GOVT 86.66 Race, Nation, and Sovereignty in Black Political Thought: Between Optimism and Pessimism
From the nation’s founding, doubts about sovereignty, political inclusion, and the future of the United States—especially as a multiracial republic—have shaped American political thought. This course examines the long tradition of political attitudes that emerged in response to those doubts, foregrounding African American thinkers whose ideas often developed in critical tension with, rather than fully within, formal national debate. Beginning with Thomas Jefferson’s racial pessimism and the critique it provoked from figures such as David Walker, the course traces Black traditions of emigration (exit), nationalism, separatism, speculative political thought, and Afropessimism from the eighteenth century to the present. Rather than treating pessimism as resignation or despair, the course explores the tension between optimism and pessimism as a serious mode of political judgment that illuminates the promises and limits of American nationhood. In this tradition, political pessimism often coexists with optimism about Black collective futures, alternative sovereignties, or political formations grounded in self-determination. This course neither endorses nor dismisses pessimism; instead, it seeks to clarify the concept’s historical and political dimensions in order to assess its enduring appeal—and its limits—across past, present, and future debates about American politics.
Department-Specific Course Categories
Government