Where do Black lives matter? Coloniality, police violence, and epistemic injustices during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa and the U.S.

Abstract

Objective: South Africa and the United States face complex histories of antiblack policing, invigorated by increased state control during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This article explores the murders of Collins Khosa in South Africa and George Floyd in the U.S., to theorize the comparative differences in global attention given to both men. Method: A critical literature review was conducted of media statements by (South) African political organizations;(inter)national psychology organizations;and the emerging academic archive focusing on both murders. Data were analyzed using a qualitative summative content analysis approach. Results: African institutions ignored Collins Khosa's death until only after George Floyd's murder shone a spotlight on police brutality. International organizations ignored Collins Khosa's death altogether. These differences are framed as overlapping but divergent examples of epistemic injustice, that is, practices of exclusion and silencing in knowledge production. Both men were victims of testimonial injustice linked to individual believability, but Collins Khosa's geopolitical location placed him at greater risk of hermeneutical injustices too, linked to social intelligibility. This article argues that these are outcomes of both coloniality and epistemologies of ignorance that give disproportionate moral and political attention to the U.S. Conclusions: Epistemic injustice highlights practices of silencing that marginalize black people's lived experiences. However, during COVID-19, the death of George Floyd inadvertently displaced the global gaze toward black American lives-reinforcing geopolitical power imbalances. The Northern-centric locus of the #BlackLivesMatter (BLM) movement influenced a transnational social justice agenda in a manner than South African activism cannot. Despite its urgency, BLM's epistemic orientation may not generate hermeneutical resources against police violence in Global South contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)