On the Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness

This event was recorded and is available to watch on our YouTube channel. Portions of the audio were released on our podcast.  

To live in a body that is fat and Black is to exist at the margins of a society that creates the conditions for anti-fatness as anti-Blackness. Hyper-policed by state and society, passed over for housing and jobs, and derided and misdiagnosed by medical professionals, fat Black people in the United States are subject to socio-politically sanctioned discrimination, abuse, condescension, and trauma. 
 
Fat people can be legally fired in 49 states for being fat and they’re more likely to experience homelessness. Fat people die at higher rates from misdiagnosis or nontreatment, fat women are more likely to be sexually assaulted, and, at the intersections of fatness, Blackness, disability, and gender, these abuses are exacerbated. 
 
Da’Shaun Harrison—a fat, Black, disabled, and nonbinary trans writer—offers an incisive, fresh, and precise exploration of anti-fatness as anti-Blackness. They foreground the state-sanctioned murders of fat Black men and trans and nonbinary masculine people in historical analysis. From policing, disenfranchisement, to making invisible fat Black men, trans, and nonbinary masculine people, these are some of the most pervasive and insidious ways that anti-fat anti-Blackness shows up in everyday life. 
 
In Da-Shaun's writing and work they take on desirability politics, the limitations of gender, the connection between anti-fatness and the carceral system, as well as the incongruity of “health” and “healthiness” for the Black fat, illustrating the myriad harms of anti-fat anti-Blackness. They offer strategies for dismantling denial, unlearning the cultural programming that tells us “bad,” and destroying the world as we know it, so Black fat people can inhabit a place not built on their subjugation. 

Join Da’Shaun in conversation with Afro-Caribbean photographer, herbalist, and multidisciplinary artist KaliMa Amilak. Hear about Da’Shaun’s latest book Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness, their life and work, and learn how we can all work to dismantle our cultural programming and create real change.

 
Da'Shaun Harrison is a Black trans writer, abolitionist, and community organizer in Atlanta, GA. Da'Shaun currently serves as the Managing Editor of Wear Your Voice Magazine, and is the author of Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness. Da'Shaun is also a public speaker who often leads workshops on Blackness, queerness, gender, fatness, disabilities, and the intersection at which they all meet. Their portfolio and other work can be found on their website: dashaunharrison.com.


KaliMa Amilak is an Afro-Caribbean photographer, business owner, herbalist, and multidisciplinary artist native from Brooklyn, New York. In their experience as a photographer, they have sold and exhibited artwork in various galleries in Brooklyn and the Bay Area, such as BatHaus Gallery, SOMArts, The San Francisco Human Right Commission Center, Ashara Ekundayo Gallery, and The Richmond Arts Center. They have also been published in online publications such as AFROPUNK and Archer Magazine. Through their intentions in art, they are devoted to self-expression and celebration for black queer people sharing their life experiences as a means of healing through empowerment.

 
We are grateful to our Bookstore Partner:   


Marcus Books is the nation’s oldest Black-owned independent bookstore celebrating its 60th year. Marcus Books’ mission is to provide opportunities for Black folks and their allies to celebrate and learn about Black people everywhere.