Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism

30th Anniversary Edition

Lewis R. Gordon - Introduction by Mabogo Percy More

In this contemporary classic, Lewis Gordon presents his iconic, detailed existential phenomenological investigation of antiblack racism as a form of Sartrean bad faith. Bad faith, the attitude in which human beings attempt to evade freedom and responsibility, is treated as a constant possibility of human existence. Antiblack racism, the attitude and practice that involve the construction of black people as fundamentally inferior and subhuman, is examined as an effort to evade the responsibilities of a human and humane world. Gordon argues that the concept of bad faith militates against any human science that is built upon a theory of human nature and as such offers an analysis of antiblack racism that stands as a challenge to our ordinary assumptions of what it means to be human.

A foundational text in black existentialism, this 25^th anniversary edition includes a substantial introduction by Paul Gilroy to address the ongoing importance of Gordon’s thought in critiquing and resisting racist bad faith in our contemporary moment.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Humanities Press

• Trim: 5½ x 8½

978-1-5381-4366-7 • Hardback • January 2025 • $95.00 • (£73.00)

978-1-5381-7960-4 • Paperback • January 2025 • $34.00 • (£25.00)

978-1-5381-4367-4 • eBook • January 2025 • $32.00 • (£25.00) (coming soon)

Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Humanism, Philosophy / Philosophy of Race

Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism

30th Anniversary Edition

Hardback

Paperback

Summary

In this contemporary classic, Lewis Gordon presents his iconic, detailed existential phenomenological investigation of antiblack racism as a form of Sartrean bad faith. Bad faith, the attitude in which human beings attempt to evade freedom and responsibility, is treated as a constant possibility of human existence. Antiblack racism, the attitude and practice that involve the construction of black people as fundamentally inferior and subhuman, is examined as an effort to evade the responsibilities of a human and humane world. Gordon argues that the concept of bad faith militates against any human science that is built upon a theory of human nature and as such offers an analysis of antiblack racism that stands as a challenge to our ordinary assumptions of what it means to be human.

A foundational text in black existentialism, this 25^th anniversary edition includes a substantial introduction by Paul Gilroy to address the ongoing importance of Gordon’s thought in critiquing and resisting racist bad faith in our contemporary moment.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Humanities Press

• Trim: 5½ x 8½

978-1-5381-4366-7 • Hardback • January 2025 • $95.00 • (£73.00)

978-1-5381-7960-4 • Paperback • January 2025 • $34.00 • (£25.00)

978-1-5381-4367-4 • eBook • January 2025 • $32.00 • (£25.00) (coming soon)

Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Humanism, Philosophy / Philosophy of Race

Author

Lewis R. Gordon is Professor of Philosophy and Africana Studies at the University of Connecticut,
Visiting Professor at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica, Nelson Mandela Visiting
Professor at Rhodes University, South Africa, European Union Visiting Chair in Philosophy at
Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France, and Writer-in-Residence at Birkbeck School of Law. His
most recent book is What Fanon Said: A Philosophical Introduction to His Life and Thought (2015).

Table of Contents

Prefaceby Lewis Gordon
Introduction by Mabogo P. More

Introduction: Why Bad Faith?
Part 1: Bad Faith
A "Determined" Attitude That Involves Lying to Ourselves
The Irony of Belief
Anguish
The Elusiveness of Transcendence and the Comfort of Facticity
What Am I to Me?
Taking Ourselves Too Seriously
The Body in Bad Faith
"Strong" and "Weak" Bad Faith
Some Critical Remarks
How Is Bad Faith Possible?
The Question of Authenticity

Part 2: Logic of Racism, Racist Logic
A Recent Theory
Racialism, Racism, Racialists, and Racists
Affective Dimensions of Racism and Race

Part 3: Antiblack Racism
Racism and Antiblack Racism
White and Black Bodies in Bad Faith
Black Antiblackness in an Antiblack World
Exoticism: Antiblackness Under the Guise of Love
Effeminacy: The Quality of Black Beings
Antiblack Racism and Ontology

Part 4: "God" in an Antiblack World
An Antiblack Cosmogony
"Is God a White Racist?"
The White God and the Black Sufferer
Ultimate Desire and Authenticity in an Antiblack World
To Be Black, Faithful, and Suffering

Part 5: Critical Encounters
"I-Thou"
Ethical Concerns
Deconstruction
Marxism

Conclusion: The Living Dead
Notes
Bibliography
Index