Racial Nihilism as Racial Courage: The Potential for Healthier Racial Identities, by Jacqueline Scott
In “Racial Nihilism as Racial Courage,” Jacqueline Scott argues for an approach to dealing with racism and race issues, through finding strength in the recognition that there is no cure for racism. but through constantly changing efforts, an “antidote” can be given which can make living with racism tolerable. Responding to comments made by Brian Leiter on the relation between philosophy and race, Scott uses Nietzsche and critical race theory to argue for the importance of race studies. By becoming a cultural physician and adopting what Scott distinguishes as strong nihilism in relation to race, engaging in experiments to deal with racism will help bring about an antidote for it.
Article available through Philosophy Documentation Center, here.
Jacqueline Scott is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Assistant Chair of the department at Loyola University Chicago. In addition to numerous book chapters and essays, she is is co-editor, with A. Todd Franklin, of Critical Affinities: Nietzsche and African-American Thought (SUNY Press, 2006) and author of “Nietzsche and the Problem of Women’s Bodies,” International Studies in Philosophy 31:3 (1999). She has edited a special issue on “Nietzsche and Politics,” in the Southern Journal of Philosophy 37:1 (1999) and co-edited the special issue “Situated Black Women’s Voices in/on the Profession of Philosophy,” Hypatia 23:2 (2008).
Jacqueline Scott, “Racial Nihilism as Racial Courage: The Potential for Healthier Racial Identities,” in “Philosophy and Race,” ed. Alexis Dianda and Robin M. Muller, special issue, Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 35:1–2 (2014), pp. 297–330.