This talk will attempt to explore the structural forces that have produced the Black Lives Matter struggle. It will delve into the political economy of the United States, as the core of the world system, to show how its solutions to grave crises emerge through the axes of defunding the social good and funding the security apparatus. Black Lives Matter, then, is not a choice, but a necessary outcome of the dynamic of contemporary policy making.
Vijay Prashad is Professor of International Studies at Trinity College. He is the author of eighteen books, including The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World (2007) and The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South (2013). His most recent book is an edited collection, Letters to Palestine: Writers Respond to War and Occupation (2015), which collects the work of Junot Diaz, Teju Cole, Naomi Shihab Nye, Randa Jarrar and others. He writes regularly for al-Araby al-Jadeed, Frontline, BirGün, The Hindu and AlterNet. He is the Chief Editor at LeftWord Books (Delhi).