ABSTRACT
Taking oppression as a multistable phenomenon is to say that it admits of an open range of ‘topographic’ possibilities. Oppression in a given society will have multiple ways one can understand it, and these multiple ways will have certain ‘apodicticity.’ That is to say, one’s certitude that oppression simply is a certain way originates from such and such place, or can be understood according to such and such orientation, can be experientially fulfilled time and again. Black women's social theory has engaged in a variety of ways of studying and articulating oppression and making their experiences visible. A microscopic view would only allow people to see the lines as a design challenge for depicting the undulation of a flame; however, a macroscopic view that acknowledges the logics of elimination that fuel settler colonialism and the attempted annihilation of Indigenous people creates a different topographic understanding of the design problem.
