Abstract:
How does using the French term for jet lag, décalage, to theorize the gap in time and space that structures diasporic articulation encourage us to think of the period between the dawn of formal decolonization and the present as not merely a structure but an atmosphere of disenchantment: a reminder that diasporic bodies inhabit tactile economies, data streams, born of emotional and financial trajectories that make it impossible to anticipate the ingenious forms of belonging--and exquisite strategies of exclusion--they will ultimately help to erect, however unwittingly?
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported on 29 January 2007 that a pilot had discovered the body of an as-yet-unidentified stow-away aboard a jet that was refueling in Los Angeles on its way back to London: "The victim has not been named but a spokesman for the FBI said he was a young black male." More than likely he was from the African continent, since that is where the aircraft had been most recently. What sort of work is the term black asked to do here?
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