (2000), Postcolonial Melancholia (2005), and Darker Than Blue (2010), in addition to numerous articles, essays, and other critical interventions. Over the course of his career, Gilroy has transformed thinking across disciplines, from Ethnic Studies, British and American Literature, African American Studies, Black British Studies, and Trans-Atlantic History to Critical Race Theory and Post-Colonial theory. He has also contributed to and shaped thinking on Afro-Modernity, aesthetic practices, diasporic poetics and practices, and sound and image worlds. In 2019, Gilroy was awarded the prestigious Holberg Prize, given to a person who has made outstanding contributions to research in the arts, humanities, social science, the law or theology. Gilroy was described by the awarding committee as “one of the most challenging and inventive figures in contemporary scholarship … who remains fearlessly outspoken on matters of race and racism … [and] continues to challenge racialized thinking and to assert the possibilities of alternative models of living together.”

Resources: Downloads and Related Links

Downloads:

Transcript

Praise

"Paul Gilroy’s 1993 book was a game-changer that instigated a quiet revolution across the humanities and social sciences by opening the categories of race and nation to a dynamic conception of diaspora in which Blackness is globally networked to multiple histories and geographies. Over three decades on, this lively video interview shows how Gilroy’s approach to cultural production gives us a robust lens for understanding new forms of expressive resistance as well as the neo-nationalism that dominates our contemporary moment. With rousing clarity, Gilroy speaks to urgent issues of social justice that reveal him to be one of the most original thinkers of our time, offering a planetary outlook that is not only an indispensable resource for activists worldwide but which also never loses sight of our potential to create future possibilities for a new ‘ecology of belonging.’"

— Kobena Mercer, Professor of Art History and Humanities, Bard College

“Gilroy’s reflections on The Black Atlantic three decades after its initial publication resonate across and help deepen our collective understanding of the global African Diaspora. That is, with inspiring clarity, he brilliantly expresses the complexity and flow of black agency that is helping us continue his work not only in the Atlantic but also reevaluate the ways in which blackness infuses the ancient Mediterranean and early modern Indian Ocean worlds. The documentary perfectly complements a reading of his book, whether for the first or the latest time."

— Omar H. Ali
Professor at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Author of Malik Ambar: Power and Slavery across the Indian Ocean

"Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic was an intellectual event of considerable importance when it was first published in 1993. It offered a paradigm-shifting intervention that sought to alter the grounds of identity and belonging on which Black cultural-political solidarities could be thought and enacted, and thus sought to alter the very idea of the vocation of a critical Black intellectual. The book carried out its project through a double conceptual maneuver: on the one hand, it distanced itself from the anachronistic Black nationalism that continued to summon its votaries to a single and singular idea of Blackness; and on the other, it expressed its reservations about the theory-wise anti-essentialism that abandoned any commitment to grounded anti-racist politics. Against these rival positions, Gilroy advanced another path, an “anti-anti-essentialism,” that aimed, in one direction, to deconstruct the ways in which racism constructs its hegemonic categories (rather than the other way round), and in another, to assemble the contextual terms for a grounded yet open-ended politics of culture. Invoking the sea as a motif and the ship as a mobile figure of Black trans-Atlantic connection, Gilroy pried open conceptual space for a Black cosmopolitanism shaped by the “routes” more so than the “roots” of identity and belonging. Thirty years later, in his splendid documentary, Sut Jhally provokes Gilroy to reflect on the making of the argument that animates The Black Atlantic. And in a nuanced and poignant and discerning way, Gilroy reiterates the journey out of which the book was composed, the intellectuals who inspired him, and reaffirms his commitment to the planetary humanism that began to take shape in this book. In a moment of renewed modes of Black cultural-political exclusivism, the value of Gilroy’s intervention remains salient."

— David Scott
Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University

"In this video, Paul Gilroy reveals the impulses behind writing the pioneering book The Black Atlantic. He looks back on how the book has influenced the global discussion of Blackness, the mutation and re-articulation of culture, the politics of knowledge, and the roles of public intellectuals. I highly recommend it."

— Kwok Pui-lan
Author of Postcolonial Politics and Theology

"Published in 1993, Paul Gilroy's The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness initiated debates that have become central to the decolonizing project of academia and larger social consciousness today, primary amongst which is fronting the exercise of engaging with differences, for instance, through the genre of autobiographic writings and everyday exchanges without tying racial hierarchies into unchangeable categories. In Sut Jhally's accessible filmed interview, Gilroy's work finds a new audience as the writer answers key questions about the book's premise, theoretical legacy, and contemporary repercussions. The interview is intelligent about the book's humanistic and ecological position, which prefers to see people's movement through routes rather than roots. This opens debates on belonging, politics, and aspirations beyond narrow nationalist boundaries. The filmed interview is excellent for placing the book in contemporary debates on racism, cultural appropriation, and identity as Gilroy outlines his vision of moving beyond race in the future and the messy present to accommodate the chaotic nature of human encounters without seeing every appropriation as stealing. Still, as long as there is accountability, the interexchanges between cultures are organic. This interview will speak to students, scholars, and the public who might want to revisit the book's contribution and those who have yet to pick up this masterpiece. Thirty years after publication, Jhally's filmed interview is a fitting tribute to a book that has shaped academic debates for decades and Gilroy's undeniable heritage of courageous thinking. It is a primer of sorts on living with differences and the contemporary complexities of climate migration, an ever-evolving diaspora, and how to not let our identities limit our potential to work together in solidarity."

— Maitrayee Deka
Senior Lecturer in Sociology at University of Essex

"Paul Gilroy reflects on the central themes of The Black Atlantic with brilliant clarity. His view of culture as a ‘travelling phenomenon’ is directly linked both to the work of his Black intellectual antecedents such as Richard Wright, CLR James, Franz Fanon, James Baldwin and Stuart Hall but also to the creativity of key black musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley whose genius transcended any national identity. Gilroy’s view of culture as mutable and plastic is perfectly exemplified in his analysis of hip hop – perhaps the ultimate hybridized, digitalized, globalized cultural form of the 21st century. As a European intellectual and a Black Londoner, Gilroy challenges the dominance of American categories of racial identity. His anti-essentialist, anti-nationalist view of culture as fundamentally mercurial is more important and relevant today than ever."

— Alex Seago
Professor of Cultural Studies at Richmond American University London

"This concise yet deeply rich short film is a welcome companion to Paul Gilroy’s seminal 1993 The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Over the course of a captivating 38 minutes, Gilroy answers a series of questions that explain, contextualize, and reflect upon his cultural history of global Blackness — evolving and diverse cultures that gleefully defy political boundaries and White expectations. Like his stunning prose, Gilroy’s conversational discussion of The Black Atlantic combines sophisticated theory and impressive erudition with culturally relevant and accessible examples. He effortlessly shifts from considerations of Intersectionality and Critical Race Theory to a serious analysis of Reggae, Hip Hop, and Grime as diverse expressions of the Blackness in the Atlantic world. While I’ve always been a fan of his writing style, listening to him speak is an absolute delight. This simple film captures Gilroy’s warmth, humor, and enthusiasm as he thoughtfully walks us through the development of his influential theoretical constructions and how they relate to the real-world experiences of everyday Black folk. My highest compliment is that this film makes me regret never having been a student of Paul Gilroy."

— Michael G. Vann, Professor of History at California State University, Sacramento