Pedagogy of the flesh
| Date | 01 November 2016 |
| Published date | 01 November 2016 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1362480616659810 |
| Author | Laurence Ralph |
| Subject Matter | Review essays |
Theoretical Criminology
2016, Vol. 20(4) 512 –518
© The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/1362480616659810
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Pedagogy of the flesh
Alexander Weheliye, Habeas Viscus: Racializing Assemblages, Biopolitics, and Black Feminist Theories
of the Human
Reviewed by: Laurence Ralph, Harvard University
While I was reviewing Alexander Weheliye’s, Habeas Viscus, a crime took place on my
campus.
On November 18, in the middle of the night, someone (or, perhaps, a group of peo-
ple), snuck into Harvard’s law school and defaced the portraits of black faculty members
by placing black tape across their faces. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, a contentious debate
has emerged regarding how the Harvard Law School should understand the nature of this
crime.
After the incident, Randall Kennedy, an esteemed black law school professor, wrote
an op-ed in the New York Times about the episode. He said that the tape placed over his
photograph did not bother him because he did not know who the culprits were, nor could
he know their intentions. Instead, he worried about the fact that administrators at Harvard,
and the public more generally, might take the demands of a small percentage of Harvard
law school students too seriously. These students, he continued, have the tendency to
“exaggerate the scope of racism” and thereby diminish the gains that “their forebears
have already achieved”.1
659810TCR0010.1177/1362480616659810Theoretical CriminologyBook review
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