Deaths, visibility, and the politics of dissensus at the US-Mexico border

Benjamin Nienass

Alexandra Délano

pp. 287-304

in: Andreas Oberprantacher, Andrei Siclodi (eds), Subjectivation in political theory and contemporary practices, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Abstract

This paper addresses the intended and unintended politicization of bodies of undocumented migrants beyond their death. Border activists in Arizona, California, and Texas have engaged in marches, projections, and collective acts of mourning to publicize the issue of undocumented migrants dying in their attempt to cross the desert. Nienass and Délano argue that these politics of mourning are stagings of dissensus in Jacques Ranciere's sense, as they place these border deaths in the context of state violence and constitute a challenge to existing frames within which we sense someone as publically grievable.