ePILogue (as PRoLogue) ( 205 )In other words, unpaid black slave labor (and colonial exploitation more
broadly) is a central foundation of the modern world, not just the abstract
“capitalism” targeted by critical theorists. This is the actual history and set
of historic injustices that is covered up in contemporary justice theory, both
American and global, above all in the white fantasy world of Rawlsianism.
Hence the imperative of developing a black radical liberalism to challenge
white justice theory and its erasure of this history of hundreds of years of
racial exploitation.
But a black radical liberalism resting on Kant, Marx, and Du Bois may
seem to be based on a very unstable foundation. Here are some obvious
objections to this attempt to bring them together, and my replies:
OBJECTIONS AND REPLIES:
(1) How can Marxist and liberal insights be reconciled? Aren’t they neces-
sarily opposed?
As emphasized in chapter 2, liberalism comes in different varieties, and
black radical liberalism would obviously be a left- wing variety. Liberalism
is opposed to state- commandist socialism (what was represented as
“Communism”), but state- commandist socialism has proved itself to be a
historical failure, both economically and morally. Liberalism is not in prin-
ciple opposed to social democracy or market socialism.
(2) But how can black nationalist insights be compatible with either liber-
alism or Marxism?
Black nationalism likewise comes in different varieties. The key insight of
the tradition, in my opinion, is the recognition of the reality and centrality
of an ontology of race and how it shapes people and their psychology, which
can be accommodated in a modified liberalism and Marxism. (Obviously
this means rejecting essentialist versions of black nationalism, whether
onto- theological or culturalist.) Reconciliations of black nationalism and
liberalism have recently been developed by Tommie Shelby and Andrew
Va l l s.^11 And a “black Marxist”/ “left nationalist” tradition has long existed
that addresses these issues and seeks to resolve the tensions involved in
bringing the two together.^12
(3) But how can even a “black radical liberalism” (assuming it doesn’t fly
apart from centrifugal forces) deal with the problems identified by, say,
Derrick Bell’s “racial realism?”^13