ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the measure for how we understand the importance of a particular tradition of Black political thought. It addresses the problem of racial epistemology and the politics of reconciliation through a description of Schmitt's concept of sovereignty. Black culture can, however, also be perceived as a commodity or direct reification of the experiences that Black people have with the social reality of racism. This politics of cultural expression also reifies and consolidates the conditions of racial subordination as authentic elements of Black life. The shift in racial politics in the US over time could be viewed as an expression of this authority that is obtained by the White community in the act of being able to redefine the relationship between racial communities. In a comprehensive racial polity, the decision of racial difference is not the subject of politics; it is nonpolitical, and occurs outside of the concerns of the social contract.
