Resumen de 1237, or Dying Elsewhere
A young Ghanaian man suffering from AIDS passes away in Istanbul, Turkey. Throughout his death and his funeral arrangements, we see the coming together and coming apart of communities, solidarities, and care. The events surrounding his passing reveal the stigmatization of migrant black bodies with AIDS in a country that denies racism as an issue within its boundaries. Discrimination and racism become entangled around non-Muslim and nonaffluent death. As an activist and anthropologist born and raised in Istanbul, I forge a posthumous intimacy with the young man as I help organize, participate in, and witness his burial. I write an essay addressing him, attempting to convey the effects his death invokes—an attempt by which I hope to animate others to think through and act on racialized death and migration.
