Nihilism and Black America - Essay Example

“Murky Waters Nihilist Black America In his article “Nihilism and Black America”, Cornel West discusses the problems with the common approaches to the issue of class and race in America today. West says that both the liberal structuralist and the conservative behaviorist fail to reach the heart of the problem facing lower class African Americans: that problem is nihilism. In order to better understand the interactions between race and class and evaluate the solutions proposed, I will first look at West’s position in detail. Next, I will turn to the articles by Gates and hooks, outlining their arguments and comparing them with that of West. Finally, I will evaluate the success of these arguments, with the goal of understanding the role of class in contemporary African American racial relations. I will conclude that while West’s notion of nihilism as an underlying cause is an appealing one, it is impossible to determine a causal relationship between the many different problems facing the lower class African American community. For West, nihilism is “the lived experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness, and (most important) lovelessness” (West 4). West emphasizes that nihilism is neither a problem lying in any social or political structure nor a behavioral flaw, but rather it is “a disease of the soul” (West 5). West’s approach, then, is different from that of the liberal structuralists and conservative behaviorists. The problem with both of these groups, according to West, is that each fails to notice and address what he takes to be the real problem: the nihilism with which poor, black communities seem to be stricken. Furthermore, both groups only address one part of the problem at a time while the truth is that “structures and behavior are inseparable, that institutions and values go hand in hand” (West 2). In other words, there is no way to find what is the cause and what is the effect between structure and behavior in the black communal problems. Instead, it is this nihilist point of view that underlies and unites both issues. But if the problem cannot be isolated as neatly as the liberals or conservatives suggest, what can be done differently? West proposes that the ‘cure’ for nihilism is “a love ethic” that might help the African American population to feel that they are important and valuable members of society (West 6). In order to effect this sort of change, West uses the suggestions of both the structuralists and the behaviorists to help fix both the structural problems at hand and the “self-destructive and inhumane actions of black people” (West 6). West calls his solution a politics of conversion, aiming at curing the disease of the African American soul. “Two Nations…Both Black”, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., has a different take on the relationship between class and race issues in the African American community. Gates focuses on the class distinctions in the black community itself and the effects the upper class African American community has on the lower by considering itself superior to and separate of the lower class. Because the black middle class “are isolated from the black underclass”, the resources of this group are taken out of the black community and given with the white community (Gates 9). Gates explicitly agrees with West about “the causes of poverty within the black community” being “both structural and behavioral” (Gates 11). Although he does not identify nihilism as the primary issue, he agrees that the problem must be addressed from many standpoints at once instead of working on a single issue at a time. The solution for Gates then, like West, addresses both aspects of the situation. Firstly, “we have to demand a structural change in this country”, fixing the government and making it less prejudiced to poor black Americans (Gates 11). Secondly, we must address the cultural forces that are creating bad value systems and not teaching the black children that they should work hard. The responsibility for this change, Gates says, falls especially hard on the ‘Talented Tenth’ of the black population. Thus, although Gates examines the issue of black poverty in America from a different standpoint and does not know that nihilism as a factor, his solution is similar to West’s. The most notable difference being, of course, him not talking about nihilism. Like Gates, bell hooks’ article “Class and Race: The New Black Elite” looks more at upper class black culture and communities. At one time, hooks thinks, “black folks on the bottom of the class hierarchy were encouraged to regard with admiration and respect peers who were gaining class power” (hooks 13). However, today this large class of wealthy blacks has an almost seems like the enemy to poor black America. “Allegiance to their class,” it now seems, “supersedes racial solidarity” (hooks 17). The two groups no longer think that they are part of the same cultural and ethnic group. They see each other as having either sold out or failed in some way and that they are not the same group of people. According to hooks, this separation is responsible for much of the crisis that African American society faces today. Also like Gates, hooks sees that upper class blacks are responsible for creating the “public representation of blackness” (hooks 17). Moreover, his suggested solution to the problem, like that of West, sees both the structural and behavioral causes. Hooks emphasizes access to education as a one solution, and another is changing “the lessons mainstream culture teaches” black youth (hooks 19). Ultimately, hooks, even more than Gates, seems to say the same thing as West’s notion of nihilism, even though he doesn’t use the same word. Hooks sees the need for “empowerment without domination” and a change of mentality in the lower class African American community (hooks 20). Having examined the point of views of each of these three authors, it becomes clear that each looks at the problem differently. Yes, there seems to be a nihilistic attitude within the black population. And yes, the upper class of blacks must take some responsibility for the community. But all three agree that the fundamental problem cannot be solved by looking at one part of the problem by itself. The “plight of African Americans” is very complicated and there are many different things that are wrong and need to be fixed (2). The structural problems can be seen to cause the behavioral, and the behavioral can been seen as responsible for the structural. It is like the chicken and the egg. West’s idea that nihilism is the root of the entire problem is useful for relating these disparate issues together. Nevertheless, one might claim, for example, that black nihilism is the cause of the structural prejudices of the American system. Or, equally successfully, one might claim that nihilism is the cause of the behavioral issues. There seems to be no clear way out, no locatable starting point because you can only ever see the effects and you can never really see the causes. And accordingly, West might not have discovered a new ultimate cause, but rather be renaming aspects of a circular situation which might actually have no one solution. Perhaps then, the problem is that we think that there must be a single cause of the problem. History, it seems, does not work in straight lines. All of the socio-economic factors affecting the black lower class today are both cause and effect in this self-perpetuating cycle. Whatever the case, it is impossible for us to ever understand the relationship between cause and effect, oppression and self-worth, structure and culture, race and class. To attempt to overcome the obstacles facing black America today, no one solution will be sufficient because the problems have infected every aspect of American government, society, and everyday life. Nihilism is a good start, but it is not a solution. Works Cited Gates, Henry Louis Jr. “Two Nations…Both Black.” Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising. Ed. Robert Gooding-Williams. New York: Routledge: 1993: 249-54 hooks, bell. “Race and Class: The New Black Elite.” Where We Stand: Class Matters. New York: Routledge, 2000. 89-100. West, Cornel. “Nihilism in Black America.” Race Matters. New York: Random, 1994. 17-31 Read More