 A third approach to the questions of black life and social death actually runs through both of the approaches mentioned so far. The study of Black aesthetics and of African-derived cultural practices have become scholarly growth areas thanks in part—but only in part—to the central role that aesthetic practices play in the work of antiracist resistance. I say “only in part” because some of the most interesting work in this area prominently resists the temptation to reduce aesthesis to anti-racism. Life in communities of African-descended persons and others racialized as Black, like life everywhere, has its irremediably aesthetic dimensions and resources. These resources are sometimes invested in defensive efforts, warding off assaults on Black or African humanity. But they are much more often invested in celebrations of life, reflections on community, parables of love, provocations for the mind and senses, and so on. In fact, a plausible reading of the transnational, transhistorical tradition of Black aesthetics suggests that this work routinely circles around the tension between responsibly facing life’s problems and celebrating and enjoying life’s possibilities (Taylor 2016). This tension motivates Albert Murray’s charges against Toni Morrison (and others), it inspires West’s critique of Du Bois, and it runs through, without quite defining, Moten’s refusal of Afro-pessimism.