"The problem of antiblack racism has a long history in the world, with as long a history of thinkers writing and theorizing against it. Few philosophers have opposed institutionalized racialism as vehemently as Jean-Paul Sartre, both in his intellectual work and in his political action. This book argues that not only does a relationship exists between Sartre's existentialist philosophy and antiracism but also, more profoundly, that it is precisely his existential ontology that informs his anti-racist social and political commitments. He sought to examine the complexity of our existence as conscious bodies and thus provides the ontological basis for understanding the situation of a black person in an antiblack world. This book is about how Sartre's philosophy - especially his early writings - can be applied to address the problem of racism against black people. It argues that among the many concepts in Sartre's work that are useful in understanding the problem of racism against black people, the philosophical notion of contingency is one of the most significant. Contingency in Sartre is the view that whatever exists, need not exist, and that therefore it can be changed; that the fact that one is born white or black without their choice, has no moral weight at all in treating others as though they are responsible for what they are. In this book Mabogo More contends that through Sartre's philosophical notion of contingency, he provides us with the ammunition to understand and deal with racism broadly, and antiblack racism in particular"--.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Foreword
  • References
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
  • Sartre Now
  • Racism Today
• Chapter 1: Philosophy and Racism
  • Western Philosophers and Antiblack Racism
  • Sartre’s Existentialism
• Chapter 2: Race and Racism
  • Antiblack Racism
  • Black People as Problem
  • Denial of Black Humanity
  • Exclusion from the Ethical
  • Justification of Violence against Blacks
  • Sartre and Racism
• Chapter 3: Sartre’s Phenomenological Ontology
  • Sartre’s Ontology
  • Being-in-Itself and Being-for-Itself
  • Human Nature (Essence)
  • Facticity
  • Bad Faith
  • The Look (Gaze)
• Chapter 4: The Concept of Contingency
  • Contingency in Traditional Philosophy
  • Contingency in Sartre’s Philosophy
  • The Body and Contingency
• Chapter 5: The Body, Racism, and Contingency
  • Contingency and Racism
  • Strategies to Overcome Contingency
  • The Black Person as the Other
  • Naturalistic Argument
  • Psychological Argument
  • Religious Argument
  • Immanent and Transcendental Strategies
• Chapter 6: Ontic Situations
  • Contingency in Concrete Situations
  • Anti-Semitism
  • Responses to Anti-Semitism
  • Blacks in America
  • Blacks in Africa—Negritude
• Chapter 7: Sartre’s Solutions
  • Ontological Solution
  • The Radical Conversion
  • Freedom: The Absolute Value
  • Contingency and Morality
  • Sartre’s Political Solution
  • Socialism
  • Revolutionary Violence
  • Critique of Sartre
• Chapter 8: Racial Solidarity
  • Solidarity
  • Sartre on Solidarity
  • Seriality
  • Fused (Active) Group
  • Solidarity Contra Appiah
• Chapter 9: Sartre and Africana Existential Philosophy
  • Frantz Fanon
  • Chabani N. Manganyi
  • The Phenomenology of the Black Body
  • Transcending Racism
  • Lewis R. Gordon
  • Bad Faith and the Contingency of the Body
• Chapter 10: Conclusion: The Meaning of Jean-Paul Sartre Today
  • Sartre’s Legacy
• Notes
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1
  • Chapter 2
  • Chapter 3
  • Chapter 4
  • Chapter 5
  • Chapter 6
  • Chapter 7
  • Chapter 8
  • Chapter 9
• References
• Index
• About the Author