Unlike many Black-specific disciplines in the academy (Black psychology, Black history, etc), Black philosophy never completely forged a unique conceptual framework separate from American and Continental intellectual traditions. Instead the field has continued to define its validity by the extent that Black authors extend the thought of white philosophers towards race. This epistemic convergence, or the extent to which Black theory converges with established white philosophical traditions, and hence white racial sensibilities, continues to misguide many of the current philosophical systems of Africana thought. Because this practice is so dominate, it has made current scholarship in African American and Africana thought derelict, in the sense that all investigations into Blackness are normatively, hence ideologically driven, and not culturally relevant to the actual lives of Africana people. Because whites are able to connect their work in traditional philosophy to studies of race under the misnomer of "critical race theory," these white associations with Black philosophy have given the illusion that integration and multicultural exchanges in Africana philosophy contribute to the restructuring of the discipline of philosophy and psychical changes in whites. Unfortunately this is merely wishful thinking that fails to consider the empirical research that confirms the undeniable failure of integration. This inability by Blacks to accept and explore racism without the illusion of racial coexistence in America makes current approaches to Black philosophy irrelevant to the present day struggles that Blacks find themselves burdened by in the American context. This dissertation however argues that the acceptance of the racial realist perspective, which accepts the permanence of racism, allows Blacks to "conceptually disengage" the triumphalism of the integrationist myth and explore the world without the illusion of anthropological parity. This lacuna in the European narration of liberal democracy's vision of equality spurs the culturalogical turn in Critical Race Theory, and introduces the philosophical insights of Derrick Bell and Paul Robeson as guiding voices towards the silencing of the idealist trends in contemporary studies of racism.

Caractéristique de la littérature noire des années 1960 aux États-Unis, la revendication de l’Être-noir est présente dans les moindres mots écrits par les auteurs africains américains de cette période. William Melvin Kelley, en tant qu’écrivain du Black Arts Movement, le met en avant dans ses œuvres au profit d’une éducation de l’Africain Américain contre la ségrégation et d’autres formes de racisme. Il ne s’agit pas seulement de conceptualiser le Noir par l’écriture, mais surtout de le dépeindre. Selon l’auteur en effet, son rôle est d’abord de mettre en action des personnes, et non pas des idées travesties qui résulteraient d’une quelconque idéologie noire. C’est ce schéma – le passage du monde réel à un monde fictif, ainsi qu’à une représentation idéologique – qui sera étudié dans cette thèse. Il faudra toutefois noter la transformation de l’attitude de l’auteur. En effet, de l’état de simple narrateur, il passe à celui d’activiste. Ce changement est notable par la différence des idées et de la verve entre le premier livre et le dernier publiés par Kelley. Cette évolution de la pensée sera ensuite reliée aux récentes directions prises par l’écrivain. Située au carrefour entre la phénoménologie, la philosophie de l’existentialisme noir, la sociologie ainsi que la littérature, l’analyse qui sera menée aura pour but de mettre en avant l’existence noire vue par William Melvin Kelley. L’auteur ne se place pas seulement en tant que représentant des Noirs, mais comme chargé d’une mission : celle d’aider l’Africain Américain à comprendre la société étatsunienne pour améliorer sa position sociale et culturelle. / Blackness is one of the keywords of the African American literature of the 1960s. It is to be read in each and every word that an Afro-American writer would put down on the paper. As a Black Arts Movement writer, William Melvin Kelley sets blackness forth in his works so that the black population can better struggle against segregation and other forms of racism. Yet, he does not only conceptualize the African American person by writing him or her up, but above all, he depicts them. For Kelley, the role of the author is primarily to show people, not disguised ideas resulting from some other black ideology. It is this pattern – the passage from a real world to a fictitious one, as well as to an ideological representation – that I will study in my dissertation. However, I am first going to note down the transformation in Kelley’s conduct toward race relations as he goes from the narrator to the activist. This change is to be seen in the difference that exists in the verve between his first novel and the last that was published. This renovation will also be linked to the recent direction taken by Kelley in his more recent writings. Phenomenology, Black existentialism, sociology and of course literature will be the bases for this dissertation. The analysis will insist on black existence as seen by William Melvin Kelley. The writer does not only act as a representative of black people, but as one who must help the “Africamerican understand the American society in order to improve his or her social and cultural position.”