Nihilism in Black America

...Nihilism is not new in black America...

...In this way, liberal structuralists neglect the battered identities rampant in black America...

...None of us fully understands why the nihilistic threat is more powerful now than ever before...

...The politics of conversion proceeds principally on the local level—in those institutions in civil society still vital enough to promote self-worth and self-affirmation...

...Like most American SPRING • 1991 • 225 1111dllso In Black America elected officials, few black politicians can sidestep these seductive traps...

...Yet state, regional, and national networks are also required for an effective progressive politics...

...This collective leadership must exemplify moral integrity, character, and democratic statesmanship within itself and within its organizations...

...Rather, this behavior is the tragic response of a people bereft of resources in confronting the workings of U.S...

...Self-love and love of others are both modes toward increasing self-valuation and encouraging political resistance in one's community...

...To put it bluntly, their projects rest largely upon a cultural revival of the Protestant ethic in black America...

...This is especially evident in the culture industries — television, radio, video, music—in which gestures of foreplay and orgiastic pleasure flood the marketplace...

...These modes of valuation and resistance are rooted in a subversive memory—the best of one's past without romantic nostalgia— and guided by a universal love ethic...

...it is tamed by love and care...

...The accumulated effect of these wounds and scars produces a deep-seated anger, a boiling sense of rage, and a passionate pessimism regarding America's will to justice...

...These buffers consisted of cultural structures of meaning and feeling that created and sustained communities...

...Second, conservative behaviorists discuss black culture as if acknowledging one's obvious victimization by white supremacist practices (compounded by sexism and class condition) is taboo...

...Other national nonelectoral black leaders— like Benjamin Hooks of the NAACP and John Jacobs of the National Urban League—rightly highlight the traditional problems of racial discrimination, racial violence, and slow racial progress...

...The nihilistic threat to black America is inseparable from a crisis in black leadership...

...Contrary to the superficial claims of conservative behaviorists, these jungles are not primarily the result of pathological behavior...

...Yet, unlike liberal structuralism, the politics of conversion meets the nihilistic threat head-on...

...Yet their preoccupation with race— the mandate from their organizations—downplays the crucial class, environmental, and patriarchal determinants of black life chances...

...His brilliance, energy, and charisma sustain his public visibility— but at the expense of programmatic follow-through...

...These models must shun the idea of one black national leader...

...Second, we should reject the idea that structures are primarily economic and political creatures—an idea that sees culture as an ephemeral set of behavioral attitudes and values...

...That is why local-based collective (and especially multigendered) models of black leadership are needed...

...The initial black struggle against degradation and devaluation in the enslaved circumstances of the New World was, in part, a struggle against nihilism...

...This SPRING • 1991 • 221 Nihilism In Black America threat is not simply a matter of relative economic deprivation and political powerlessness— though economic well-being and political clout are requisites for meaningful black progress...

...These wounds and scars attack black intelligence, black ability, black beauty, and black character daily in subtle and not-so-subtle ways...

...they also should put a premium on critical dialogue and democratic accountability in black organizations...

...If one begins with the threat of concrete nihilism, then one must talk about some kind of politics of conversion...

...We are approaching the moment in which this style exhausts its progressive potential...

...To talk about the depressing statistics of unemployment, infant mortality, incarceration, teenage pregnancy, and violent crime is one thing...

...Under conditions of slavery and Jim Crow segregation, this anger, rage, and pessimism remained relatively muted because of a well-justified fear of brutal white retaliation...

...What went wrong...

...First, their focus on structural constraints relates almost exclusively to the economy and politics...

...If cultures are, in part, what human beings create (out of antecedent fragments of other cultures) in order to convince themselves not to commit suicide, then black foremothers and forefathers are to be applauded...

...Those in the first camp—the liberal structuralists— call for full employment, health, education and child-care programs, and broad affirmative action practices...

...This love ethic has nothing to do with sentimental feelings or tribal connections...

...Work must get done...

...This debate must go far beyond the liberal and conservative positions in three fundamental ways...

...Needless to say, this is partly true about most of us...

...Nihilism is to be understood here not as a philosophic doctrine that there are no rational grounds for legitimate standards or 222 • DISSENT MMus In Mack America authority...

...They tell black people to see themselves as agents, not victims...

...The genius of our black foremothers and forefathers was to create powerful buffers to ward off the nihilistic threat, to equip black folk with cultural armor to beat back the demons of hopelessness, meaninglessness, and lovelessness...

...This focuses on the waning of the Protestant ethic—hard work, deferred gratification, frugality, and responsibility— in much of black America...

...it encourages the idea that we cannot really make a difference in changing our society...

...Like alcoholism and drug addiction, nihilism is a disease of the soul...

...Similarly, the economy and politics are not only influenced by values but also promote particular cultural ideals of the good life and good society...

...But to face up to the monumental eclipse of hope, the unprecedented collapse of meaning, the incredible disregard for human (especially black) life and property in much of black America is something else...

...Sadly, the combination of the market way of life, poverty-ridden conditions, black existential angst, and the lessening of fear toward white authorities has directed most of the anger, rage, and despair toward fellow black citizens, especially black women...

...This cynicism—already promoted by the larger political culture—dampens the fire of engaged local activists who have made a difference, yet who also have little interest in being in the national limelight...

...Such arguments and analyses are indispensable...

...These traditions consist primarily of black religious and civic institutions that sustained familial and communal networks of support...

...First, conservative behaviorists talk about values and attitudes as if political and economic structures hardly exist...

...While black people have never been simply victims, wallowing in self-pity and begging for white giveaways, they have been—and are—victimized...

...For the first time since the last days of Martin Luther King, Jr...

...Black politicians—especially new victors like Mayor David Dinkins of New York City and Governor Douglas Wilder of Virginia—are part of a larger, lethargic electoral system riddled with decreasing revenues, loss of public confidence, self-perpetuating mediocrity, and pervasive corruption...

...Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, and others vigorously attempt to be protest leaders in this myopic mode—a mode often, though not always, reeking of immoral xenophobia...

...The best exemplar of this love ethic is depicted on a number of levels in Toni Morrison's novel Beloved...

...Rather it is a last attempt at generating a sense of agency among a downtrodden people...

...q 226 • DISSENT...

...Rather, corporate market institutions have greatly contributed to undermining traditional morality in order to stay in business and make a profit...

...Only recently has this nihilistic threat—and its ugly inhumane outlook and actions—surfaced in the larger American society...

...Decisions must be made...

...But why this shattering of black civil society, this weakening of black cultural institutions in asphalt jungles...

...For as long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive...

...This is why a love ethic must be at the center of a politics of conversion...

...The self-fulfilling prophecy of the nihilistic threat is that without hope there can be no future, that without meaning there can be no struggle...

...Without such activists there can be no progressive politics...

...And, as I pointed out earlier, while liberals are deficient in important ways, they are right on target in their critique of conservative government cutbacks for services to the poor...

...This crisis is threefold...

...What is to be done about this nihilistic threat...

...But it cannot serve as a substitute for serious historical and social analysis of the predicaments of and prospects for all black people, especially the grossly disadvantaged ones...

...it is, far more, the lived experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness, and (most important) lovelessness...

...In short, a new, more sober version of the best of the New Deal and the Great Society: more government money, better bureaucrats, and an active citizenry...

...If there is a hidden taboo among liberals it is to resist talking about values too much because it takes the focus away from structures, especially the positive role of government...

...Third, and most important, we must delve into the depths where neither liberals nor conservatives dare to tread, namely, into the murky waters of despair and dread that now flood the streets of black America...

...The cumulative effects of a genocidal conspiracy...

...First, at the national level, the courageous yet problematic example of Jesse Jackson looms large...

...This mentality pays little heed to the past, and views the future as no more than a repetition of a hedonistic-driven present...

...Second, this relative failure creates vacuums to be filled by bold and defiant black nationalist figures with even narrower visions, one-note racial analyses, and sensationalist practices...

...Third, this crisis of black leadership contributes to political cynicism among black people...

...Any disease of the soul must be conquered by a turning of one's soul...

...How people act and live are shaped—though in no way dictated or determined—by the larger circumstances in which they find themselves...

...They show no understanding of the structural character of culture...

...it means different things to many people...

...In fact, the major enemy of black survival in America has been and is neither oppression nor exploitation but rather the nihilistic threat—that is, loss of hope and absence of meaning...

...with the grand exception of Harold Washington—the nearly de facto segregation in U.S...

...In this way, crucial and indispensable themes of self-help and personal responsibility are wrenched out of historical context and contemporary circumstances— as...

...First, we must acknowledge that structures and behavior are inseparable, that institutions and values go hand in hand...

...In fact, until the early seventies black Americans had the lowest suicide rate in the United States...

...Unlike conservative behaviorists, the politics of conversion situates (not exonerates) these actions within inhumane circumstances...

...The eclipse of hope and collapse of meaning in much of black America is linked to the structural dynamics of corporate market institutions that affect all Americans...

...progressive politics was confronted and surmounted...

...capitalist society...

...This ahistorical perspective contributes to the nihilistic threat within black America in that it can be used to justify right-wing cutbacks for poor people struggling for decent housing, child care, health care, and education...

...The liberal/conservative discussion conceals the most basic issue now facing black America: the nihilistic threat to its very existence...

...This viewpoint involves a subtle historical and sociological analysis of slavery, Jim Crowism, job and residential discrimination, skewed unemployment rates, inadequate health care and poor education...

...The liberal structuralists fail to grapple with this threat for two reasons...

...But now yoking black people lead the nation in suicides...

...if it is all a matter of personal will...

...The second reason liberal structuralists overlook the nihilistic threat is a sheer failure of nerve...

...Only a charisma of humility and accountability is worthy of a leadership grounded in a genuine democratic struggle for greater freedom and equality...

...On the other hand, there are those who stress the behavioral impediments on black upward mobility...

...On this view, traditional morality is not undermined by radical feminists, cultural radicals in the sixties, or libertarians, as alleged by conservative behaviorists...

...What has changed...

...The predominance of this way of life among those living in poverty-ridden conditions, with a limited capacity to ward off self-contempt and self-hatred, results in the possible triumph of the nihilistic threat in black America...

...Therefore, to call on black people to be agents makes sense only if we also examine the dynamics of this victimization against which their agency will, in part, be exercised...

...By corporate market institutions I mean that complex set of interlocking enterprises that have a disproportionate amount of capital, power, and influence on how our society is run and on how our culture is shaped...

...This does not mean that individual black people are not responsible for their actions—black murderers and rapists should go to jail...

...But this failure leaves the existential and psychological realities of black people in the lurch...

...Life without meaning, hope, and love breeds a coldhearted, mean-spirited outlook that destroys both the individual and others...

...Yet, people, especially degraded and oppressed people, are also hungry for identity, meaning, and self-worth...

...And it surely reveals one of the many instances of cultural decay in a declining empire...

...Needless to say, the primary motivation of these institutions is to make profits, and their basic strategy is to convince the public to consume...

...On the other hand, Jackson's televisual style resists grass-roots organizing and, most important, democratic accountability...

...They rarely, if ever, examine the innumerable cases in which black people do act on the Protestant ethic and still remain at the bottom of the social ladder...

...Yet many black folk now reside in a jungle with a cutthroat morality devoid of any faith in deliverance or hope for freedom...

...This market morality stigmatizes others as objects for personal pleasure or bodily stimulation...

...This chance rests neither on an agreement about what justice consists of nor an analysis of how racism, Sexism, or class subordination operate...

...Like conservative behaviorism, the politics of conversion openly confronts the self-destructive and inhumane actions of black people...

...Instead, it stays on the ground among the toiling everyday people, ushering forth humble freedom fighters—both followers and leaders— who have the audacity to take the nihilistic threat by the neck and turn back its deadly assaults...

...The common denominator of these calculations and analyses is usually the provision, expansion, and intensification of pleasure...

...They support vigorous "free market" strategies that depend on fundamental changes in how black people act and live...

...I believe that the commodification of black life and the crisis of black leadership are two basic reasons...

...And on the surface, this is comforting advice, a nice cliché for downtrodden people...

...This angst resembles a kind of collective clinical depression in significant pockets of black America...

...For my purposes here, Beloved can be construed as bringing together the loving yet critical affirmation of black humanity found in the best of black nationalist movements, the perennial hope against hope for transracial coalition in progressive movements, and the painful struggle for self-affirming sanity in a history in which the nihilistic threat seems insurmountable...

...In our way of life it involves comfort, convenience, and sexual stimulation...

...It is primarily a question of speaking to the profound sense of psychological depression, personal worthlessness, and social despair so widespread in black America...

...This is a serious charge, and it rests upon three claims...

...Nihilism is not 224 • DISSENT NM= In Black America overcome by arguments or analyses...

...it also reinforces the fragmentation of U.S...

...On the one hand, there are those who highlight the structural constraints on the life chances of black people...

...The nihilistic threat is now more powerful than even before because the armors to ward against it is weaker...

...The proper starting point for the crucial debate about the prospects for black America is the nihilism that increasingly pervades black communities...

...These ghastly cutbacks are one cause of the nihilist threat to black America...

...These seductive images contribute to the predominance of the market-inspired way of life over all others—and thereby edge out nonmarket values—love, care, service to others— handed down by preceding generations...

...As for the conservative behaviorists, they not only misconstrue the nihilistic threat but inadvertently contribute to it...

...The major breakthroughs of the sixties—more psychically than politically—swept this fear away...

...Under these circumstances black existential angst derives from the lived experience of ontological wounds and emotional scars inflicted by white supremacist beliefs and images permeating U.S...

...In this way, black nationalist leaders often inadvertently contribute to the very impasse they are trying to overcome: inadequate social attention and action to change the plight of America's "invisible people," especially disadvantaged black people...

...Like liberal structuralists, the advocates of a politics of conversion never lose sight of the structural conditions that shape the sufferings and lives of people...

...Pleasure is a multivalent term...

...But inspirational slogans cannot substitute for substantive historical and social analysis...

...On the one hand, his presidential campaigns based on a progressive multiracial coalition were the major left-liberal response to Reagan's conservative policies...

...it is rooted in institutions like families, schools, churches, synagogues, mosques, and communication industries (television, radio, video, music...

...This indeed may be the best—and last—hope to hold back the nihilistic threat to black America...

...This usually results in a numbing detachment from others and a self-destructive disposition toward the world...

...this armor constituted ways of life and struggle that embodied values of service and sacrifice, love and care, discipline and excellence...

...The bitter irony of integration...

...But charismatic presence is no legitimate substitute for collective responsibility...

...Instead, they highlight the few instances in which blacks ascend to the top, as if such success is available to all blacks, regardless of circumstances...

...The politics of conversion shuns the limelight—a limelight that solicits status seekers and ingratiates egomaniacs...

...The recent shattering of black civil society—black families, neighborhoods, schools, churches, mosques— leaves more and more black people vulnerable to the nihilistic threat...

...Market calculations and cost-benefit analyses hold sway in almost every sphere of U.S...

...This shattering spawns a deracinated and denuded people with little sense of self or existential moorings...

...Because they tend to view people in egoistic and rationalist terms according to which they are motivated primarily by self-interest and self-preservation...

...But it does mean that the nihilistic threat contributes to criminal behavior— a threat that feeds on poverty and shattered cultural institutions...

...progressive efforts that could reverse this deplorable plight...

...It can never be completely cured and there is always the possibility of relapse...

...The virtual collapse of rising expectations after the optimistic sixties...

...But there is always a chance for conversion—a chance for people to believe that there is hope for the future and a meaning to struggle...

...society...

...These institutions have helped create a seductive way of life, a culture of consumption that capitalizes SPRING • 1991 • 223 Nihilism in Black America on every opportunity to make money...

...What is particularly naive and peculiarly vicious about the conservative behavioral outlook is that it tends to deny the lingering effect of black history —a history inseparable from though not reducible to victimization...

...Rather they engage in protracted grass-roots organizing in principled coalitions that bring power and pressure to bear on specific issues...

...But a politics of conversion requires more...

...Corporate market institutions have contributed greatly to this situation...

...It surfaces on the state and national levels only when grass-roots democratic organizations put forward a collective leadership that has earned the love and respect of and, most important, that has proved itself accountable to these organizations...

...society and culture...

...The first African encounter with the New World was an encounter with a distinctive form of the Absurd...

...New models of collective black leadership must promote a version of this politics...

...In other words, traditions for black surviving and thriving under usually adverse New World conditions were major barriers against the nihilistic threat...

...Culture is quite as structural as the economy or politics...

...These circumstances can be changed, their limits attenuated, by positive actions to elevate living conditions...

...A major contemporary strategy for holding the nihilistic threat at bay is to attack directly the sense of worthlessness and self-loathing in black America...

...Black people have always been in America's wilderness in search of a promised land...

...This kind of black leadership is not only symptomatic of black alienation and desperation in a country more and more indifferent or hostile to the quality of life among black working and poor people...

...Is there really any hope, given our shattered civil society, market-driven corporate enterprises, and white supremacism...

...They hesitate to talk honestly about culture, the realm of meanings and values, because to do so may seem to lend itself too readily to conservative conclusions in the narrow way Americans discuss race...

...Like all Americans, African Americans are influenced greatly by the images of comfort, convenience, machismo, femininity, violence, and sexual stimulation that bombard consumers...

...This turning is done by one's own affirmation of one's worth—an affirmation fueled by the concern of others...

...So black leadership at the national level tends to lack a moral vision that can organize (not just periodically energize), subtle analyses that enlighten (not simply intermittently awaken), and exemplary practices that uplift (not merely convey status that awes) black people...

...Such a vulgar rendition of Horatio Alger in blackface may serve as a source of inspiration to some—a kind of model for those already on the right track...

...Unfortunately, these two camps have nearly suffocated the crucial debate that should be taking place about the prospects for black America...

...Those in the second camp—the conservative behaviorists—promote self-help programs, black business expansion, and nonpreferential job practices...