Dignity or death : ethics and politics of race / Norman Ajari ; translated by Matthew B. Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ajari, Norman, author.

Contributor:

Smith, Matthew B., translator.

Standardized Title:

Dignité ou la mort. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Racism.

Dignity.

Black people--Violence against.

Black people.

Black people--Political activity.

Physical Description:

xi, 236 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK : Polity Press, [2023]

Language Note:

Translated from the French.

Summary:

This book sets out to understand the ethical dimension of Black lives and deaths in the modern period. Recent events—from the brutal murder of George Floyd to the pervasive violence meted out daily on the streets of our cities—have demonstrated all too clearly the fundamental trait that shapes our contemporary moment: the Black condition is defined by indignity. Ajari takes dignity as his starting point because dignity is what white people try to abolish in their violence toward Black people, and it is what they deprive themselves of in exerting this violence. Dignity is also what Black people collectively affirm when they rise up against white domination. When a young Black man or woman’s dignity is taken from them as the result of assault, rape, or assassination at the hands of the state, the roots of a long history of struggle, conquest, and affirmation of African humanity are exposed and shaken. Above all, dignity is the ability of the oppressed, trapped between life and death, to remain standing. Dignity or Death offers an uncompromising critical analysis of the European philosophical tradition in order to recover the misunderstood history of radical thought in Black worlds. Slave uprisings, Negritude, radical Christian traditions in North America and South Africa, and political ontology are all steps on a long and troubled path of liberation. -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. One Dignity Re-embodied

1. Decolonizing Moral Philosophy

2. Indignity

3. Our Dignity Is Older than Us

pt. Two Caliban the Political Theologian

4. The Universal by Accident

5. A Theology of Black Dignity in North America

6. Ubuntu: Philosophy, Religion, and Community in Black Africa

pt. Three Forms-of-death in the European Necropolis

7. Recognition and Dignity in the Era of Global Apartheid.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9781509548651

1509548653

9781509548668

1509548661

OCLC:

1304816670