After reading Girard for nearly ten years, I found myself continually surprised to see how little his theory came into play in conversations about race and race relations—even though it seemed like Girard’s ideas would add critical insights to those conversations. I was never sure why.
Is it because Girard is a white French academic? Because his theory is too obscure? Or because mimetic theory really isn’t helpful in explaining the concrete realities faced by black Americans because it’s too abstract, for example?
It’s a question I wasn’t willing to leave unsettled, or at least not willing to begin exploring. But I knew I couldn’t do it alone.
My friend Dr. Hollis Robbins and I had a conversation back in early 2021 in which she planted the seed in my head that it would be a good idea to try to bring the right people together to kick off this conversation. After months of hard work, it all came together at NOVITATE—a conference which I hosted in DC last month.
The full video from that…
