Some books are so wealthy that it’s tough to articulate an entry level for dialogue; any selection of a place to begin appears to slight the opposite elements of the textual content that deserve headline consideration. Devon Johnson’s Black Nihilism and Antiblack Racism is that this kind of textual content. This provocative and rewarding work explores the existential query of referring to worth by way of the leitmotif of black nihilism. What Johnson demonstrates is that nihilism is a multidimensional phenomenon, coming in quite a lot of varieties, and that the phenomenon of antiblack racism is one which can’t be disentangled from grappling with the issue of nihilism in its multifarious manifestations.
In brief, Johnson argues that antiblack racism emerges hand in hand with modes of weak nihilism that undergird it; a consequence is that, in response to a world formed by the weak nihilism of what Johnson phrases “(European) Man,” black nihilism abounds as a rational response. Nonetheless, it doesn’t comply with that black nihilism is monolithic. Moderately, black nihilism emerges in quite a lot of varieties, together with each optimistic and pessimistic modes. What Johnson contends, although, is that each well being inside an antiblack racist world and liberation from an antiblack racist world in the end rely upon the pursuit of a selected mode of black nihilism—particularly, sturdy black nihilism.
In what follows, I want to not supply an total evaluation of Johnson’s textual content. So far as these issues go, my evaluation, in short, is that this textual content is a must-read for anybody excited by Black existential philosophy or the philosophical query of nihilism. Moderately than give a blow-by-blow of the entire textual content’s subjects and arguments, I search right here to have interaction the textual content by way of the applying of its argument to the query of existential maturity. This can be a subject broached by Johnson and utilized deftly in the middle of his argument. Nonetheless, I want to present that, whereas Johnson demonstrates the relevance of existential maturity in understanding black nihilism, Johnson’s case for sturdy black nihilism—and, specifically, a liberationist orientation inside it—in flip has implications for a way we conceive of existential maturity.
Nihilisms Weak and Sturdy
Black existential philosophy might typically increase the query of worth by way of two instructions. One course is to begin with the philosophical downside of a world that devalues Blackness and overvalues whiteness. The opposite course is to begin with the humanity of Black folks, from which emerges an account of human life as one wherein decisions about what and find out how to worth usually are not solely commonplace however inescapable.
Johnson’s textual content, like a lot although under no circumstances all of Black existential philosophy, gives an evaluation that begins on the conjunction of those two instructions: to exist as Black is to face the query of what and find out how to worth in a world saturated with the belief that Blackness ought to not be valued, or a minimum of ought to not be valued as extremely as whiteness. Johnson demonstrates that working by way of this conjunction calls, in the end, for an evaluation of nihilism.
Nihilism negates the belief that the values by which human beings should reside are decided exterior to human company. Seriousness treats values as impositions from above—from God, mum or dad, church, state, metaphysics, and many others. The nihilist negates such seriousness, demonstrating that values are contingent on human selection. Nonetheless, Johnson reveals, an awesome vary of errors come from conflating explicit types of nihilism with nihilism generally. All nihilisms negate (or, certainly, nihilate) the presumption that we should reside in keeping with ready-made values. Nonetheless, many nihilisms default to another presumption for which, in impact, the options that the nihilist gives seem almost as ready-made as those who the nihilist has nihilated. This course Johnson names weak nihilism, which “responds to the autumn of conventional values by denying the worth of human valuing altogether” (40).
For “(European) Man,” the flip to modernity events a nihilation of conventional values. Modernity rejects the strictures of reproducing the values of outdated. But what arises for (European) Man isn’t modernity as such however what could also be termed Euromodernity, the place the which means of modernity as a philosophical idea is muted and subordinated to the crucial of white dominion over the globe.
Therefore, what’s produced is a weak nihilism. The values of the normal metaphysics of Christendom fall, however the best way wherein they fall is structured by two wishes. The primary of those is a melancholic need to interchange its conventional metaphysics in a brand new guise, a want to return to the fallen values. The second of those is a novel need to subjugate the globe. The dialectical decision of those two wishes is, in impact, the relative deification of whiteness. Philosophically, the essential tenets of modernity name for valuing human valuing. However (European) Man reconfigures the discourse of modernity in order that it’s a weapon nihilating all different traditions whereas affirming Europe’s license to dominate the globe no matter its skill to provide values price valuing.
The choice to weak nihilism is powerful nihilism, which “not solely rejects decadent values, however seeks creation of how of valuing past weak nihilism” (40). What is likely to be termed a real modernity, versus the “modernity” enmeshed in Euromodern presuppositions, would deal with the human capability for value-creation as requiring the trouble to provide values by way of which future generations might proceed to provide values.
The plain level to make right here is that white supremacism is premised on denying the human skill to provide values by way of a provincial affirmation of the white skill to take action. For Euromodernity, sturdy nihilism as such is verboten, although its attraction could also be strategically appropriated as ideological justification for white hegemony. In different phrases, Euromodernity claims that it is just white individuals who have the capability to create values price valuing; the worth of “values of shade” is negated a priori.
The logic of Euromodernity culminates in its peculiar expressions by way of antiblack racism. Antiblack racism takes the type of asserting that the entire normal defects supposedly current the place whiteness is missing take absolute kind within the context of black folks and black peoples. Therefore, sturdy nihilism by definition ought to affirm black valuing and black value-creation; antiblack racism by definition negates these. Ergo, (European) Man’s embrace of modernity negates modernity’s philosophical hyperlink to sturdy nihilism by way of a weak nihilistic attachment to valuing whiteness and disvaluing blackness.
It’s out of this context that black nihilism emerges. Black folks inhabit a world the place antiblack racism features as a “conventional” worth. To negate antiblack racism, then, requires some type of nihilism. One interpretation of “black nihilism” is that it’s merely any type of nihilism expressed and/or acted upon by black folks. A second interpretation can be that it’s a type of nihilism that emerges as an effort to negate antiblack racism’s operate as a standard worth. For the second, I’ll assume this second interpretation to be true, although later we’ll return to some problems that come up in reintroducing the primary interpretation.
Therefore, black nihilism seeks the autumn of antiblack racism as a supply of conventional values. Johnson demonstrates, nonetheless, that the majority analyses of black nihilism have suffered from a slender and reductive conception of nihilism. Most analyses occlude that nihilism is available in each weak and robust modalities, and inside these modes there are a number of varieties.
As an example, two types of weak nihilism are pessimism and optimism, respectively. Whereas many individuals use these phrases in some ways, allow us to deal with their which means to an evaluation of nihilism as Johnson makes amply evident. It’s typically mentioned that optimists see the glass half full and pessimists see the glass as half empty. The issue with such a characterization is that any cheap observer ought to have the ability to be aware that, by definition, any glass which is half empty can also be half full, and vice versa. The pressure of pessimism and optimism isn’t epistemic, because the metaphor suggests, however axiological.
For the optimist, the religion that issues shall be higher warrants, in impact, embracing hope for deliverance. Such hope is named for as a result of it’s evident that the values purported to render the world intelligible are lower than the duty. However as an alternative of searching for options, the optimist merely embraces the notion that benevolent turns of occasions are destined to intervene. The optimist avers that the shortcomings of our values to this point are overridden by future, and such future is an inevitably optimistic one. Optimism prompts weak nihilism since it may be clear-eyed in regards to the insufficiency of conventional values however requires a perception within the inevitability of enchancment as an alternative to real tasks of value-creation.
For the pessimist, in contrast, conventional values clearly fail, however such failure is taken as conclusive proof of the failure of any current or future acts of value-creation as effectively. The failure of valuative attitudes 1, 2, and three is taken as conclusive proof of the failure of valuative attitudes 4, 5, 6, and onward as much as n. The failure of our values to this point, for the pessimist, ensures the failure of any values by any means.
Within the context of black nihilism, optimism and pessimism emerge as significant methods of negating the pressure of antiblack racism as a price to be taken significantly, however with out calling for the manufacturing of other values as such. In Johnson’s evaluation, Cornel West is taken to activity for attacking basically a strawman caricature of black nihilism. West sees nihilism, as in impact, merely a type of pessimistic detachment. Therefore, West’s argument is in opposition to a selected type of weak nihilism, relatively than nihilism generally. As such, West’s protection of an optimistic Christianity quantities to posing one type of weak nihilism in opposition to one other.
What Johnson defends as a substitute is powerful black nihilism. Sturdy black nihilism, as black nihilism, seeks to negate the operate of antiblack racism as a standard worth. As a robust nihilism, furthermore, sturdy black nihilism affirms the prospect for value-creation in opposition to antiblack racism. Sturdy nihilism takes duty for changing conventional values with new ones. Therefore, sturdy black nihilism seeks to interchange antiblack racism as a standard supply of values with new modes of black value-creation.
This evaluation implies a selection between sturdy black nihilism and weak black nihilism. Johnson’s evaluation of types of weak black nihilism, akin to West’s prophetic Christian black optimism, Derrick Bell’s black pessimistic “racial realism,” and Frank Wilderson’s Afropessimism, all affirm the selection of sturdy black nihilism over these weak nihilistic options. Nonetheless, what Johnson’s evaluation implies is one thing else of relevance in understanding the connection between weak and robust nihilisms. Lots of the types of weak black nihilism have their forerunners in sturdy black nihilism. Afropessimism, as an example, appeals to Frantz Fanon as a theoretical forbear. But, as Johnson persuasively reveals, Fanon’s work reveals him to obviously be a robust black nihilist.
What this seeming paradox reveals is an existential problematic inside sturdy nihilism generally. The weak nihilist wants solely keep a nihiliation of conventional values; the weak nihilist’s static various could be retained indefinitely. One can be a weak nihilist in a method that one arguably can’t be a robust nihilist, since sturdy nihilism implies an existential orientation towards worth. Therefore, to decide on sturdy nihilism over the competing options isn’t a one-off affair; it’s, relatively, an ongoing mission. What are the implications of this for understanding sturdy black nihilism? To reply, allow us to first flip to the existential query of maturity.
Existential Maturity
Johnson’s textual content engages my very own work on the query of maturity. I, in flip, have already elsewhere employed Johnson’s account in making sense of the connection between punk rock, nihilism, and maturity. Let me right here supply a quick philosophical sketch of existential maturity earlier than returning to the query of its relation to black nihilism.
If we conceive of an existent as one who confronts the query of what to grow to be, and thus is enmeshed in duty, then the maturity of the existent raises the query of ongoing and irreducible tasks. Existence poses, in the end, not solely the matter of duty however duty for duty. This recursive construction implies that to exist is to face infinite duty (or tasks).
Maturity, in such a context, can’t imply to have merely arrived on the apex of a linear progress; maturity thought-about existentially isn’t a threshold situation of license however relatively an ongoing and anguished demand. That’s to say, social relations might set up strains between those that rely as legitimate wielders of energy and authority and those that don’t, and such strains are sometimes characterised by way of baby vs. grownup. Nonetheless, these strains additionally exclude many real adults alongside different strains (racial, sexual, carceral, and many others.). Therefore, what’s it subject in these schemas is the distinction between being one who experiences grownup license and current as one who confronts grownup tasks. Existential maturity is worried with the latter relatively than the previous—although this in flip means that inequalities and absurdities within the realm of the previous are points that the latter should face.
Existential immaturity, then, emerges the place the trouble to worth one duty—typically, although not all the time, within the type of merely a duty to get what one needs—to the purpose of its negating different tasks. Existential immaturity seeks to disregard or efface the tragic construction of grownup tasks, whereby it’s typical that even in doing what is true, one nonetheless produces hurt. To the immature, such hurt is handled as if it fell by the wayside, swallowed up by the purported rectitude of 1’s conduct: “Why ought to I apologize for hurting you? I did what it was proper to do.” To the mature, although, there stays the matter of duty for the hurt one has wrought even the place one has executed the appropriate factor.
From this, a primary relationship between existential maturity and robust nihilism generally follows. To merely settle for and affirm conventional values on the idea of their being inherited is immature: it quantities to accepting such values merely as a result of they’ve been valued, however not as a result of they’re precious. What is effective, in existential phrases, is contingent on choices that haven’t but been introduced into being. That’s to say, the existentially precious is effective relative not solely to what’s however to what could be made to be sooner or later. Maturity calls for a duty for such future choices and future values. Therefore, maturity implies duty for value-creation. Maturity thus calls for nihilism, because it requires nihilating the notion that conventional values should maintain sway. But maturity additionally calls for a rejection of weak nihilism, since weak nihilism negates duty for producing various values.
These parts counsel why, for black folks, sturdy black nihilism and existential maturity coalesce. Existential maturity calls for sturdy nihilism. Certainly, the reverse seems additionally to be the case: implicit within the very notion of sturdy nihilism is an affirmation relatively than denial of what existential maturity requires. So, prima facie, sturdy nihilism and existential maturity are axiological bedfellows.
Nonetheless, I want to counsel that this floor stage evaluation of existential maturity and robust nihilism doesn’t exhaust the size of the connection between existential maturity and robust black nihilism. Allow us to now flip to this query in particular.
Sturdy “black” Nihilism and Sturdy “Black” Nihilism
As said above, we will conceive of sturdy black nihilism both by way of a robust nihilism adopted by black folks or as a robust nihilism adopted in opposition to antiblack racism’s operate as conventional worth. Within the context explored in Johnson’s textual content, we would argue that the distinction between these two conceptions is irrelevant, for the reason that query is of how black folks reply to antiblack racism; therefore, sturdy black nihilism emerges on the conjunction of those two conceptions. However right here I want to present that taking the disjunct significantly helps make clear each a extra refined argument inside Johnson’s textual content in addition to issues of the broader applicability of Johnson’s textual content past what is straight away apparent.
If we conceive of types of sturdy black nihilism that don’t match each of those conceptions, then we might begin with these types of sturdy black nihilism manifest within the lives of black those who nonetheless doesn’t search to abolish antiblack racism’s operate as supply of conventional values. Existentially, many black folks might search to not have their personal values decided by the pressure of antiblack racism; they might search to buck custom themselves, with out searching for to supplant these traditions as sources of worth for others. Therefore, sturdy black nihilism as such might not entail a dedication to uprooting antiblack racism. Therefore, in different phrases, there’s the problem of a black existentialism which isn’t black liberationist.
From such a standpoint, black folks would wish to provide various values of their very own, however the operate of such various values wouldn’t be to topple antiblack racism. Such a view requires black folks affirming their humanity (or, at minimal, their standing as value-creators), however not essentially thereby affirming the worth of blackness. The decision to sturdy nihilism right here, then, stems from an acknowledgment of the agent as an existent, relatively than a dedication to eradicate antiblack racism. Sturdy nihilism right here seems as a method that particular person black folks, and even explicit communities of black folks stopping in need of an ecumenical Pan-Africanism, can take possession of their conditions by articulating new values to reside by. Whereas that is in apply an embrace of black company within the concrete, it’s delinked from an affirmation of black company within the summary, which in flip implies that it might delink from concrete struggles for black liberation as such. This doesn’t imply that such nihilism is essentially against liberation. Moderately, what it might search is “my liberation” however not black liberation as black liberation.
In mild of this course, it have to be famous that Johnson’s argument about sturdy black nihilism works at two ranges. The primary is to determine the overall superiority of sturdy black nihilism over weak black nihilism as a response to antiblack racism. The second, although, is to determine the prevalence, or a minimum of maturity, of what I’ll time period sturdy Black nihilism over the type of sturdy black nihilism described within the previous two paragraphs. Sturdy Black nihilism, in short, is a species of sturdy black nihilism that takes significantly a dedication to black liberation as such—one upshot of which is its re-conceiving of the latter as “Black” liberation, capitalized.
The typicality of sturdy black nihilism (and its philosophical cousin, black existentialism) being paired with commitments to Black liberation might cloud the relevance of this level. Nevertheless it shouldn’t be forgotten that many black folks elect to undertake values of their very own, to provide and create new values, and even to be concerned in communal efforts to provide various values with out essentially being dedicated to Black liberation. Worth-creation by black folks needn’t take the type of searching for to eradicate antiblack racism and produce in regards to the liberation of all black folks. Examples in each day life are myriad, however even within the realm of educational scholarship such orientations could be plainly discerned. As an example, postmodern efforts to deconstruct blackness increase the problem of value-creation—of the play of indicators—whereas rejecting, on quite a lot of grounds, the worth of Black liberation as such. Therefore, taking deconstruction relatively than liberation because the avowed path to value-creation, this type of sturdy black nihilism might reject sturdy Black nihilism in favor of, in impact, sturdy “black” nihilism.
Sturdy Black nihilism, in contrast, is powerful black nihilism that additionally values Black liberation as such, and, certainly, values Black liberation as a supply of subsequent Black value-creation. Using the capital “B” right here is thus reflective of the actual kind this orientation takes in manifesting the “power” of its sturdy nihilism. From the standpoint of black nihilism generally, whether or not weak or sturdy, it’s not a on condition that blackness itself be valued, not to mention transvalued. That’s to say, black pessimistic nihilism, as an example, might take the type of negating many conventional values with out negating antiblack racism as such. There isn’t a necessity that black nihilism worth blackness. Nonetheless, the place an evaluation of antiblack racism results in the conclusion that it has falsely constructed blackness, a distinction between “blackness” as a racist, colonial imposition and “Blackness” as a self-affirming appellation emerges. We see this motion, as an example, in W.E.B. Du Bois’s lengthy advocacy of capitalizing “Negro”; Du Bois was effectively conscious that “negro” was an arbitrary time period imposed on black folks, however he understood that Black folks might select to see themselves as a folks and therefore embrace being “Negro.”
What I’m terming sturdy Black nihilism denotes these types of sturdy black nihilism that affirm Blackness. Such affirmation denotes a nihilation of antiblack racism, however the place the dedication to provide various values calls, in the end, to transcend nihilation towards eradication. As such, sturdy Black nihilism affirms the worth of Black folks pursuing liberation by way of which subsequent generations of Black value-creation might grow to be doable.
Johnson’s argument on the second stage, then, could be characterised as follows: existential maturity, as an crucial confronted by black folks, requires favoring sturdy Black nihilism over merely sturdy black nihilism. In different phrases, existential maturity helps Johnson’s case for liberation, which is tied to an account of Fanon on value-creation in addition to the broader custom of existentialists akin to Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre for whom liberation was axiologically indispensable to a real existentialism. In that respect, it must be famous that regardless of Johnson’s criticism of West, he firmly agrees with West on the query of Black liberationism; the purpose of departure is that West’s view implies that weak black nihilism is appropriate with Black liberation, whereas for Johnson these are in the end incompatible.
A part of the explanation for that is that, as famous above, the existential dimension of nihilism means that, for the sturdy nihilist, the mission of being a price creator is a vexed one. For the non-liberationist sturdy black nihilist, the issue turns into one in all, in impact, having to provide values of 1’s personal unbiased of a world of different black value-creators. At a sure level, a strict self-reliance poses the issue of a need to be one’s sole supply of values. Whereas Euromodern interpretations of existentialism typically take this flip, Johnson’s formulation of sturdy nihilism stipulates neither a solipsistic nor individualistic constraint on value-creation. Accountability for values can’t be understood to be so shared that the person’s duty disappears, however this doesn’t imply in flip that the person faces such duty in isolation. For the sturdy black nihilist, then, the nihilation of Black liberation as a significant supply of 1’s personal values is, in the end, a flip away from the prospect of normal Black collaboration in value-creation.
Therefore, there’s a type of sturdy black nihilism which is just sturdy nihilism adopted by black folks going through an antiblack racist world, after which there’s one other kind, sturdy Black nihilism, which many black folks undertake (as Black folks) as a dedication to liberate Black folks at giant. But if many Black folks undertake sturdy Black nihilism, does it comply with that solely Black folks might achieve this?
From Sturdy “Black” Nihilism Again to Existential Maturity
Within the non-liberationist mode of sturdy black nihilism, it’s straightforward to see why this suggestion poses a philosophical dilemma. For non-black folks to affirm the roles of black folks as value-creators whereas refusing to hunt to eradicate antiblack racism implies, in the end, a collapse again into types of weak nihilism. Non-liberationist sturdy black nihilism articulated by a black speaker within the first individual is intelligible: “I, a black individual, shall be a robust nihilist; this shall be my response to how antiblack racism impacts me.” Nonetheless, from the standpoint of a non-black speaker, the declare begins to decrease into absurdity; in the end we’re left with, “sturdy nihilism for some black folks, however not for all.”
Therefore, taking significantly an anti-liberationist sturdy black nihilism from a non-black perspective might operate in the end as a collapse again into weak nihilism. It takes a place on the duty of others to create values whereas refusing to work to make doable the position of all others in value-creation. Contemplate, as an example, these non-black folks whose response to antiblack racism is that they have to commit their lives to deconstructing racial classes. Such deconstruction might, after all, be linked to efforts in opposition to white supremacy and for Black liberation. However the place it isn’t—the place it quantities to easily a dedication to deconstruction—it might occur to create room or assets for some black deconstructors however doesn’t search to provide a world wherein all Black folks can operate as brokers of value-creation.
What stays, although, is the opportunity of non-black folks adopting sturdy Black nihilism. In different phrases, can individuals who determine or are recognized as white, Latinx, Asian, and many others. be proponents of sturdy Black nihilism? As I see it, they’ll. Such folks can undertake the view that the normal values of an antiblack racist world have to be nihilated and existents share duty for producing various values, the place the mission of manufacturing these various values each necessitates and relies upon upon the mission of Black liberation.
Nonetheless, what’s concerned isn’t merely an affirmation alongside the strains of “Black Lives Matter.” For sturdy Black nihilism, conventional values should fall and circumstances have to be produced whereby Black value-creation may help set afoot a brand new world and a brand new humanity. Non-black folks denouncing antiblack racism isn’t, by itself, sturdy Black nihilism. Sturdy Black nihilism can’t be had on a budget. It’s, sadly, fairly typical for a lot of non-black folks to undertake a view that takes significantly the significance of denying that antiblack racism ought to operate as a standard worth however that stops in need of a real affirmation of Black liberation and Black value-creation. Certainly, we’ve got the acquainted phenomenon of the one that can proudly fly a “Black Lives Matter” banner however whose views on questions of worth and value-creation quantity to an implicit retreat into “All Lives Matter.” Nonetheless, to notice the atypicality of non-black folks adopting sturdy Black nihilistic views is to not reveal that that is unattainable.
Provided that, we might come full circle on the query of existential maturity. Johnson has proven why this issues throughout the debates on black nihilism, pushing black nihilism towards what I’m terming sturdy Black nihilism. But it strikes me that the identical case could be made about existential maturity generally. To the diploma that the existent inhabits an antiblack world, the query of how to reply to that world’s values is an existential query. One response is to easily reproduce them uncritically. One other response, that of weak nihilism, is to nihilate them with out the trouble to interchange them. However we’ve got seen why it’s that, if one values existential maturity, then one ought to show to sturdy nihilism. And if one inhabits an antiblack world—and, specifically, if one inhabits such a world in such a method that one might profit from its antiblackness—then “sturdy nihilism for me, however not for them” quantities to an implicitly weak nihilism, much like Beauvoir’s characterization of the passionate man.
Therefore, it appears cheap to conclude that, for anybody searching for existential maturity, it might be requisite to pursue the mission of sturdy Black nihilism. I don’t say, “to be a robust Black nihilist,” since this formulation raises various questions, significantly in mild of the existentialist dictum that existence precedes essence. Averring that one is a robust Black nihilist doesn’t quantity to taking significantly the worth of sturdy Black nihilism; certainly, such a proclamation might as simply quantity to unhealthy religion in regards to the actuality of what one really values. But if the goal of existential maturity itself demonstrates the folly of the mission of “being” a robust Black nihilist, it appears to equally name forth the explanations that any existent should worth sturdy Black nihilism. To decide on to reside in a world of antiblack racism with out combating for a world of Black freedom in value-creation is to decide on to breed the antiblackness of the world, whether or not partially or in complete.
A Concluding Be aware
I said above that Black Nihilism and Antiblack Racism is a must-read for college kids of Black existential philosophy and people with curiosity within the philosophical subject of nihilism. What I’ve tried to indicate, although, is why Johnson’s argument is related to these involved with existential questions generally; to merely examine “generic” existentialism on the grounds that such issues could be understood unbiased of questions of race quantities, briefly, to a dedication to existential immaturity. Furthermore, whereas the character of Johnson’s argumentative engagements might fall outdoors the realm of what’s thought-about acquainted and even intelligible from the standpoint of many ethical philosophers, Johnson’s arguments—although important of moralism—are nonetheless of profound ethical relevance. Related factors could be made about Johnson’s axiology, philosophical anthropology, and even relevance to areas akin to epistemology and metaphysics. In conclusion, then, I might append to my advice the next: that Johnson’s textual content is one which calls for consideration from anybody searching for to make use of philosophy to provide higher concepts and/or a greater world.
Thomas Meagher
Thomas Meagher is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Sam Houston State University. He makes a speciality of Africana philosophy, philosophy of race, phenomenology, political principle, existentialism, and philosophy of science. Meagher earned his PhD on the College of Connecticut in 2018 and has beforehand been a Visiting Assistant Professor at Quinnipiac College, Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy on the College of Memphis, and a W. E. B. Du Bois Visiting Scholar Fellow at College of Massachusetts, Amherst.
