Black Nihilism and Antiblack Racism by Devon Johnson

Author:Devon Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781538153505
Publisher: ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Published: 2021-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

Pessimism and nihilism are descriptions of the anguished processes of recognizing the ideality of traditional values. Conceptualizing reality as an ideal form of being is weak nihilism. Such moves are criticized by Sartre and De Beauvoir because they treat values as if they are transcribed from the universe and not choices for which we are responsible. From this perspective, we can see why traditional black Christian value systems view black pessimism and nihilism pejoratively, because of their commitment to God’s will as the foundation for valuing black life. Thus, traditional black Christianity demonstrates weak nihilism by locating the ultimate value of all values, including white nihilism, which they reject, as being outside the scope of human affairs. However, human life can be viewed as necessarily being anguished by virtue of its nature, that is, for having to perpetually face responsibility for values production. Anguish gets exacerbated by white nihilism and antiblack racist impositions against free black valuing. Therefore, black pessimism does not result solely from a lack of religious faith; it also results from a confrontation between black phenomenal freedom facing antiblack racist limitations. Likewise, black nihilism does not result solely from a lack of “sombodiness”; it also results from a confrontation between strong black beings fighting to devalue and transvalue the values of whiteness opposing their free and responsible value production.

Values and their persistence across generations are based on freedoms of choice; human beings are the creators of values:

To say that we invent values means nothing else but this: life has no meaning a priori. Before you come alive, life is nothing; it’s up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing else but the meaning that you choose.94

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