ABSTRACT
Interrogating the claim that the Anthropocene is the result of “human activity,” this chapter takes up Jarius Grove’s concept of the “Eurocene” to trace how each of the three popular “golden spikes” of the Anthropocene’s beginning—the Columbian Exchange, the Industrial Revolution, and the Great Acceleration—is made possible by Black chattel slavery and Native American genocide. To this end, this chapter argues that despite the proliferation of terms for the Anthropocene, Grove’s concept of the Eurocene provides us with the opportunity to examine the true cause and origin of Anthropocene: The Human as a racialized position.
