Epilogue: Twilight of the Icons

Chapter 7 “Epilogue: Twilight of the Icons” offers a brief epilogue concerning Black iconoclasm as a proposal of complete disorder which unfurls space, gaps, and fractures in the conceptual foundations of Western Man. These fractures are never pure; that they will not be recaptured by power is never guaranteed. In most cases, invention both produces radical possibilities for refusal at the same time it craves the reactive epistemological closure of mimicry. It is the seemingly irreconcilable tension between these two conflicting forces that this book grapples with. Just as Black radical disruptions produce fractures in the anti-Black world, Western Man reactively deploys racial icons to repair those fractures. Thus, embracing a proposal of complete disorder means admitting that, despite our best efforts, it is often hard to discern icons from iconoclasm though not totally impossible. Black iconoclasm reflects a liminal orientation toward ritual transgression and discernment which performatively manifests differently according to context. This means thinking Black radical disruption as an active process that cannot be reduced to singular acts of negation or moments of realization that the anti-Black world is unethical. Instead, Black iconoclasm reflects a continual meditation on Black radical excess and iconographic residues to evolve our theories and practices.