The paradoxical problem of black conservatism and its no less paradoxical solution

The alignment of relative minorities with the liberal tradition is part of the political nature of that tradition; that is not the problem, nor the ethical suprematism with which it justifies this alignment, as part of its dogmatism. What would be a problem is the inability of the conservative strands of these minorities to overcome this; Just because they respond to the contradiction in the same terms in which it is always posed by that liberal tradition, as a moral problem.

Thus they are like two religions confronting each other, in which one has the obvious reason for its moral suprematism; while the other, clinging to the pragmatism of experience and concrete data, cannot support them equally. The problem is dialectical, insofar as the moral argument does not respond to practical or immediate results; but precisely to a sublimated vision of reality, self-justified in that own suprematism.

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Therefore, the conservative tradition does not consider the obsolescence of its principles, which are not universal; as are those of the liberal tradition, although that also means that they are unreal in that sublimity. The confrontation of this sublimity with concrete facts or data, such as a rationality, is absurd; because it is like the postulation of the existence of God against that of its inexistence, something incomprehensible to the other party.

In fact, dialectical development consists in the evolution from liberalism to functional conservatism; displacing the current conservative tradition with its own dogmatism, into a new moral tradition. Hence, for example, as moral, the liberal tradition becomes dogmatic, in a functional conservatism; making morality not the reference function for the determination of existence, but that same determination.

Black conservatism can only overcome this appealing to its marginality, not to suprematism; it is in this way it can overcome liberal dogmatism, but not with another conservatism, but with its pragmatism. In this way, black conservatism –like that of any minority– becomes a functional liberalism; insofar as it does not depend on morality, it does not respond to the liberal contradiction, which is itself incontestable.

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It should be noted that, ultimately, this contradiction comes from the Manichaeism of Christian morality; that by determining even the subsequent understanding of dialectics as a principle, makes insoluble every contradiction. Therefore, the only solution is one that does not respond to the contradiction, but appeals to the very nature of the problems; in this case –of black conservatism–  to the pragmatism of its real and immediate problems –not abstracts.

In the American case, the contradiction goes back to the relationship of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois; that from such an exemplary it would even function as a principle of reference, with its own dialectical and universal value. In this, Washington represents conservative pragmatism, which however is not moral, but factualist; and Du Bois would represent liberal suprematism, even with its moral idealism, anchored in the Western tradition.

Of course, as a historical one, this contradiction is much more ductile and complex, but it serves as a reference; and in this reference, it’s that moral suprematism of Du Bois which fails, in the reality of it’s political manipulation. That, however, does not stablish the black Americans in the conservative triumphalism of its concrete results; because that does not go far as to deny the reality –also palpable– of the social and political injustice of which he is a victim.

However, it does give the black –as an individual– a concrete reference, from which he can develop himself; always establishing a new set of concrete facts, in his existential development, as his own reality.  Thus, faced with the functional conservatism of the liberal tradition, the conservative would function as its liberal complement; offering the necessary space for development –as an individual– for this, with its own referents in these concrete facts.