Urban Despair and Nietzsche's 'Eternal Return:' From the Municipal Rhetoric of Economic Justice to the International Law of Economic Rights

Urban poverty has had a devastating impact, especially on African Americans in the United States, who have been ill-served by the rhetoric of opportunity. In this Article, the author argues that economic rights must be recognized as rights if the urban poor are even to dream of economic justice. The author uses the writings of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche to explain how the past can be reclaimed. Urban poverty must be understood in an historical context. Limiting the inquiry to a domestic historical context not only blinds people to the relationship between domestic and international poverty, and domestic and international racism, but also keeps us from building on the hard work already done and the hard-won progress already made in international human rights law.