Violence, borderlands and belonging: The matter of Black lives and Others

Abstract

The word “violence” usually brings to mind a harmful, physical act. This paper explores not only physical violence but also structural violence through colonial systems that has constructed the Other and have kept “them” in a perpetual state of marginalization and unbelonging, Through the concept of dispossession, as outlined by Judith Butler and Athena Athanasiou, this paper will focus on Black lives and turn to refugees and migrants crossing to Europe in the so-called refugee crisis to demonstrate the ways necropolitics and necropower, through dehumanization, disposability and death, uphold sovereignty. Although these populations are seemingly very different, both have been violently displaced through forced migration. Moreover, this paper aims to analyze the violence, which can be extended by the media, that currently affects both groups to show the need for humanizing stories that counter the grand narrative of the Other.