ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the continuation of plantation race regimes through the skin of ‘the Black man’ and ‘the chokehold’s’ libidinal economy of white fear-hate. It begins by thinking through racialized libidinal economies and racializing assemblages to show affect’s importance in the location of Black masculine bodies as spaces of white fear-hate with the white gaze of dissection ensuring white feelings of safety and tranquillity. The discussion looks at representation in popular culture, specifically ‘white blackface’, ‘Black blackface’ and ‘the Black comedian’ trope and the white pleasure in their relations of domination and consumption, unpacking other affects in the racialized libidinal economy such as guilt and derision. The analysis of consumption includes thinking through lighter-skin male passing and ‘border bodies’ in The Human Stain (2003) and the Fox television series Prison Break (2005–2017), highlighting Black male passing and border bodies as part of skin colour politics.
