Foundations of Black Solidarity: Collective Identity or Common Oppression?

by Tommie Shelby

doi:10.1086/340276

Abstract

* Sincere and warm thanks go to my friends and colleagues who commented on previous drafts of this essay, including Linda Alcoff, Anthony Appiah, Lawrie Balfour, Sylvia Berryman, Martha Biondi, Bernard Boxill, Derrick Darby, Dan Farrell, Dena Gilby, Robert Gooding-Williams, Jennifer Hochschild, Bill Lawson, Sarah Loper, Ron Mallon, Howard McGary, Charles Mills, Lucius Outlaw, Naomi Pabst, John Pittman, Diana Raffman, Kathleen Schmidt, and Laurence Thomas. I would also like to thank an anonymous reviewer for Ethics, as well as the editors of the journal. Earlier versions of the essay were presented at Howard University, Harvard University, the Du Bois Scholars Institute in New Jersey, the Collegium for African American Research Biannual Conference, and a special session of the APA Pacific sponsored by the Committee on Blacks in Philosophy. I am grateful to the audiences at these venues. 1. Frederick Douglass, “To Our Oppressed Countrymen,” in Black Nationalism in America, ed. John H. Bracey, Jr., August Meier, and Elliott Rudwick (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970), p. 58, originally published as an editorial in the North Star (December 3, 1847). 2. In everyday life, use of the term ‘black’ when referring to individuals or groups rarely causes much confusion; context is usually enough to make the speaker’s meaning relatively clear. But the concept “black” is quite vague and thus is not easily accommodated to theoretical discourse where one would like to be fairly precise. Moreover, the meaning of ‘black’ as a “racial” designator varies with social context, for there are various systems of racial classification around the world; and even within a given locale, who is “black” may shift with political contingencies. My concern in this essay is primarily with blacks living in the United States today, including recent African, Caribbean, European, and Latin American immigrants, though some of what I say here can also be extended to blacks living in other places as well. For the moment, I will rely on context to set the

Highlights

In an effort to liberate blacks from the burden of racial oppression, black leaders have frequently called on black Americans to become a more unified collective agent for social change.[2]
My concern in this essay is primarily with blacks living in the United States today, including recent African, Caribbean, European, and Latin American immigrants, though some of what I say here can be extended to blacks living in other places as well
232 Ethics January 2001 some who think such solidarity irrational, impractical, or perhaps even morally objectionable,[3] I take it that many people believe it to be essential for black people to achieve the full freedom and social equality that American ideals promise