AN ESSAY FOR EZRA RACIAL TERROR I N AMERI CA GRANT FARRED An Essay for Ezra Thinking Theory Grant Farred, Series Editor Glissant and the Middle Passage: Philosophy, Beginning, Abyss John E. Drabinski An Essay for Ezra: Racial Terror in America Grant Farred Curating as Ethics Jean- Paul Martinon Fates of the Performative: From the Linguistic Turn to the New Materialism Jeffrey T. Nealon AN ESSAY FOR EZRA RACIAL TERROR IN AMERICA Grant Farred Thinking Theory University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London The University of Minnesota Press gratefully acknowledges financial support for the publication of this series from Cornell University. Frontispiece: Self-portrait by Ezra Farred, age 8. Portions of the text are adapted from “The Terror of Trump: Through the Body of a Child— An Essay for Ezra,” Journal of British Cultural Studies 25, no. 1 (2018): 11– 23. Every effort was made to obtain permission to reprint material in this book. If any proper acknowledgment has not been included here, we encourage copyright holders to notify the publisher. Copyright 2021 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401- 2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu ISBN 978-1-5179-1179-9 (hc) ISBN 978-1-5179-1180-5 (pb) A Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper The University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator and employer. 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This essay is dedicated to my son, Ezra Glynn Juffer Farred. With love, Nip, for you, always. It is necessary to live in terms of terror. — Alexandre Kojève, Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the “Phenomenology of Spirit” Because, for man to be redeemed from revenge— that is for me the bridge to the highest hope, and a rainbow after long storms. — Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra