Civic Tenderness: Love’s Role in Achieving Justice

Martha Nussbaum’s work Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice identifies the role that compassion plays in motivating citizens in a just society. I expand on this discussion by considering how attitudes of indifference pose a challenge to the extension of compassion in our society. If we are indifferent to others who are in situations of need, we are not equipped to experience compassion for them. Building on Nussbaum’s account, I develop an analytic framework for the public emotion of Civic Tenderness to combat indifference. Civic tenderness is an orientation of concern that is generated for people and groups that are vulnerable in our society. For example, while we are all vulnerable to having material needs, some people are more vulnerable depending on their personal, social, political, economic, or environmental situations. I focus on two social injustices that largely affect African American and African descended people in America—poverty and the American Criminal Justice System. Whereas compassion responds to suffering, tenderness responds to vulnerability. Since occupying a situation of suffering implies having been vulnerable to suffering, vulnerability is prior to suffering and tenderness is prior to compassion. Civic tenderness is the expansion of tenderness among a society’s members, institutions, or systems. I argue that its expansion is initiated and sustained by a process called tenderization. Tenderization adjusts our perception of situations of vulnerability and motivates us to protect the vulnerable. Additionally, I propose a plan to initiate this process. I suggest that the state’s role will be to increase the recognition of situational vulnerability for groups like the imprisoned and the impoverished. This recognition encourages the society to adopt legislation considerate of the historical circumstances that caused a particular group’s vulnerability. In addition to legislative safety nets, I suggest the state should tenderize its citizens in order to reintegrate vulnerable citizens into society by giving them a sense of self-respect. As an exercise in non-ideal political theory, this research draws on social/political philosophy, moral and social psychology, and political science to provide an interdisciplinary perspective of the problem and possible solutions. Acknowledgements Writing Civic Tenderness has been one of the most challenging things I have ever done. Four years ago, when I set out to develop Civic Tenderness I did not yet understand much about the undertaking. I was unaware of how low the project would take me: there was much confusion, frustration, anger, sadness, and anxiety. I was also unaware of the abundance of joy I’d experience when I’d complete a paragraph or hearing that my advisor Dr. Warren Herold liked my ideas or thought they were “on the right track.” Yet, four years later, here I sit writing the acknowledgments for the project. The journey has been full of many challenges and triumphs both large and small in scale. More importantly, my journey was made possible only through the undeserved love, support, and encouragement many of you have extended to me throughout this period—providing me with light and meaning, when there was none. This work would not have been possible if it were not for my advisor Dr. Warren Herold and my mentor Dr. Oksana Maksymchuk. Warren is probably one of the busiest people I know; still, his patience, understanding, and insights were things that I came to expect and to value. The knowledge and insight you have imparted me with—especially about sympathy and perspective-taking—are things I will try my best to keep with me always. I deeply appreciate the abundance of feedback that Oksana provided on my writing. It was because of this that I felt like draft after draft, paper after paper, I was developing and getting better as a writer. She also gave me confidence and strength to get rid of entire drafts and rework ideas anew—practices that have become virtuous habits. Thank you both. I’ve been lucky to receive perspectives from people of different nations having presented material on civic tenderness in Canada and having conversations about tenderness and justice with citizens of Ireland and Spain. My time in Europe was also inspirational in other respects as their magnificent architecture reminded me of the power that buildings can have to make us experience powerful emotions such as awe and wonder. Substantial sections of this work developed out of a series of talks and papers given at The Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, The Eros Love as sensual Intelligence Conference, and the University of Arkansas African and African American Studies Dissertation Fellowship Symposium. I would like to thank both audience members and organizers for facilitating thoughtful and constructive dialogues focused on Civic Tenderness. Various notes from these sessions proved as valuable sources of motivation and insight. For comments and conversations on Civic Tenderness and other related topics, I’m grateful for Kathryn Zawisza Bailey, Caree Ann Marie Banton, Zach Biondi, Myisha Cherry, Jasmin Clardy, Reginald Clark, April Contway, Pearl Dowe, Kimberly Ann Harris, Marc Lamont Hill, Chike Jeffers, Denise James, Carrie Ichikawa Jenkins, Sharese King, Niko Kolodny, Richard Lee, Demi McCoy, Torsten Menge, Martha Nussbaum, Mason Marshall, Daveon Swan, Calvin White, my students at the University of Arkansas and Pepperdine University and Members of my PAGES Reading Group. I am also deeply appreciative of the generous financial support of the University of Arkansas’ Philosophy Department and African and African American Studies Department. As an African and African American Studies Dissertation Fellow I was able to travel to conferences and libraries that were essential to the development of this project. I was also pushed to think about he ways that this dissertation directly impacts the situation of African and African descended people in America. Most importantly, I thank my loving and supportive family. Throughout it all, you guys were my haven and my solitude. You guys have watched me cry and have allowed me to. You all’s words have filled me up with strength and wisdom. Your hugs and smiles have filled me with joy. Grandmother and Dad, thank you for allowing me to blab on about Civic Tenderness and trying your earnest to engage with the ideas. I also appreciate being able to sit in my dad’s barbershop and absorb the thoughts and perspectives of the patrons always coming with energy, thoughtfulness, and sometimes two week old fades and going with laughs and fresh haircuts. Grandmother, although I tell you think all the time, I must say it here: Your care saved my life. I am forever grateful for your overwhelming love and support for and of me. I do not know what I would have done without you. You introduced me to reading and helped me fall in love with it. It helped that many of the authors we had in our library were Black and themselves tried in earnest to think critically about justice and the Black American experience. It included, W.E.B Du Bois, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Junior, and Eldridge Cleaver. I cannot repay you for all you have meant to me, but as Tupac Shakur said, “my plan is to show you that I understand”. To Monique Arrington, your sacrifices cannot be measured. I am deeply grateful for the person that you are and I will always love you for it. To my son, Josiah, you mean so much to me and all of this has been for you. You are Daddy’s biggest fan and even at 5 years old, critic. Words cannot express what it has felt like to watch you grow up in to yourself and in to your Black body. This project is about and for you in both purpose and content. Daddy loves you and is always proud of you Mally. Granny, thank you for leading the prayer warriors to fight on my behalf; always reminding me to “keep the faith”. To my Mom and Sister Jordan I love you both to life and I appreciate all of the support (and meals) you guys gave over writing this project. Thank you all and I love you. Dedication For the homeless, the impoverished, the incarcerated, and all those who are civically vulnerable before the American Criminal Justice system. For Josiah Makai Clardy and my late Uncle Louis Nordorf; two of the most tender people I have ever met.