In this contemporary classic, Lewis Gordon presents his iconic, detailed existential phenomenological investigation of antiblack racism as a form of Sartrean bad faith. Bad faith, the attitude in which human beings attempt to evade freedom and responsibility, is treated as a constant possibility of human existence. Antiblack racism, the attitude and practice that involves the construction of black people as fundamentally inferior and subhuman, is examined as an effort to evade the responsibilities of a human and humane world. Gordon argues that the concept of bad faith militates against any human science that is built upon a theory of human nature and as such offers an analysis of antiblack racism that stands as a challenge to our ordinary assumptions of what it means to be human.

A foundational text in black existentialism, this 30th anniversary edition includes a substantial introduction by Mabogo Moreto address the ongoing importance of Gordon’s thought in critiquing and resisting racist bad faith in our contemporary moment.

Lewis R. Gordon is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Global Affairs and head of the Philosophy Department at the University of Connecticut. He lectures and is involved in political and artistic projects across the globe and holds appointments at universities and institutes in Senegal, South Africa, Jamaica, India, and France. He is also honorary president of the Global Center for Advanced Studies, distinguished scholar at The Most Honourable PJ Patterson Centre for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy at The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.