Is the “nihilism” West describes more characteristic of the young than the Black community?
“Nihilism is to be understood here not as a philosophic doctrine that there are no rational grounds for legitimate standards or authority; it is, far more, the lived experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, and, (most important) lovelessness. The frightening result is a numbing detachment from others and a self destructive disposition toward the world. Life without meaning, hope, and love breeds a coldhearted, mean-spirited outlook that destroys both the individual and others”
“The genius of our Black foremothers and forefathers was to create powerful buffers to ward off the nihilistic threat, to equip Black folk with cultural armor to beat back the demons of hopelessness, meaninglessness, and lovelessness.
-Cornel West
- The structures that the Black foremother and forefather created, became the fortification by which the community was able to withstand the relentless domestic terrorism they were subjected to. Their deaths received no justice. They were lynched, murdered, and imprisoned with impunity yet they persisted in the fight for a worthy and progressive existence they were deserving of. -Yogabrofessor
“What changed? What went wrong? The bitter irony of integration? The cumulative effects of a genocidal conspiracy? The virtual collapse of rising expectations after the optimistic sixties? None of us fully understand why the cultural structures that once sustained Black life and the present crisis in Black leadership. The recent market —driven by the shattering of Black civil society — Black families, neighborhoods, schools, churches, mosques — leaves more and more Black people to daily lives endured with little sense of self and fragile existential moorings."
-Cornel West
The current question; is the nihilism West describes more characteristic of the young than of the Black community?
Response: Yes. Does a distinction need to be made if the nihilism is more characteristic of the younger generation as a racially diverse whole, or of the Black community, can be answered with one word… Yes.
- The nihilism of the youth is an extension of the nihilism of the black community. The unyielding and unrelenting abhorrent treatment and circumstances has created a dynamic that is negatively charged. An energy that cannot be destroyed.
- The transference of the negative energy has been a part of the construction of the gradual increase and decrease of destructive rhetoric and behavior. The suppression of this energy in the Black community gradually finds its way into the younger generation as they grow into the social strata that denies the existence of this dynamic.
- The nihilism of the younger generation is connected to the nihilism of the Black community by way of energy dynamics. The pressure from the violent suppression of the Black community will continue to spill over into the energy dynamics of the younger generations because they are not yet fully indoctrinated into a racially hegemonic society.
-Yogabrofessor
Montmarquet, J. A., & Hardy, W. H. (2000). Reflections An Anthology of African American Philosophy. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA65356223
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