Black Lives

The chapter opens with two distinct, yet interconnected, events: the fall of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol, United Kingdom, and the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, United States. It asks: what lines of connection and dissonance mark these events? The remainder of the chapter is organised into three sections. The first, ‘Black Geographies and Spatial Entanglements’, focuses on Black spatial imaginaries and radical place-making practices; formations of racial capital; and the challenge to white epistemologies, pedagogy and practice. The second, ‘Black Lives Matter and Transnational Entanglements’, demonstrates the diversity of Black Geographies. Here, we explore transnational examples of Black Lives Matter activism, extending the oeuvre of Black Geographies. The third, ‘Environmental Racism, Human and Non-Human Entanglements’, discusses the concept of environmental racism and its ‘more-than-human’ impact on Black, minoritised and Indigenous communities around the globe. This is further illustrated through a case account of water poisoning in Flint, Michigan, United States, highlighting the assemblage between neoliberal capital, whiteness, humans, water, lead, and corporate decision-making. It is argued that these entanglements form part of the racially marked, interconnected and interdependent world in which we live.