Paper short abstract:

Through presenting the lives of three Dominican-born sisters, I argue that paying equal attention to those 'uneducated' blacks who did not directly engage with Hegel's Phenomenology or Kant's Metaphysics complements Paul Gilroy's explorations of black counter-modernity.

Paper long abstract:

If as the saying goes a black man is a century, and a black woman the embodiment of world history, then the lives of the Dominican-born sisters Elza, Tica, and Amelia, symbolizes the Black Atlantic sojourns of the working poor. In terms of family ties, and their actual travels, these three sisters connect the Spanish, French, Dutch, and British Caribbean to the Western metropoles of Amsterdam, New York, and Toronto. Theirs is a tale of struggle, perseverance, and a will to live despite treble oppressive structures of race, class, and gender. In this essay I argue that paying equal attention to those 'uneducated' blacks who did not directly engage with Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit or Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals complements Paul Gilroy's explorations of black counter-modernity.