The Quest for Community and Identity

Robert E. Birt is assistant professor of philosophy at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.

This collection of essays engages two of the most fundamental social and political issues of our time: community and identity. Wrestling with the perplexities of these two issues within the Africana world, the contributors delve into the influences of a postmodern world of globalization with outdated, crumbling forms of identity and sociality. In the wake of such an order, new forms of identity and community must be established.

Part 1 Part 1: Exploring Perplexities of Identity Chapter 2 1. Racism, Historical Ruins, and the Task of Identity Formation Chapter 3 2. To Be or Not to Be Black: Problematics of Racial Identity Chapter 4 3. Postmodernism, Narrative, and the Question of Black Identity Chapter 5 4. Du Bois and Appiah: The Politics of Race and Racial Identity Part 6 Part 2: In Quest of Community: Sociality and Situated Freedom Chapter 7 5. Of the Quest for Freedom As Community Chapter 8 6. Sociality and Community in Black: A Phenomenological Essay Part 9 Part 3: Historical Crises of Identity and Community Chapter 10 7. Visions of Transcendent Community in the Works of Toni Morrison Chapter 11 8. Paulette Nardal, Race Consciousness, and Antillean Letters Chapter 12 9. The Revival of Black Nationalism and the Crisis of Liberal Universalism Chapter 13 10. Commodification and Existence in African American Communities Part 14 Part 4: Liberalism, Postmodernism, and the Quest for Community Chapter 15 11. Black Philosophy As a Challenge to Liberalism Chapter 16 12. Democracy, Transitional Justice, and Postcolonial African Communities Chapter 17 13. Community: What Type of Entity and What Type of Moral Commitment? Chapter 18 14 Theorizing Black Community