State of emergency: Examining Black Death and life under the neoliberal state

On August 17, 2015, 12 Black organizers launched a hunger strike to keep Walter Dyett High School open in Chicago’s historically Black Bronzeville neighborhood. It proceeded for 34 days until organizers surmised that their deaths would not be deemed significant to their political leaders. Considering this outcome, this article asks: how does Black Death emerge in a neoliberal city? I argue that the deaths of Black people—especially the poor—are inherent to the neoliberal systems within which many Black residents live. Moreover, I argue that Black Death operates not as a subtext for the struggling infrastructures and state-based frameworks in densely populated metropolitan areas but instead as an ever-present reality of the neoliberal city. I place the Dyett hunger strike in context with the 1995 heat wave in Chicago and the broader history of machine politics in the city. By theorizing Black Death in the neoliberal city, I offer a critical theoretical contribution to the neoliberal urban politics and policy literature. I posit that Black Death rarely moves governments toward restorative action to redress economic and social disparities in Black and poor communities. Rather, it is often Black and poor people themselves who resist the neoliberal turn.