National Character

Lebron believes that the US possesses a "flawed national character" and seeks to develop a theory that might "remake" it by focusing on the deconstruction of the systematic racial injustice that has plagued our society (2). In constructing what might constitute our "national character" he gestures to all of racial justice, consistency, moral equality, and social value especially as it relates to the "black identity" (4). That all people should be afforded equal, just treatment is not a new nor controversial idea, yet while it seems as though the US has largely moved on from its severely prejudiced history - one would be hard-pressed to find someone who makes their racism blatant and obvious within the realms of acceptable social behavior - Lebron is concerned that even with this "relative disappearance of explicit racism" we fail to account for the "continued marginalization of blacks and black identity" (2). In this way, as a nation, our general pattern of attitudes and actions and the normative importance we place on our relationships with others are argued to fall dishearteningly short in regard to social justice, staining our national character. 

We see the grim results, but we need a better understanding of what this means. While "black suffering has become much more difficult to catalog," that systematic racial injustice exists poses an "existential threat" to Black Americans by exposing America's "lack of consistency to the idea of moral equality," which, as Lebron points out, "has real cost for black lives" (2). From this we understand two important aspects of national character: it deals in part with internal consistency (we claim to uphold certain values as a society that are not at all translated in our attitudes and actions) and with equality (as inequality "consistently and persistently diminishes the ability of blacks to conceive and/or pursue a good life" (2)). His conception of national character presupposes the moral value of equality, which I personally find no fault with, given the inherent value it holds in a democratic society (which he in fact argues contains the resources for redemption) and the power it holds over the social and political well-being of individuals. In our society, he argues, we have a problem with social value, for "blacks do not occupy an equal place in the scheme of normative attention and concern" that is used to justify the distribution of benefits and their recipients. It follows that our current conception of distributive justice is harmfully limited, as it presumes an equality of social value that we do not possess by failing to acknowledge the "value we fail to accord black identity" (4). Our failure to account for social value in our conception of justice is certainly reflected in our poor national character. 

It seems universally accepted that people can have character. Can institutions have it as well? Lebron feels that in the same way people hold values, our democratic society too holds values such as "fairness, equality, and basic social, political, and civic reciprocity" (9). He goes further, however, claiming that while people come and go, institutions "precede and outlast generations" and lend to a sense of identity in profound ways. Yet people make up institutions, so where does the change come from? Where is social value derived from? If we find that source we will surely find what actually determines our national character beyond a list of values.