#blacklove

This edited volume qualifies black love on the basis of black identity. Much of what is experienced of blackness as an identity arises out of a juxtaposition to other races and identities, particularly whiteness. The contributors in this volume resist the idea of black love in reference to whiteness by exposing the hidden toxicities that come with a focus on whiteness. They reflect on intricate and intimate relationship dynamics that arise out of a violent and challenging past between Black women and Black men.

Fierce, bold, and honest, #blacklove: The Intricacies and Intimacies of Romantic Love in Black Relationships explores interior complexities of love contextualized in the lives of black women and men whose most imitate relations are beset by everyday vicissitudes of micro- and macro-racial aggressions. Grounded in psychoanalytic theory as much as channeling James Baldwin’s visionary writings, #blacklove reminds us that eros and its entanglements neither begin nor end in singular overdeterminations of past or present forms of oppression. These rigorously thoughtful case studies will, collectively, make a lasting contribution to practices of family and marriage counseling and psychoanalytic education, as well as generate fresh debates on the anatomy of black love and its futurity.

Tapo Chimbganda is independent scholar and psychoanalytic psychotherapist.