Concrete evidence of enslavement transforms abstract ancestral pain into groundable proof

Evidence

This may sound strange, but I feel so lucky that I have Renty and Delia to fight for. David was speaking to the fact that so many African American descendants of slaves feel the pain of Renty and Delia—but it’s abstract. I can, at the very least, ground it in the daguerreotypes. I have proof: my ancestors were treated inhumanely. I wanted Harvard to restore their dignity once and for all. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 1011

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s reading purpose: the daguerreotypes as legally concrete evidence versus abstract collective harm — property law as the afterlife of slavery. — connects to: The fetishized particular can enslave, while abstraction can liberate — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 205