Overview

Bodies out of Place asserts that anti-Black racism is not better than it used to be; it is just performed in more-nuanced ways. Barbara Harris Combs argues that racism is dynamic, so new theories are needed to help expose it. The Bodies-out-of-Place (BOP) theory she advances in the book offers such a corrective lens. Interrogating several recent racialized events—the Central Park birding incident, the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, sleeping while Black occurrences, and others—Combs demonstrates how the underlying belief that undergirds each encounter is a false presumption that Black bodies in certain contexts are out of place. Within these examples she illustrates how, even amid professions to color-blindness, fixed attitudes about where Black bodies belong, in what positions, at what time, and with whom still predominate. Combs describes a long historical pattern of White pushback against Black advancement and illuminates how each of the various forms of pushback is aimed at social control and regulation of Black bodies. She describes overt and covert attempts to push Black bodies back into their presumed place in U.S. society. While the pushback takes many forms, each works to paint a narrative to justify, rationalize, and excuse continuing violence against Black bodies. Equally important, Combs celebrates the resilient Black agency that has resisted this subjugation.

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9780820362366

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Reviews

Bodies out of Place resonates with a fervor and sense of urgency that is fully appropriate to this historical moment and has the potential to speak meaningfully to both general public readers and academic specialists about the causes and consequences of the Movement for Black Lives.--George Lipsitz author of How Racism Takes Place

Bodies out of Place resonates with a fervor and sense of urgency that is fully appropriate to this historical moment and has the potential to speak meaningfully to both general public readers and academic specialists about the causes and consequences of the Movement for Black Lives. -- George Lipsitz * author of How Racism Takes Place * With brilliant insight and gorgeous prose, Bodies out of Place develops one of the most important contemporary theories of anti-blackness. Combs weaves together social science on racism, place, embodiment, and violence along with symbolic interactionism to seamlessly explain how Black skin is weaponized by White supremacy. This groundbreaking book shows that anti-black racism operates, foundationally, through violent insistence on regulating, abusing, and killing Black bodies in purportedly White spaces. This is cutting edge social scientific theorizing, infused with a deep love for Blackness and a profound commitment to Black liberation. -- Ellen Berrey * coauthor of Rights on Trial: How Workplace Discrimination Law Perpetuates Inequality * Ever insightful and original, scholar-teacher Barbara Harris Combs shows in painful detail the anti-Blackness central to white racial framing and oppression for centuries. Fearful white framing racializes all spaces, constantly viewing Black Americans as out of place, criminal, dangerous, and most ignorantly, not really American. A brilliant and necessary read, especially for non-Black Americans. -- Joe Feagin * author of The White Racial Frame * If you are a race scholar or a steward of Black Studies, I highly recommend you consider this text for your future courses. Finally, thanks to David Brunsma and David G. Embrick for launching the Sociology of Race and Ethnicity Series with University of Georgia Press. This is an important outlet for sociologists who study race, racialization, and racism to place their most serious work. -- Karida L. Brown * American Sociological Association * At turns both conversational and educational, this text will benefit any scholar of American history, African American history, African American theory, race and ethnicity, or gender studies. Likewise, it will engage a general audience and presents a meaningful entry in contemporary sociological theory -- E.C. Aiken * CHOICE * ...the hard-hitting book Bodies Out of Place: Theorizing Anti-blackness in U.S. Society, by Barbara Harris Combs, shocks the reader by pointing out how anti-Black racism is still enacted within society with a level of nuanced perfection. . . . The contribution of this work is to elevate the discussion of race relations by asking the reader to pause and question whether they have internalized and reinforced their specific position in a segregated population, which includes but is not limited to racial and gendered patterns of inequality. -- Kevin A. Young * American Sociological Association * While Barbara Harris Combs draws a gloomy picture of the present-day racial situation in US society, she affirms that Black resistance to anti-Black racism is ongoing, as it has persisted through each phase of US history...Departing from a sinister reality check, she nevertheless refuses to give up hope in her struggle for a more just and equal society... Well done! A must read for Black and White. -- Etienne Boumans * Journal of American Culture *

Ever insightful and original, scholar-teacher Barbara Harris Combs shows in painful detail the anti-Blackness central to white racial framing and oppression for centuries. Fearful white framing racializes all spaces, constantly viewing Black Americans as out of place, criminal, dangerous, and most ignorantly, not really American. A brilliant and necessary read, especially for non-Black Americans.--Joe Feagin author of The White Racial Frame With brilliant insight and gorgeous prose, Bodies out of Place develops one of the most important contemporary theories of anti-blackness. Combs weaves together social science on racism, place, embodiment, and violence along with symbolic interactionism to seamlessly explain how Black skin is weaponized by White supremacy. This groundbreaking book shows that anti-black racism operates, foundationally, through violent insistence on regulating, abusing, and killing Black bodies in purportedly White spaces. This is cutting edge social scientific theorizing, infused with a deep love for Blackness and a profound commitment to Black liberation.--Ellen Berrey coauthor of Rights on Trial: How Workplace Discrimination Law Perpetuates Inequality Bodies out of Place resonates with a fervor and sense of urgency that is fully appropriate to this historical moment and has the potential to speak meaningfully to both general public readers and academic specialists about the causes and consequences of the Movement for Black Lives.--George Lipsitz author of How Racism Takes Place

Author Information

BARBARA HARRIS COMBS is chair and professor of sociology at Kennesaw State University. She is the author of From Selma to Montgomery: The Long March to Freedom.

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