Event

2020 is a moment when we find an increased awareness of systemic racism and police brutality growing across demographic lines during the Presidency of Donald J. Trump, whose race baiting and divisiveness has sought to characterize political dissent as anarchy, delegitimizing one of the bedrock values of U.S. citizenship. But 2020 also marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Toni Morrison’s first novel, The Bluest Eye, which told the story of a little girl whose deepest desire was to have blue eyes. Readers of Morrison’s novel were invited to reflect on the impact white supremacy could exert on Black lives. In this talk Herman Beavers attempts to parse what it means to read Morrison’s novel in the age of neoliberal democracy and autocratic leadership.