Adane Zawdu Gebyanesh’s interview with Lewis Gordon for this issue revisits his first book, Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism, which was first published in 1995 and is due to be republished in a new edition to mark its thirtieth anniversary. Via the book, Gordon and Gebyanesh discuss the phenomenological insight of the physical embodiment of consciousness, the exploration of anti-black racism as a form of self-deceit in bad faith, and its opposite, “critical good faith.” They also discuss Gordon’s writing about Fanon, and his thinking regarding the politics of Israel-Palestine after October 7. In contrast with the tendency to read Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth via one of its chapters, which many understand as legitimizing violence in the struggle against colonialism, Gordon suggests expressing Fanon’s position regarding violence in terms of tragedy. In this way, Gordon says, the use of violence in Fanon becomes “anti-violence,” as an opposite to colonialist violence and to all forms of dehumanization. Based on this point, Gordon highlights the conservative dialectic that is manifested among people on the Israeli left.

https://doi.org/10.70959/tac.59.2024.223240