Atmospheres and Activism: Rethinking Solidarity Politics

Abstract How and why does left solidarity fail women of color? Given the rising tide of far right extremism, this is an urgent question for social movement actors who wish to build sustainable coalitions for progressive politics. In this paper, we examine the dynamics of solidarity via a novel approach to the study of “atmospheres.” While scholars of emotions have identified the importance of atmospheres in social and political life, they are unable to answer their own important question: What do atmospheres make possible politically? We bring together the concept of racialized solidarity with the sensuous inequalities of activist spaces. We identify visual, sonic, somatic, and emotional inequalities that work together to produce what we name as the racialized atmospherics of activist spaces, in which the mood is systematically mobilized against women of color.