Black Love

In a 2013 paper exploring Black philosophers' contribution to theorizing the erotic, Anika Simpson pointed out that there is a tacit acceptance among Black lovers (and perhaps Black philosophers alike) that “Black love is dead” (Simpson 2013). For what it's worth, despite the growing popularity1 and importance of the notion of “Black Love” among Black folks inside and outside of the academy, the philosophy of love has not recorded many contributions from Black philosophers on the subject. When Black scholars have concentrated on love, there's an observed tendency to conflate Black love with Black marriage. For example, at the turn of the 20th century, W.E.B. DuBois, E. Franklin Frazier, and others believed that legal monogamous Christian marriage was central to racial uplift for Black folks. More recently, historians Tera Hunter (2017) and Dianne Stewart (2020) have both discussed Black love in marital relationships among Black folks. Suffice it to say that among Black Love scholars there has been a tendency to (a) conflate Black love with monogamous marriage or (b) conflate Black love as being synonymous with romantic love. In my view, however, situating discussions of Black love exclusively within discourses of contemporary legal monogamous marriage provides too narrow a scope for analyzing Black love. America's historical archives often tell a far more complex story, both in ante- and postbellum periods, of Blacks' intimate relationships that often exceeded the dyadic monogamous pairs privileged in the dominant social imagination and legal institutions.2 For example, Blacks forged a range of intimate configurations—some fleeting, some enduring—that do not conform to the norms of romantic exclusivity or marital monogamy. As we see in a case that I discuss later, some postbellum Blacks established multi-partner families in the wake of Emancipation. In other cases, forced separation brought about by the domestic slave trade ruptured, fragmented, and all but destroyed Black families and intimate relations, creating a variety of Black non-monogamous relationships both in the antebellum period and in the wake of Emancipation. Still, the emergence of non-monogamous relational forms in these contexts cannot be reduced to violence alone. While it would be mistaken to treat these as wholly chosen or agentic arrangements, it would be equally mistaken to treat them as devoid of meaning, care, or intimacy. Many such formations emerged in response to the dislocations imposed on Black intimacy, and their endurance might reflect a range of adaptations to conditions that rendered traditional monogamous relationships inaccessible or untenable for those marked Black, prompting careful minds to ask not only what Black love is beyond marriage and monogamy, but also whether non-monogamous intimacies are not aberrations, but are integral to how Black love has been forged or sustained. To highlight these historical non-monogamies is not to romanticize coercion, but to underscore how the architecture of Black love has long been shaped by it, rather than by the sovereigntist logic of monogamy. From short-lived partnerships born of choice or necessity to enduring multi-partner family arrangements, these configurations complicate the idea that monogamy has ever universally been the default or aspirational standard of Black love. Framing my coming arguments in this way enables us to approach non-monogamy as a structural feature of Black intimate life—one that endures in part because it has been, at times, imposed, and at other times navigated under conditions that foreclose state-recognized forms of relationality. Drawing on Hunter's notion of the third flesh this article suggests that non-monogamy is consistent with (and perhaps partly constitutive of) Black love which I understand as a notion that indexes intimate caring relationships among Black relata not excluding relationships of erotic love and sex. For Hunter, the third flesh is a reconfiguring of the idea that through marriage “two become one flesh” as it indexes the superior relationship of master to slave in the antebellum United States. While for Hunter, the third flesh was formalized through the legal enslavement of Blacks in America, I argue that legal restrictions ensuring marriage's monogamous conditions buttress the surveilling power and authoritative functionality of the third flesh in contemporary American society and ultimately stifle the formation and appreciation of Black love in all of its forms. This article also makes another argument. If social constructionists about love are correct then the unique history that gives rise to Black love distinguishes it from colonial or otherwise whitestreamed philosophies of romantic love that center a loving subject who is a sovereign and autonomous individual. Black love and “romantic love” were shaped differently by racism and America's institutions and practices. In other words, Black love and romantic love are distinct existents in our social ontological landscape. This writing, then, advances not only an account of Black love, but also a methodological claim about how love ought to be theorized. Mainstream philosophical discussions of love often on and from the and conditions that are for how and intimacy. 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intimacies of the I that these are Black lovers in a social in which Black love has been from This is not to conflate forced non-monogamous relational with contemporary non-monogamous relationships which are but rather it is to say that these historical conditions have non-monogamy an enduring feature of Black love. conditions have shaped and non-monogamy as a of Black relational the that Blacks non-monogamous not only under but also as of and in the of forced This and To at be the one the complicate how we understand whether or not intimate relationship in was in the social of antebellum America, not for of intimate the other our of the also the that monogamous and for Blacks in were also forced and to both Hunter and as their for the of we do to of the of the of not being to non-monogamy but that those in often their for intimate relationships monogamous or by and If we are to the of non-monogamous intimate relationships among Blacks in on the that were forced or we also be to the of some of its monogamous might by out that the structural conditions under which Black intimacies are not as the by and under these is might we of and perhaps more about the of intimacies that were by the in While I this is far too narrow a scope for love because our and our are a part of a social with and institutions that our with and of love, not non-monogamy in the antebellum period was a of in this of non-monogamies an of Blacks a range of relationships in response to these When to intimate on a that from their and them in more and short-lived of were complex and to those them through of among these intimacies was what being by and those who were to claim of a often as a of being or were lovers and not Black relata in a of and partnerships their as and on their for caring of enslavement the of a of relationships for relationships with and as long as I it was our to be from other and it was our is not born that as to as this I of and my of my I do love the love to another and I that I and to as of my loving as ever love and other in the for In some Black such by to to the not as but as from to to be with and to through the domestic slave was to in a relationship how of in would not say the with their the by the of for among Black folks in America, historical for these believed that that from monogamy marriage Black and to become in which Black as one a with or who have claim to the who has the of who otherwise would become a on the the monogamous were forced Black intimacies not by a to Black families and romantic but to the Black and would on the and were for Black as In the to and the of and of Black folks with or more to only one to the of this by the such with more than one or such with more than one or to with the of this or be for the of or or and and Suffice it to the of these Black as Black historians for in their to or chosen or by non-monogamous Black intimacies and family are what discussions of Black family formation and the of Black intimacies we is that Black non-monogamous families and intimacies are on both of the I that the from Stewart for the our of Black love in America, what Tera Hunter the third flesh is constitutive of at consistent with third flesh is a of of the idea in marriage and become one flesh because it indexes the superior relationship of third Black non-monogamous intimate relationships and were subject to and by superior master or monogamous Black intimacies Many Black intimacies were fragmented, and marriage and relationships for them were not an but an and by the superior relationship of master to slave I Hunter's flesh” to to the of the master the intimate and of and it indexes a structural master as an third in Black relationships with legal and power to these In some the third flesh with the of slave and in other it is with the or about Black intimate relationships in the wake of Emancipation. the third flesh for Hunter not only of coercion, but also the social in which Black relationship from or the of of Hunter's in the of its as a structural of in the of many Black families and intimate whether monogamous or under conditions in which legal and not be the third for to the and under which all Black intimacies are a that the and of Black relational from the This but is not to forced at the of slave also relationships Blacks that have or but were outside of the of the This not that Blacks all or that not love, care, and it that the within which those relational was shaped by a of to and their claim is not that the third flesh that those marked Black in the postbellum or contemporary are of I argue that the logic of the third flesh in the of its legal forms have been its and This be in the that marital Black and the of relationships to what forms of Black are or In the the third flesh in the of the but in the and that to and forms of Black intimate This the and family that non-monogamous or Black relationships as or I not that is universally for but rather that the conditions under which is and are by the of the third that and While Hunter's notion of the third flesh on its as formalized through legal and the I that its logic not with Emancipation. the of on forms that to Black intimacies under a of If the third flesh as the Black intimacies through legal and marital its postbellum emerged through the of monogamous marriage as the only of intimate relationality. that Black intimacies to the of the through marital as the third flesh which Black relationships were or of legal marital to do this by a Black them as or then, is not an of the third flesh but its in the wake of as a of and intimate relationship of that monogamy and marriage the third flesh from the of Black as a way of that Black intimate formations or As I Blacks a range of relationships in response to the of the third flesh in their When to intimate on a that from their and them in more and short-lived of were complex and to those them through of Hunter in to some not as as to of the third flesh which the marriage in its third flesh is also a for the of the of Black intimacies the by such as the or at Black for Hunter, the of the third flesh was from the of Black intimate relationships the I that it was but the of surveilling Black was by In the for was For example, in the case of United the that intimacies were among the and of and were exclusively a feature of the of and United legal the as that was for of but for of When in this a the power that the United has to its of marriage to it has not a case on marriage the the of this writing, the is as the marriage. the structural of the third in my view, non-monogamy as consistent with (and partly constitutive of) Black love as Black intimacies have not out of the them by marriage. the third flesh has for contemporary Black love and the that we among Black about Black love as a of “romantic love” among Black is Black love and romantic love are Many philosophers of romantic love in the from and on that treat romantic love an a at and (and philosophers about romantic love in its from the of how this is it is among As of were being the of how about love also to brought with it a of and being among that it was not the that to the idea that romantic love be the for marriage and that be to their on the of love the idea of choice central in about romantic of choice in relationships the of who are and love on and many philosophical of romantic love center on a subject that is and to the other in to be of to but equally to third flesh Black love and Black lovers such history of racism in marriage and its has way to a social and a social that the of as a on a that of this Black have been all for example, that “Black are not a of “Black and but are that are distinct from rise to a of that from the of their and of being both Black and it to Black love, we cannot to “romantic love” and it that of Black love is not is distinct from the notion of romantic love that has to be in philosophical To be my is that the dominant of romantic it in of the the philosophy of a of conditions that are not to about and of are under and and are to Blacks under the of When I say that Black love and romantic love are I that the historical and of Black institutions the and social a of relational that cannot be under traditional of romantic love. my with claim that the of and is under conditions of and whether or to Blacks in that their I this to contemporary relational that Black love is not romantic love under but a distinct of shaped by and This is not to say that Black love cannot or but rather that it be through a of that are to its unique formation under conditions of In the social non-monogamous relationships are among Black a by and the in non-monogamous relationships and monogamous among Black folks in their as one “Black and other are to be to non-monogamous the of Black love in its as romantic love among Black which is to Black to both and the to the that Black folks to or of Black love that are and we also of our which is to say we for has pointed out that and have enduring such as from and from their and their by their for what in our social and landscape. an account of Black love that of it as the of intimate caring relationships exclusively relata who are marked Black, and relationships of erotic love and sex. Black love in this way us the to a variety of intimate relationships among Black folks that from and and those that are In we Black folks to on the relationships in and their of and for and their of both and this way of about Black love also the that relationships of erotic love and that to marriage are more than intimate relationships that do not these and their formation and for I to a on the relationship marital Black and what Stewart Black Love or and that romantic love, and marriage or for Blacks in of as Stewart are not with we might ask marriage for In my view, non-monogamy is consistent with (and partly constitutive of) Black love. When Black love scholars on theorizing Black love only in say marriage the of marital for example, the that Black love be To be I not that we cannot Black love among Black intimate relationships that are dyadic or I that of Black love that those Black intimacies that are and are at and at the of Black love. the of non-monogamy with Black love might in the of more what Black as Black us about Black love. For example, we might how about our and and the of our to the to Black intimacies In the of marital Black non-monogamies are with a of Black love scholars are not to discuss and otherwise non-monogamies are When Black non-monogamies in the of scholars of Black love and are often as the of Black intimacies that are dyadic and intimacies that be and are for Black love. however, in my view, Black love is with of them what might we about Black love we Black non-monogamous intimacies as of might these from of non-monogamous Black intimacies our of what Black love is and the to which it is If we are on of Black and marriage are a part of that then the of Black love us to about how the and and we be in about the for and marriage's monogamous is non-monogamy and have some way on these In other I have pointed out how marriage with for how it has been of monogamous marriage's history of and violence at the of and families on these be in and for In this paper I that Black love is with non-monogamy and that it is distinct from the notion of romantic love. there is a of in philosophy and that on the of Black love. Black love has I how some conflate Black love with marriage or of romantic love as love and Black love have distinct a subject that is sovereign and the and are by the third the of the third the superior relationship of master to as Black intimacies were being in America, I that it was but the of surveilling Black was by a romantic love and Black love. third flesh non-monogamy as consistent with (and partly constitutive of) Black love. of as some Black scholars are not with we might ask marriage for the non-monogamous of Black love might to the a from Dianne Black are in American society and the that are to I for the that American society is and we might ask and how these Black and in some cases, the formation of Black intimacies that from and such as Black Black lovers for these historical and these for the of however, be for another of