Blackness as Dignity-in-Sacrifice: From Exploitation to Contribution

Abstract

Dignity discourse in contemporary business ethics has yet to incorporate an analysis of race. This conceptual study fills that gap in the literature by introducing the concept of dignity-in-sacrifice, which serves as a novel moral perspective on the contributions Africans and their descendants made to the flourishing of the United States’ economic, political, social, and cultural institutions. In this analysis, an exploration of the political and cultural techniques that have rendered Blacks socially invisible is accompanied by the acknowledgement of the resilience and agency Africans maintained under the conditions of enslavement. By shifting our philosophical understanding of dignity from a notion of rational self-interest to sacrificial self-transcendence, a path forward will open for the country to fulfill its obligation to its African descendants.