This morning I read an op-ed from George Yancy in the New York Times. Written for Black History Month, it discusses how to understand the intersection between racial and economic issues without reducing either to the other. This desire to ignore the experience of blacks is a disturbing phenomenon in light of the evidence that a growing number of people think there is no need to focus on race issues since, as they might put it, the era of racism is over. The new National Museum of African American History and Culture (which I visited in December, and recommend) is an excellent addition to our nation’s racial dialogue that will hopefully address this concern.
The need to tell Black History is real, even in light of past advancements. The same principle applies to the field of philosophy, which has its own shameful past to wrestle with. In the spirit of Yancy, Mills, West, and others who have addressed the issue of race in philosophy, I present the following articles on race and philosophical study:
- Tommy Curry, “Concerning the Underspecialization of Race Theory in American Philosophy: How the Exclusion of Black Sources Affects the Field,” The Pluralist, Spring 2010
- Kathryn Gines, “Being a Black Woman Philosopher: Reflections on Founding the Collegium of Black Women Philosophers,” Hypatia, Spring 2011
- Tommy Curry, “The Derelictical Crisis of African American Philosophy: How African American Philosophy Fails to Contribute to the Study of African-Descended People,” Journal of Black Studies, April 2011
- Ron Mallon, “‘Race’: Normative, Not Metaphysical or Semantic,” Ethics, April 2006
- Pierre W. Orelus, “Unpacking the Race Talk,” Journal of Black Studies, September 2013
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