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Winner of the Wesley-Logan Book Prize in African Diaspora History from the American Historical Association (AHA)
Winner of the 2024 Paul E. Lovejoy Book Prize from the Journal of Global Slavery Winner of the Scholars of Color First Book Award from Duke University Press In The Color Black, Beeta Baghoolizadeh traces the twin processes of enslavement and erasure of Black people in Iran during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She illustrates how geopolitical changes and technological advancements in the nineteenth century made enslaved East Africans uniquely visible in their servitude in wealthy and elite Iranian households. During this time, Blackness, Africanness, and enslavement became intertwined—and interchangeable—in Iranian imaginations. After the end of slavery in 1929, the implementation of abolition involved an active process of erasure on a national scale, such that a collective amnesia regarding slavery and racism persists today. The erasure of enslavement resulted in the erasure of Black Iranians as well. Baghoolizadeh draws on photographs, architecture, theater, circus acts, newspapers, films, and more to document how the politics of visibility framed discussions around enslavement and abolition during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this way, Baghoolizadeh makes visible the people and histories that were erased from Iran and its diaspora. |
Praise for The Color Black
In this pathbreaking study, Beeta Baghoolizadeh weaves together a social history of slavery in Iran; a feminist analysis of modern Iranian households and their racial underpinnings; a gendered reading of state policy on emancipation; and an intervention into the study of slavery and its afterlives. The Color Black is a tour de force of research and a beautiful and brilliant contribution to multiple fields.” — Sarah Gualtieri, author of Arab Routes: Pathways to Syrian California
Decentering the dominant lenses in Iranian studies, Beeta Baghoolizadeh advances a new understanding of Iran by showing how its modern construction of history was built upon the erasure of Black Iranians. Rigorously argued, ethically principled, and elegantly written, The Color Black is poised to be one of the most provocative and important new books in Iranian studies and Middle East studies.” — Neda Maghbouleh, author of The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian Americans and the Everyday Politics of Race
Listen to conversations about The Color Black
Beeta Baghoolizadeh and Che Gossett discuss The Color Black on FQT Podcast (Gender Jawn)
Beeta Baghoolizadeh and Belle Cheves discuss The Color Black on Ajam Media Collective