We Who Are Dark: The Philosophical Foundations of Black Solidarity - Softcover

Shelby, Tommie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674025717 ISBN 13: 9780674025714

Publisher: Belknap Press, 2007

Synopsis

African American history resounds with calls for black unity. From abolitionist times through the Black Power movement, it was widely seen as a means of securing a full share of America's promised freedom and equality. Yet today, many believe that black solidarity is unnecessary, irrational, rooted in the illusion of "racial" difference, at odds with the goal of integration, and incompatible with liberal ideals and American democracy. A response to such critics, We Who Are Dark provides the first extended philosophical defense of black political solidarity.

Tommie Shelby argues that we can reject a biological idea of race and agree with many criticisms of identity politics yet still view black political solidarity as a needed emancipatory tool. In developing his defense of black solidarity, he draws on the history of black political thought, focusing on the canonical figures of Martin R. Delany and W. E. B. Du Bois, and he urges us to rethink many traditional conceptions of what black unity should entail. In this way, he contributes significantly to the larger effort to re-envision black politics and to modernize the objectives and strategies of black freedom struggles for the post-civil rights era. His book articulates a new African American political philosophy--one that rests firmly on anti-essentialist foundations and, at the same time, urges a commitment to defeating racism, to eliminating racial inequality, and to improving the opportunities of those racialized as "black."

About this title

About the Author

Tommie Shelby is Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and of Philosophy at Harvard University.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface Can black political solidarity lead to a more just society and world? If so, what form must it take to produce this result? These are the questions that drive this book. Historically, political unity among black Americans has contributed much to the cause of social justice. It was essential to the abolition of chattel slavery. It was instrumental in bringing down Jim Crow segregation. It played a crucial role in the establishment of constitutional and legislative guarantees of equal civil rights for all citizens. But now, in what has come to be dubbed the "post–civil rights era," does black political solidarity have any purpose to serve? Many people, including a growing number of blacks, would answer with a resounding no. But my answer is yes, and in this book I offer my reasoning. I believe that black political unity still has an important role to play in making our society, and perhaps our world, a more just one, though the role it should play today differs from what many in the history of black political thought have envisioned. We Who Are Dark is a philosophical rumination on the current significance of black political solidarity.

About this edition

• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0674025717
• ISBN 13: 9780674025714
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336