Black Theology, Violence, & the Absurdity of Hope

Prior to the decline of BLM, scholars who attempted to embrace group differentiation and resist capital engaged in genealogical ideology critique. Keeanga Yahmatta Taylor argues that BLM should aim for liberation while Christopher Lebron argues that BLM is based in a tradition of equal dignity that values racial progress. Although liberation is a desirable goal, Taylor’s rich historical account avoids proposing it as a method. Cone's black particularity offers ways to use Taylor’s differentiating aim as motivation, not merely a teleology, and politicize Lebron’s appreciation of dignity. Locating a multi-causal account of liberation in particular practices eschews ideological capture by providing chocolate for the water in which protesting publics swim; that is, particularity for ideology. This paper argues that black particularity illustrates a practice of existential discovery that resists ideological conscription. Cone views radical practices that employ collective rage and grief as more meaningful than the instigation of such processes.