Rasheedah Phillips' Dismantling the Master's Clock is the sort of creative academic scholarship that makes me glad that I still give academic books a shot, despite some of them seeming to be little more than reinventing the wheel using the biggest words possible. The author is a jack of many trades, boasting not only academic author chops, but she is also an activist, organizer, artist, and lawyer. Her ability to mash these things together and come out with something coherent, engaging, and fascinating is a major strength of this book.
I took my time reading this. It is very out there (in a good way) and quite dense. It includes many quantum physics topics that I have read the popular science versions of but was very rusty even on those. Phillips also is constantly blending metaphors and real histories to create a constant stream of thought exercises on the topics of time, race, social justice, gender, and so on. I will say that I would love to hear a review from someone who is more of an expert in quantum mechanics to see what their take on her use of these concepts in this text would be. My very meager understanding is that quantum mechanics are occurring at the tiniest of scales. Things work differently there than they do on the macro scale... sorta? Phillips uses a lot of quantum mechanics ideas- especially of duality of matter states and nonlinear timescapes- as a way of explaining how things occur or can be seen on a macro scale. From my understanding- again, a very limited one- this would not be accurate if taken literally. Sometimes it's not clear to me how literal she is being in this application. But, using quantum states as metaphor for history, culture, and experiences of Black and other marginalized people does make sense. It's a creative way of discussing things that have been studied and examined before in a new light. This offers new ways of thinking about both critical theory and the science of time, which is what separates this text from your run of the mill academic book on either subject.
One thing central to the book is the phenomenon of "Colored People's Time" (CPT) which Phillips dives deeply into (also comparing it with the quantum physics concept of charge-parity time.) She discusses its use as a pejorative, as a lie, as a different cultural way of living, as an inevitable response to years of oppression, and a way to transform one's thinking about space and time in general. She explains her ideas about "temporal oppression" which involves forcing Black people into a version of time that was designed without their freedom in mind. My personal experience is with similar phenomena less centered around race often called "anarchist time" or "punk standard time." I have similar mixed feelings and experiences about how these looser interpretations of pun(k)tuality affect oppressed people. The confines of strict schedules can both harm marginalized people who cannot meet them OR harm them by causing them to wait when they don't have the ability to. My very, frankly primitive, understanding of these things has left me frustrated many times sitting for hours longer, irritated, wondering how the world is supposed to function when someone needs to be relieved of their post. Thankfully, Phillips is talking about something so much deeper than that. I feel honestly grateful to now see how shallow my understanding of these things has been.
One thing about linear, strict, standardized time keeping is how rooted in European colonization it is. Now, I knew this was a thing, but did not really know the specifics of it. I am sitting here surrounded by clocks (mostly because I dig the aesthetic, but also because I can barely keep a schedule without having them in my face constantly and running 15 minutes ahead.) Reading about when the first clocks were erected in public squares and how that changed time keeping was eye opening for me. Time is no longer based majorly on more rational things like light, seasons, weather, and so on specific to various locations and cultural needs. It is based on clocks designed by a small subset of people mainly for capitalistic, globalization, or related reasons. This review is obviously the briefest of cliff notes. The author presents a case that is both informative and convincing that the way we currently keep time is oppressive and doomed to fail the most vulnerable. It is designed in ways to control and also in ways that make those with the least resources have the most difficult time meeting deadlines.
Another thing she discusses is who is allowed grace with time. One thing that really hit home for me as someone dealing with my hellscape of chronic illnesses was the mention of doctor's visits. That was one of the first things I used to think of when folks would discuss looser concepts of being "on time." How would a doctor's appointment with life sustaining treatment be run if people showed up whenever they wanted? (Which- for the record- is not at all what she is arguing.) Phillips ends up mentioning the waits in many doctor's offices and it came together in a more personal way for me. I can sit in a waiting room for 2 hours and it is expected that I do so if those we are paying are running late. But, if a patient- again, the person paying- is 15 minutes late, they can be asked to leave. My doctor can reschedule my appointment 3 times, but too many cancellations on my end could leave me looking for someone new. The institution's time is valued over the patients', even if the doctors themselves don't feel that way.
The really deep dive goes into the history of slavery and Jim Crow. How long did Black people have to wait? Centuries. Yes, this is big picture and abstract, but the only way to survive waiting centuries for even partial freedom is to have a looser, more fluid idea of time. She wraps up the book with an interesting study of time capsules and how they differ across cultures and races. It is here that she uses the most examples of art installations including her own to show how imagining new ways of understanding time give a more accurate depiction of the world at large. I must stress again how this book does a much better job explaining this in detail. I have struggled to write this review in giving people a taste of the contents that are so very complex. What I can say for sure is that no matter what sort of views you have on time and space, this book will have you thinking differently about them.
Overall, Rasheedah Phillips uses her varied skills to discuss these topics in creative and fresh ways. The book will require your time, thought, and attention- and it pays off. I hope that folks with physics degrees will read this book and offer their takes as I imagine they would have very interesting things to add. This is definitely an example of an academic book that is both heavy and worth the effort to lift.
This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.
