Arabs and the Negroes – from the moment that they are participants in
the national enterprise, have a right in that enterprise; they are citizens.
But they have these rightsasJews, Negroes, or Arabs – that is, as
concrete persons” (Anti-Semite and Jew 146 ). The same applies to the
woman, who likewise should be able to vote “as a woman...in her full
character of a woman” (Anti-Semite and Jew 146 ). As Michael Walzer
observed in his introduction toAnti-Semite and Jew, we might describe
the Sartrean program in this book as “Multi-culturalism now”(Anti-
Semite and Jewxix). Sartre does seem to think that this approach will
eventually lead to a kind of assimilation without the violence implicit in
abstract liberalism. But for now, this is the most desirable way of dealing
with the situation.
But what of the anti-Semite? Here I believe Sartre raises his argument
from the nature of “situation” to a new level. After assuring us of the
impossibility of acting directly on another freedom – an existentialist
prohibition grounded in the ontology ofBN– he urges that we act on
thebases and structuresof the choices that the anti-Semite faces such that
the anti-Semitic choice becomes socially and economically unavailable.
Sartre links anti-Semitism with “the present system of property” and
asserts, incredibly, that anti-Semitism could not exist in a society without
classes and founded on collective ownership of the instruments of labor”
(Anti-Semite and Jew 150 ). “Since [the anti-Semite], like all men, exists
as a free agent within a situation, it is his situation that must be
modified from top to bottom. In short, if we can change the perspective
of choice, then the choice itself will change. Thus we do not attack
freedom, but bring it about that freedom decides on other bases and in
terms of other structures” (Anti-Semite and Jew 148 ). “What is there to
say,” he concludes, “except that the socialist revolution is necessary
to and sufficient for the suppression of the anti-Semite?” What is
there to say, indeed.
“Materialism and Revolution”
Published inLes Temps Modernesthe same year thatReflexionsappeared,
this is a pivotal essay in Sartre’s political and social thought, but typic-
ally, it is ontological in nature as well. Two years later, when Sartre is
making conciliatory gestures toward the Communist Party, he explains
that this was a critique of “Marxist Scholasticism of 1949 ” or “if you
248 Existentialism: the fruit of liberation