In the United States today, much interpersonal racism is driven by corrupt forms of self-preservation. Drawing from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, I refer to this as self-love racism. The byproduct of socially-induced racial anxieties and perceived threats to one’s physical or social wellbeing, self-love racism is the protective at­tachment to the racialized dimensions of one’s social status, wealth, privilege, and/or identity. Examples include police officer related shootings of unarmed Black Americans, anti-immigrant sentiment, and the resurgence of unabashed white supremacy. This form of racism is defined less by the introduction of racism into the world and more on the perpetuation of racially unjust socioeconomic and political structures. My theory, therefore, works at the intersection of the interpersonal and structural by offering an account of moral complacency in racist social structures. My goal is to reorient the directionality of philosophical work on racism by questioning the sense of innocence at the core of white ways-of-being.

quote from article: The slogan “Black lives matter” is an ontological, moral, and political exclamation that humanity happens in black. From this point of view, to treat black people as expendable objects that feel no pain and lack reason; to ignore their cries for their children and mothers as their airways are closed and blood flow restricted; or to shoot them multiple times for taking a jog or while sitting in their home, is a crime against humanity. While it might seem odd to need reminding that humanity happens in black, the vociferous criticism of this movement, which takes shape in the counter-slogan “all lives matter,” demonstrates that our nation is unaccustomed to recognizing, and indeed many refuse to acknowledge, humanity in nonwhite terms.

I argue that the key ideas of the movement for Black lives have resonances with Frantz Fanon's ideas
particularly in Black Skin, White Masks. I first demonstrate how the mission to repudiate Black demise
and affirm Black humanity captures Fanon's critique of universal humanism. The fear of the Black body
was central to the testimonies of Darren Wilson, Jeronimo Yanez, and George Zimmerman (the
individuals that shot and killed Mike Brown, Philando Castile, and Trayvon Martin respectively). Fanon
prioritized the role of the body in his account of racism. It is difficult to not see the relevance of
Fanon's analysis when one considers these testimonies. Lastly, I demonstrate how the chants "Black
lives matter," "Hands up, don't shoot," and "I can't breathe" are acknowledgments of the significance
of Black lives and serve as contemporary instances of Fanon's sociodiagnostic approach.