Fear of Black Consciousness
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Lewis R. Gordon's Fear of Black Consciousness is a groundbreaking account of Black consciousness by a leading philosopher
In this original and penetrating work, Lewis R. Gordon, one of the leading scholars of Black existentialism and anti-Blackness, takes the reader on a journey through the historical development of racialized Blackness, the problems this kind of consciousness produces, and the many creative responses from Black and non-Black communities in contemporary struggles for dignity and freedom. Skillfully navigating a difficult and traumatic terrain, Gordon cuts through the mist of white narcissism and the versions of consciousness it perpetuates. He exposes the bad faith at the heart of many discussions about race and racism not only in America but across the globe, including those who think of themselves as "color blind." As Gordon reveals, these lies offer many white people an inherited sense of being extraordinary, a license to do as they please. But for many if not most Blacks, to live an ordinary life in a white-dominated society is an extraordinary achievement.
Informed by Gordon's life growing up in Jamaica and the Bronx, and taking as a touchstone the pandemic and the uprisings against police violence, Fear of Black Consciousness is a groundbreaking work that positions Black consciousness as a political commitment and creative practice, richly layered through art, love, and revolutionary action.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Philosopher Gordon (Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism) draws in this probing and accessible study a distinction between the kind of "racialized black consciousness" shaped by white supremacy and a "liberatory Black consciousness" that refuses "to apologize for Black lives having value." Interweaving autobiographical details about his childhood in Jamaica and the Bronx in the 1960s and '70s with historical sketches of Black liberation movements and incisive discussions of the links between neoliberalism, racism, and the coronavirus pandemic, Gordon argues that the U.S. and other societies "devoted to blocking black people's access to citizenship" are "fundamentally antipolitical and antidemocratic," and argues that the fight against racism is "ultimately a fight for democracy." He delves into the history of racialized thought in Australia, Brazil, South Africa, and the U.S., and shows how anti-Black views get perpetuated even within the Black community, where "the opportunities available to lighter-skinned blacks are greater than those for darker-skinned blacks." The contrast between his lack of racial awareness as a child in Jamaica, where the leading public figures were all Black, and his Bronx elementary school, where he learned the meaning of the n-word, is enlightening, as is his discussion of Black Panther, which analyzes how the film "distinguishes legitimate force from violence" and "rais the question of what Africa could offer the world if it were seen with open eyes." The result is an essential, up-to-the-minute reckoning with racism.
