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Seeing Black Lives Matter and the Alt-Right Through an Existential Lens: from Responses to Death to Rebellion and Revolution

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Seeing Black Lives Matter and the Alt-Right Through an Existential Lens: from Responses to Death to Rebellion and Revolution SEEING BLACK LIVES MATTER AND THE ALT-RIGHT THROUGH AN EXISTENTIAL LENS: FROM RESPONSES TO DEATH TO REBELLION AND REVOLUTION A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Matthew Stein December 2020 Examining Committee Members: Heath Fogg Davis, Advisory Chair, Political Science Barbara Ferman, Political Science Chloé Bakalar, Political Science Rosalind P. Petchesky, External Member, City University of New York ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the potential existential roots of contemporary American social movements. I extract an existential social movement theory from Albert Camus’s philosophy that can elucidate surprising similarities and tactical differences across ongoing movements. I then apply the theory to Black Lives Matter and the Alt- Right which helps demonstrate that both movements express existential anxiety related to collective, racialized death. The social movement theory also clarifies the movements’ divergent political tactics as Black Lives Matter responds to existential anxiety by collectively acting to relieve immediate Black suffering and death which I argue is a Camusian rebellion. The Alt-Right conversely responds to existential anxiety by directing their energies towards achieving a teleological goal of racial homogeneity which I argue is a Camusian revolution. I use a variety of first-person sources including memoirs, interviews, and undercover exposés to support my thesis that Black Lives Matter and the Alt-Right are both responding to feelings of racialized existential anxiety, although they traverse disparate pathways. While the dissertation is primarily focused on racially motivated social movements, I argue that American environmental activists can learn from, and emulate Black Lives Matter’s tactics. Environmental activists argue that climate change is an existential crisis, and the anxiety of the death and devastation of climate catastrophe underlies much of today’s climate activism. Black Lives Matter has successfully transformed existential anxiety over state sanctioned Black death into meaningful and immediate reforms, without sacrificing its radical critiques of racial capitalism, mass incarceration, and white ii supremacy. I argue that environmental activists can likewise energize their existential anxieties into reforms that slow climate change, while continuing to challenge systemic degradation of the global environment. I conclude the dissertation by examining the 2020 Black Lives Matter activism in response to the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. Ongoing and recent Black Lives Matter protests are rooted in the same collectively anxious response to Black death and have achieved even greater sociopolitical and cultural changes than the protests of years prior, providing further evidence for my thesis. iii Dedicated to the family I lost along this journey from starting college through obtaining a doctorate. “Absurdity is king, but love saves us from it.” – Albert Camus. Max Must (1924-2011) Benjamin Geigerman (1989-2011) June Must (1929-2013) Annette Stein (1932-2017) Arnold Stein (1930-2017) iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have received a great deal of support, assistance, and encouragement throughout the writing of this dissertation. I want to first thank my supervisor, Professor Heath Fogg-Davis, who has read countless drafts of this work. Heath, your help and advice were paramount to getting me from a starting point so distant to this final product. Maybe more than anything, I want to thank you for the times we spoke about my work in your office with a sense of dark humor; yes the work is serious and yes it is on death, but looking at such a daunting work with a smile was refreshing and helpful beyond words. I want to thank Professor Barbara Ferman and Professor Chloé Bakalar for agreeing to be on my committee, for providing consistent, thoughtful feedback, and for pushing and challenging me to produce the best work possible. Finally, Professor Rosalind Petchesky who shaped my thinking as a political theorist, who oversaw my first project on Albert Camus when I was an undergraduate at Hunter College, and who – all these years later – graciously agreed to be my external reader. Professor Petchesky, if you never suggested that I should get a Ph.D., I don’t think it would have crossed my mind. I want to thank Professor Hillel Soifer and Professor Robin Kolodny for being my other ears, for looking at my work from different lenses, for helping me navigate the dissertation process, the job market, and graduate school at Temple. Thank you Joseph Schwartz for being my mentor and my advisor through the early portion of my time at Temple. I also want to thank two professors who were instrumental in my academic growth and achievement: Professor Frank Le Veness who, years after I graduated from St. John’s University with my Master of Arts, continues to have my back and look out for v me, and Professor William Byrne who has always been kind, understanding, and willing to help and chat about politics, political theory, and higher education. To my longtime friends, and my Temple confidantes who have stuck with me through this journey and who have listened to me drone on about things in which they have no serious interest, I really appreciate it. There is no way I can really make it up to you all because your friendship and encouragement have gotten me through some incredibly difficult times. My family, perhaps obviously, without whom I literally would not be here. My parents have always been supportive of me, even when this goal was seemingly out of reach. You let me follow my own calling and encouraged me to forge my own path in life. Maybe I took the least conventional means to get here, but without your help, I would never have made it to the finish line. Finally, to Nikki. When we met during college, neither of us could have ever imagined this. Back in 2009, getting a doctorate was not even slightly a thought in my mind. You always believed in me. You picked up and moved to Philadelphia. You started and finished your Master’s program. You accomplished some incredible goals and you should be so proud of yourself and all that you achieved. We have a dog! Now Katie will forever be a part of this journey. At the same time that you were working as hard as I know you did, you stood beside me every step of the way, down my long and winding road. There are no words that can adequately capture my gratitude; thank you is not even close. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................................v CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 Defining the Bounds of Existentialism ....................................................................3 Political Theoretical Treatments of Social Movements ...........................................8 Theoretical Analyses of Social Movements: Situating the Context ............9 Theoretical Analyses of Black Lives Matter .............................................14 Theoretical Analyses of the Alt-Right .......................................................21 Conclusion .............................................................................................................27 2. EXTRACTING THE CAMUSIAN THEORY ............................................................30 Phase One: Death and Existential Anxiety as the Primary Existential Concern ............................................................................................................33 Phase Two: Existential Anxiety and the Revolt Against the Absurdity of Human Existence .............................................................................................38 Camus’s Rejection of Suicide ....................................................................39 Camus’s Rejection of Religion ..................................................................41 Camus’s Revolt Against the Absurd ..........................................................43 vii Phase Three: Camus’s Conqueror – Turning Outwards Towards the Political ............................................................................................................45 Phase Four: Camus’s Support of Rebellion and Retort of Revolution ..................50 Conclusion .............................................................................................................59 3. ON THE TWO CASES: WHY BLACK LIVES MATTER AND THE ALT- RIGHT ARE FIT FOR COMPARISON .....................................................................61 Black Lives Matter and the Alt-Right as Anti-Hierarchical Movements ..............62 Black Lives Matter, the Alt-Right and the Rejection of Formal Politics ...............68 The Role of Identity in Black Lives Matter and the Alt-Right ..............................79 How Black Lives Matter and the Alt-Right Conceive of Race .................80 The Role of Gender in Black Lives Matter and the Alt-Right ...................85 Conclusion .............................................................................................................92 4.
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