2021/9/26, Sun.

　愛撫される皮膚は、生体の防御壁でも、存在者のたんなる表面でもない。皮膚は、見えるものと見えないもののあいだの隔たり、ほとんど透明な隔たりである。〔中略〕〈近さ〉の測りがたさは、認識と志向性において主観と客観が入りこむ接合とは区別される。知られたものの開示と露呈を超えて、法外な現前と、この現前からの退引が、不意に驚くべくもたがいに交替する。退引は現前の否定ではなく、現前のたんなる潜在でもない。つまり、想起によって、現勢化によって回収可能なものではない。退引は他性なのであって、相関者との共時性において総合へと集約されるような現在あるいは過去とは、共通の尺度を欠いている。〈近さ〉の関係は、まさにそれゆえに離散的なものなのである。愛撫にあっては、そこにあるものが、そこにはないものであるかのように、皮膚が自己じしんの退引の痕跡であるかのように、探しもとめられる。愛撫とは、それ以上ではありえないというほどにそこにあるものを、不在として索めつづける憔悴なのである（143 f./171 f.）
　（熊野純彦『レヴィナス――移ろいゆくものへの視線』（岩波現代文庫、二〇一七年）、248; 第Ⅱ部、第三章「主体の綻び／反転する時間」; 『存在するとはべつのしかたで』より）


Riots are not new in Minneapolis, either. In 1967 the entire north side rioted after police let white assailants throw bottles into a Black crowd and beat a young Black man. The 1967 riot was met with a massive police response and the National Guard was called out. The Twin Cities-based organization MPD150 has been doing historical work on the history of racial violence at the hands of the MPD. From its beginnings as a tiny force dedicated to protecting property in the growing city, MPD supported strike-breaking, fostered corruption, extortion, and burglaries, and infiltrated labor groups. MPD officers were white supremacist from its inception, beating four Black men who had invited white women to a dance in 1922.Throughout the twentieth century, the MPD was notorious for racially motivated harassment against Black, Native, and immigrant residents. Riots, protests, and unrest were followed by calls for reform and numerous policies designed to move the MPD towards community policing. But as MPD150 shows, those calls for reform have never resulted in any real change. The Police Union President Bob Kroll is a known white supremacist who wore a white power patch on his motorcycle jacket, as alleged in a suit filed by four Black police officers (including current chief Medaria Arradondo) against the MPD in 2007. Community policing has not worked; the MPD is still racist as hell. And George Floyd was murdered by this “reformed” force.

This longer history precedes the last five years of struggle. A Black Lives Matter movement emerged on the ground in November 2015 after the police shot Jamar Clark in North Minneapolis, historically designated as a racialized slum to enclose Black life away from the more middle-class parts of the city. Protesters blockaded the North Minneapolis police precinct and camped there for 18 days in the deepening cold of an Upper Midwest winter. The encampment became a place to feed people, to shelter people, to have community meetings and to activate. When the police evicted the camp, people kept protesting in solidarity with each new killing by police across the country.

On July 6 2016, cops shot a man named Philando Castile in his car in St. Anthony , a northwestern neighborhood in the adjacent city of St. Paul. The closest landmark to the site of the shooting is the Minnesota governor’s house, three blocks from the elementary school where Castile worked as a food services supervisor. Black Lives Matter assembled a protest camp at what became known as the “People’s Mansion” over the summer of 2016.

If BLM and the “movement” were at a critical point in 2016, that point emerged as tensions over tactics. Freeway shutdowns roll across the United States to respond to every new Black police shooting. Interstate-94, the “downtown connector” that enables commuting between Minneapolis and St Paul, is blocks from the governor’s mansion and made a logical place to bring the cities to a standstill. The first freeway shutdown in the Twin Cities happened in early July in 2016, three days after Castile was shot. Riot cops set off smoke bombs, fired concussion grenades, tear gas, and when this did not work to break up the blockade, they arrested 102 people. About half were charged with felonies, including third-degree riot, and many were injured.

The city finally ousted its police chief after the guilty verdict of officer Mohamed Noor, who had shot a white woman, Justine Damond, in 2017. Noor was not incidentally the only Black man to be indicted for a police shooting. After another round of protests, promises were made to reform the police department, including bringing in Medaria Arradondo as the city’s first Black police chief. This is its fruit. Arradondo immediately fired the four officers involved in George Floyd’s death. The Mayor condemned the officers. But the facade of community-based policing has given way to the routine response to protests: SWAT teams and riot cops shooting rubber bullets and teargassing unarmed protesters.

  • きょうはいつもどおり、読んだり書いたりだらだらしたりという休日でなにということもない。これといったできごともない。感染者の増加もかなりすくなくなってきているし、ひさしぶりに（……）に出たいという欲求がきざすのをかんじもしたが、実行にはいたらず。こんど（……）の書店に行ったら、ポール・ド・マンの『理論への抵抗』（法政大学出版局叢書ウニベルシタスの新装版がたぶんあったとおもうのだが――とおもっていま検索したら、叢書ウニベルシタスから出ている著作は『ロマン主義のレトリック』で、『理論への抵抗』は国文社一九九二年なのでたぶん新刊書店にはない――『ロマン主義のレトリック』もむろんほしい――あと、ロドルフ・ガシェがポール・ド・マン論を出したらしいので、それも気になる）と、岩波文庫の渡邊守章が訳した『マラルメ詩集』を買おうとおもっている。あと月曜社の柏倉康夫訳のマラルメ（『詩集』）もほしい。また、コンピューターをデスクからはなしても音楽をながせるようにちいさいプレイヤーがひとつほしい。いっそ、音楽をながすだけの用途のコンピューターのたぐいを一台、いちばんやすくてちいさいやつでいいので買ったほうが良いのかもしれない。
  • 読み物はうえの英文記事や、「読みかえし」や、ニール・ホール／大森一輝訳『ただの黒人であることの重み　ニール・ホール詩集』（彩流社、二〇一七年）。書抜きは熊野純彦『レヴィナス』と神品芳夫訳『リルケ詩集』（土曜美術社出版販売／新・世界現代史文庫10、二〇〇九年）。前者はやっとのことだがそろそろ終わる。あと数箇所。書抜きもいぜんよりコンスタントにできるようになったので良かった。
  • 天気はきのうにつづき灰の色味がつよい曇天。たぶん一時雨が散る時間もあったのだとおもう。五時でアイロン掛けをおこない、夕食には生ラーメンがひとつだけのこっていたのでそれをこしらえて食べた。
  • 瞑想をサボりがちなのが良くない。いちおう風呂のなかで多少できたが、起床時をなまけてしまった。やはり起きたときにやる習慣をたもってまもるのが吉だ。