A chapter by A. Todd Franklin, professor of philosophy and Africana studies, is included in the new book Black Men from Behind the Veil: Ontological Interrogations edited by George Yancy (Lexington Books, 2021).
The volume is part of the Philosophy of Race Series and it’s been hailed as “both an elegy for those who still can’t breathe and a future of that philosophical logos that starts, with a gasp, in the grasping of that which is disclosed and concealed in those Black bodies behind the veil, and the continuance of the violence that enshrouds them/us.”
Franklin’s chapter “Emmett Till’s Body,” takes as its starting point his earliest and most visceral realization of what it means to be a young Black man in American society. Although many years removed from the actual event, the story of Emmett Till was horrifically brought to life for him by an image he happened upon in his youth.
Detailing the impact that seeing images of Emmett Till’s body had on him in relation to his own racial consciousness, the essay then goes on to articulate 21st century encounters with Emmett Till’s body and analyze both the differing reactions of Black youth and white youth, and what those reactions reveal about the significance of such experiences in relation to on-going efforts to combat anti-Black racism.
