Democratic Indignation

Abstract

This essay argues that black Americans writing from outside or at the margins of the democratic polity shed important light on the nature of human dignity and on the political emotion that offers—to oneself and to others—the surest proof of the existence of such dignity: indignation. I focus in particular on four insights of this body of black American political thought: that the presumption of dignity is the basis on which citizenship is conferred, while its denial is the justification by which citizenship is withheld; that dignity’s existence within a person is vouchsafed most effectively by indignation, a flash of emotion that arises in response to the insult of its denial; that even though dignity feels woven into one’s innermost being, it is always vulnerable to social denial and therefore stands in need of social confirmation; that indignation can and should be transformed into a self-opposing disposition that resists complacency and seeks continual reconfiguration, or enlargement, of the demos and of its democratic theory.

Taking tolerance seriously: A proposal from a self-categorization perspective on disapproval and respect.

“…Respect thus manifests itself also as a moral emotion (affective component), moral conviction (cognitive component), and moral practice (behavioral component). The moral significance of respect typically comes to the fore when respect is denied or disrespect is shown, and the recipients of such mistreatment react with resentment or indignation (Bromell, 2013; Honneth, 1992; Jasper, 2014). Ultimately, it is the basic social psychological process of self-categorization and identity formation that underlies the moral significance of respect, and therefore also tolerance.…”

Subversive Semantics in Political and Cultural Discourse

“…The Italian and Latin words used by Machiavelli ("sdegno": Machiavelli 1996 [1531], 370) and Spinoza ("indignatio": Spinoza 1994[1677, 61) convey the characteristic of being an offence against somebody's "dignity". This understanding of indignation as a "proof of existence" (Bromell 2013) of intrinsic dignity and as a sensorium for its violation was reflected on in the context of experiences of slavery and, later, discrimination of Black Americans. Similarly, theories of citizenship and recognition have drawn on the experience of indignation as an indicator of injustice and exclusion in the political realm (Shklar 1990;Honneth 1992;Brighi 2016).…”

Dignity as non-discrimination

“…4 It is in these situations that dignity has most frequently been invoked, and philosophical debates would gain in clarity and depth if the struggle against social inequality and exploitation were taken as the starting point for thinking about human dignity. 5 This article specifies the meaning of dignity by attending closely to the claims of those who have experienced abuse, with special attention to marginalized women who have been subjected to reproductive rights violations in the context of childbirth.…”