black philosopher George Yancey on how his white gay student reassured himself during a homophobic attack with “at least I’m not black.” When nonblack people want to reassure themselves, they just remember they are not black. That does profound psychological work for them.

Here’s a main takeaway from Afropessimism: any real justice for Black people in this world would be the complete economic, social, psychic, spiritual undoing of the world as we know it. And that the existing tools we have for social transformation cannot readily meet the task.