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Research Articles
Published: 2017-03-31

Murder and Mattering in Harambe’s House

University of California, Irvine
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Claire Jean Kim

Claire Jean Kim, Departments of Political Science and Asian American Studies, University of California, Irvine.

Harambe gorilla blackness antiblackness human black animal

Abstract

This article approaches the controversy over the killing of the gorilla Harambe in the Cincinnati Zoo in May 2016 as a unique window onto the making of animalness and blackness in the contemporary U.S. The construction of the “human” in relation to both the “animal” and the “black” is explored. 

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