Recognizing and saving black lives, recognizing and saving palestinian lives: The power of transnational rhetorics in locating the commonality of liberation struggles

This chapter examines why comparisons between the Black Lives Matter movement and the various international efforts to liberate Palestinians from Israeli occupation are apt and consistent with rhetoric and composition’s focus on transnational and intersectional rhetorics. Both efforts represent attempts to find commonalities in the struggles of oppressed peoples seeking to transcend colonialism, white supremacy, and the oppression of people of color in specific contexts. The slow convergence between Black liberation in the United States and Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation and enclosure seems to come from a felt necessity, a recognition that both movements are working against political forces rooted in racism and neo-colonialism. By simply proclaiming that “Black Lives Matter” one works against the discursive and materially constructed reality that Black lives have historically not mattered in the United States. Black identity extremists then are to be vigilantly guarded against because of the potential threat they pose to state authority and those who represent that authority.