Fear of Black Consciousness

A thinker whose reflections on race have produced singular illuminations on our times . . . he draws on a wide range of colonial histories, African popular culture, aboriginal histories, contemporary films and stories, to show the critical powers of creativity in dismantling racism by the making of Black consciousness, the making of a world where breath and love and existence become possible

Judith Butler, author of Gender Trouble

As atrocity, injury, white supremacy, and racial violence loom, Gordon holds steady a Fanonian outlook, theorizing black consciousness as the realization of possibility - that is, a sustained political commitment that recalculates the stakes of freedom

Katherine McKittrick, author of Demonic Grounds

Striking... You will want Lewis Gordon's Fear of Black Consciousness among your primary intellectual road supplies for the future

Hortense Spillers, author of Black, White and in Color

Reading Fear of Black Consciousness had me nodding so often and so vigorously, I got a mild case of whiplash . . . With surgical precision, laser sharp wit, and the eye of an artist, Lewis Gordon doesn't just dissect race, racism, and racial thinking but offers a clarion call to embrace Black Consciousness, to take political responsibility for decolonizing and transforming the world as it is

Robin D G Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original

Lewis Gordon's expansive philosophical engagement with the current moment - its histories and globalities, its politics and protests, its visual and sonic cultures - reminds us that the ultimate aim of Black freedom quests is, indeed, universal liberation

Angela Y. Davis, author of Women, Race and Class

Gordon's surprising observations crack open the mind to connect various creative disciplines

Vanessa Willoughby, Literary Hub

Powerful . . . one of the most prominent scholars of racism, tries to enrich our knowledge with his unique brand of intellectual precision and analysis

Kehinde Andrews, Observer

A resolute response to the ongoing pessimism . . . Gordon seamlessly weaves together discussions of contemporary and historical Western philosophers such as Gabriel Marcel and Friedrich Nietzsche with his analyses of film, music, culture, and more . . . Sprinkled with personal stories, witty anecdotes, and powerful arguments, the book encourages readers to rethink historical descriptions of anti-black violence as well as the vocabulary used to talk about race and racism today.

Edward O'Byrn, The Philosophical Quarterly