Reorientations: an examination of Black Lives Matter and the neoliberal spectacle

#BlackLivesMatter was born as a movement that sought to call attention to how black lives, and in turn life itself, are situated within an economy of value. My project explores the ways in which the Black Lives Matter network functions as both a byproduct and site of resistance to the rise of neoliberalism and its reliance upon the masking of histories, like the Black Panther Party. As Grace Hong advocates, this historical silencing erases how neoliberalism's operations situate life within hierarchies of valuation. As such, I seek to highlight, and in turn re-orient, our understanding of neoliberalism's history by illustrating how neoliberal projects also operate along bio-political and affective lines of valuation. Such an examination allows us to re-imagine the workings of neoliberalism and the possibilities for life both within and beyond the neoliberal paradigm.