The most hated tree in America: negative difference, the White imaginary, and the Bradford pear

Abstract

Against claims that we now live in a post-racial era, this article argues that panic over so-called “invasive species” illustrates how negative conceptions of difference are built into the White imaginary. We argue that the calls to exterminate the infamous Bradford pear tree across the US function as a kind of nanoracism, or what Achilles Mbembe defines as the organization of everyday affairs according to us–them logics that further justify overt racist practices. Performing a close reading of the discourse about the tree, we show how xenophobia and anti-Blackness lurk in a debate about non-human biota, specifically by normalizing inferential racist language that attacks difference, expressing fears of racial impurity, and calling for exterminating the Other.