Socio-Political Utility and the Moral Problematics of “Blackness”

Chapter 4 focuses on the historical and contemporary value of “blackness” as a solidaristic and resistive tool, highlighting some ambivalences and contradictions involved. Since “blackness” has now gained positive social currency, the chapter looks at what this positive currency is. To address this, the chapter starts with epistemic and cultural norms that have given “blackness” this positive transition. This is followed by the discussion of “blackness” as a social construct in scholarly literature to ground the fact that “blackness” has no basis in biology. There is a considerable level of scholarly consensus here. To acknowledge the positive value of “blackness” as presented by scholars, the section that follows looks at its solidaristic and political utility. Both the simple and complex definitions of “blackness” are discussed. After the positive utility of “blackness,” the discussion then moves to the historical problems associated with “blackness.” The chapter therefore ends with a discussion of bad faith (abdication of epistemic and scholarly responsibility) in “blackness” scholarship and critique to underscore some ambivalences surrounding the scholarship on “blackness.” While scholars acknowledge that “blackness” has had negative consequences, they still operationalize it as a positive identitarian reality because of, mostly likely, epistemic hegemony.