Philosophy and Race (S17)

Class Schedule:

W 1/18: Course introduction

The Meaning & Concept of Race

F 1/20: Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze, “The Modern Invention of Race” in Achieving Our Humanity: The Idea of the Postracial Future (P 3-43)

M 1/23: Michael Omi & Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States in The Idea of Race (P 181-212) & Peggy McIntosh, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” (P 1-2)

W 1/25: Joshua Glasgow, “The Race Debate” in A Theory of Race (P 1-19)

F 1/27: Alain Locke, “The Concept of Race as Applied to Social Culture” in The Works of Alain Locke (P 269-276)

M 1/30: W.E.B. Du Bois, “The Conservation of the Races” & “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” in The Souls of Black Folk (P 179-188, 7-14)

W 2/1: Kwame Anthony Appiah, “The Uncompleted Argument: DuBois and the Illusion of Race” in The Idea of Race (P 118-135)

F 2/3: Paul C. Taylor, “Appiah’s Uncompleted Argument: Du Bois and the Reality of Race” in Social Theory and Practice 26.1 (P 103-128)

M 2/6: Lucius T. Outlaw, Jr., “Conserve Races? In Defense of W.E.B. Du Bois” in Critical SocialTheory in the Interests of Black Folks (P 139-160)

W 2/8: Lewis R. Gordon, “What Does It Mean To Be a Problem? W.E.B. Du Bois on the Study of Black Folk” in Existentia Africana: Understanding Africana Existential Thought (P 62-95)

F 2/10: Cornel West, “Black Strivings in a Twilight Civilization” in The Cornel West Reader (P 87-118)

M 2/13: Michael Rabinder James, “Political Ontology of Race” in Polity 44.1 (P 106-134)

W 2/15: Ron Mallon, “Passing, Traveling, and Reality: Social Construction and the Metaphysics of Race” in Noûs 38.4 (P 644-673)

Racism & Lived Experience

F 2/17: David Walker, “Preamble” and “Article I” in Appeal, In Four Articles (P 1-18)

M 2/20: Frantz Fanon, “Lived Experience of the Black Man” in Black Skin, White Masks (P 89-119)

W 2/22: Frantz Fanon, “Racism and Culture” in Toward the African Revolution (P 31-44)

F 2/24: Alain Locke, “The New Negro” in The Works of Alain Locke (P 442-451)

M 2/27: Linda Martín Alcoff, “Sotomayor’s Reasoning” in Southern Journal of Philosophy 48.1 (P 122-138)

W 3/1: Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, “The Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism” in Racism Without Racists (P 25-49)

F 3/3: Elizabeth Anderson, “The Folly and Incoherence of Color Blindness” in The Imperative of Integration (P 155-179)

Race, Feminism, & Class

M 3/6: Angela Davis, “Class and Race In the Early Women’s Rights Campaign” in Women, Race & Class (P 46-69)

W 3/8: bell hooks, “Racism and Feminism: The Issue of Accountability” in Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (P 119-158)

F 3/10: Patricia Hill Collins, “The Politics of Black Feminist Thought” in Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (P 3-23)

Spring Break M 3/13 – F 3/17 

M 3/20: Patricia Hill Collins, “Distinguishing Features of Black Feminist Thought” in Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (P 24-47)

W 3/22: Patricia Hill Collins, “Black Feminist Epistemology” in Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (P 269-290)

F 3/24: Patricia Hill Collins, “The Sexual Politics of Black Womanhood” in Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (P 133-160)

M 3/27: Angela Davis, “Rape, Racism, and the Myth of the Black Rapist” in Women, Race & Class (P 172-201)

W 3/29: Naomi Zack, “The American Sexualization of Race” in Race/Sex: Their Sameness, Difference, and Interplay (P 145-155)

Ethnicity & Race: Latin American Philosophy & Identity

F 3/31: José Vasconcelos “The Cosmic Race” in Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century: The Human Condition, Values, and the Search for Identity (P 269-278)

M 4/3: Jorge J. E. Gracia, “What Makes Hispanics/Latinos Who We Are? The Key to Our Unity in Diversity” in Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century: The Human Condition, Values, and the Search for Identity (P 289-310)

W 4/5: Ofelia Schutte, “Negotiating Latina Identities” in Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century: The Human Condition, Values, and the Search for Identity (P 337-350)

F 4/7: Linda Martín Alcoff, “Latinos and the Categories of Race” in Visible Identities: Race, Gender, and the Self (P 227-246)

M 4/10: María Lugones, “Hablando Cara a Cara/Speaking Face to Face: An Exploration of Ethnocentric Racism” in Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition Against Multiple Oppressions (P 41-50)

W 4/12: Santiago Castro-Gómez, “Latin American Philosophy as Critical Ontology of the Present: Themes and Motifs for a ‘Critique of Latin American Reason’” in Latin American Philosophy: Currents, Issues, Debates (P 68-77) & Walter D. Mignolo, “Philosophy and the Colonial Difference” in Latin American Philosophy: Currents, Issues, Debates (P 80-85)

Politics, Colonialism, & Violence

F 4/14: Charles Mills, “Overview” in The Racial Contract (P 9-19, 31-40)

M 4/17: Aimé Césaire Discourse on Colonialism (P 31-53)

W 4/19: Aimé Césaire Discourse on Colonialism (P 54-78)

F 4/21: Naomi Zack, “White Privilege, Entitlements, and Rights” in White Privilege and Black Rights: The Injustice of U.S. Police Racial Profiling and Homicide (P 1-30)

M 4/24: Paul C. Taylor, “Taking Postracialism Seriously: From Movement Mythology to Racial Formation” in Du Bois Review 11.1 (P 9-25)

W 4/26: Kathryn T. Gines, “A Critique of Postracialism: Conserving Race and Complicating Blackness Beyond the Black-white Binary” in Du Bois Review 11.1 (P 75-86)

F 4/28: Ta-Nahesi Coates, “The Case for Reparations” in The Atlantic June 2014

M 5/1: Wrap-up